B for Buildings

From the basic wooden shacks that class as houses in Third World countries of today to the pyramids of Egypt this post will aim to put a roof over your head.

Having been to Australia and seen Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, the Parthenon at the Acropolis in Athens, the Mona Lisa in La Louvre and the Statue of Liberty in America I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed these buildings in all their glory with my own eyes.

[Soliloquy: The trip to America a few years ago was tinged in sadness, walking past the site of 9/11, recently commemorated by a 10-year anniversary. Still the picture on my computer desktop is that of Gate 3 of the World Trade Centre site. A humbling moment.]

Buildings can be used as houses, commerical property, storage, museum, stadiums and landmarks among other things and, despite only seeing other houses as I look out of my window, my curiousity has been summoned at how bricks and mortar shaped the world.

When talking about impressive buildings it is hard to look past the pyramids in Egypt. The first pyramid was built around 2750BC out of sandstone and desert clay. Excavations seem to show the builders of the pyramids were Egyptians who lived in the surrounding villages. One day I hope to visit Egypt and the pyramids in Giza.

But nowadays we are building structures such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates - currently the tallest building in the world at a sky-scraping 2,723 feet tall and contains a whole lot of steel.

Almost every country has an iconic building - Big Ben in England, the pyramids in Egypt, Sydney Opera House in Australia, Eiffel Tower in France, Great Wall of China, Colosseum in Italy etc etc.

Buildings are used as home sweet homes where the majority of people may read this from and could contain wood, mortar, metal, bricks and stone.

All this came from a couple of sticks in the mud, once we decided to move out of caves. Yet some people do still live in caves, others in tents, wooden shacks, brick structures and for an unlucky few there is nowhere to shelter as the winter approaches.

And we cannot finish this entry without a mention of "La Sagrada Familia" or the "Unfinished Cathedral" in Barcelona. Work started on this in 1883 by Antoni Gaudi and the work is not expected to be completed until 2026 - the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death.

Next time you come home from whatever venture just take a moment to look at where you have made your home and those dwellings around you - how did your building come to be?

source :http://www.timelineindex.com/content/view/1178
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0772716.html
http://www.famousbuildings.net/