# High buildings of the old world



## DubaiMarina (Oct 26, 2006)




----------



## i_am_hydrogen (Dec 9, 2004)

Wrong forum. This is for active proposals only. It belongs in SSA.


----------



## DubaiMarina (Oct 26, 2006)

How can I move this topic there?


----------



## mdiederi (Jun 15, 2006)

That print was first published in 1884, the year the Washington Monument became the tallest structure in the world and before the Eiffel Tower was built.

Here's a later similar old print comparing the then world's tallest Singer Building to older tall buildings. Oddly, they don't show the Eiffel Tower.


----------



## 1878EFC (Jun 24, 2006)

Number 2

St Georges Hall- Liverpool, UK


----------



## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

mdiederi said:


> That print was first published in 1884, the year the Washington Monument became the tallest structure in the world and before the Eiffel Tower was built.
> 
> Here's a later similar old print comparing the then world's tallest Singer Building to older tall buildings. Oddly, they don't show the Eiffel Tower.


POtala Palace is 656 ft high and 1300 ft long, carved into a hollowed out mountain and last rebuilt in the 17th century. Its basically a 13 storey palace sitting on a huge 300 ft stone built base.


----------



## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

also the legendary 13 storey Tianning pagoda was restored in 2004 to much acclaim, 510 ft high and dating from 600 AD. It has been destroyed 5x in its 1350 year history.


----------



## ZZ-II (May 10, 2006)

this pagoda is simply WOW!!


----------



## Zaki (Apr 16, 2005)

Seriously. It looks like the first true skyscraper, how did they build such a thing without steel?


----------



## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

answer: wood - flexible, lightweight...flammable.

and a strong central beam that supports the whole building, imbedded in a massive base making it (relatively) earthquake resistant. There are very few accounts over the millennia of pagodas collapsing, they last thousands of years but are mostly destroyed by fire. If the beam splits though then youre in trouble:











There was another 500 ft pagoda, even older destroyed in the former capital of Hangzhou. Hangzhou was one of the greatest ancient cities of history, and unlike other Chinese cities of old, very highrise, over 10 storys with its buildings crammed together without the traditional height limits (no taller than the palaces). The pagoda was the centrepiece of a city that was the Eastern counterpart (and larger) to Rome and its Empire in the West, yet utterly forgotten - it was last destroyed in the 19th Century Taiping Rebellion and burnt to the ground with much loss of life. The current city forms part of the Yangtze River Delta (read: Shanghai metro).


----------



## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

another forgotten pagoda, the 162 ft base of the Mingun Stupa in Myanmar (Burma), ravaged by an earthquake. Had it been completed it would have been over 500ft high

















similarly the 2300 year old Jetavana Stupa in Sri Lanka was the tallest brick building when it reached over 400ft in the 3rd century BC. The tower/cone part fell off leaving the remaining 231 ft high main chamber. Looks like the worlds biggest dome to me, but hey, its a stupa.










the worlds tallest chedi at Nakhom Pathon in Thailand was complted in 1870, at 420 ft tall


----------



## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

I think it might not have had the Eiffel Tower because it was supposed to be temporary.


----------



## Max the Swede (Jan 5, 2005)

Amazing, thanks!


----------

