What's the most fascinating structure or object you've been inside of?
Edit: lol yeah, I deserve this, I teed it up rather magnificently.
Your mom!
But seriously, a pyramid at Giza. Pretty warm in there after 3500 years in the sun.
I sat back to back with this cute girl at a music festival (first date) strategically placed in the center of several gongs. The artists began gently rolling the gongs in succession in the middle of this electric forest and then they worked together to create rhythms and move them around us.
It is one my favorite memories of my wife :)
Thank you! Electric Forest was an absolutely amazing first date. We fell in love and I proposed a year later at the same festival. We now have a beautiful family :)
The Cologne Cathedral.
It took 500 years to build it.
That is so many generations. Imagine you are just the 4. architect. Your great grandfather has started it, but you did not know this man. Somehow the plans have been passed down to you, but of course there were changes... Somebody after you is going to finish it. You do not know how it's going to look in the end, because there will be more changes later. If they will be able to finish it at all....
Must be kinda frustrating to be the second generation or something. You didn't start it, and you'll never see it to be finished, not even close. You're just kinda there.
I think Americans are having a vote like that right now: spend continually either on the climate to see a change in 200 years, or on rich people.
Back in the late 90s, in the CA East Bay, one of my family’s neighbors was a big shot (director or something, can’t recall) at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (at the time, it was still called the NOVA laser, I think). My dad got this guy to give us a behind the scenes tour (including clean suit sections) of the complex, including the target chamber where they did inertial confinement fusion experiments (read: shot really fucking powerful lasers with support machinery the size of several contiguous Costcos smashed together at a tiny little gold cylinder with tritium suspended in it), and I got to stick my head in the inspection port.
It was super awesome, and one of the things I credit for making me go down the STEM track in the first place. Also, this was pre-9/11, and in the “peace dividend” era, and I’m fairly certain there’s precisely zero chance a random neighbor kid would be allowed backstage like that in such a sensitive (technically, as well as national security) area these days.
Also, I got to wave at the normie tour group from the other side of the tour glass while in part of the laser hall with our clean suits lol
That’s like beyond super duper cool!
I mean just to put on a clean suit would be rad, but to then go behind the scenes to places no one else goes!? FUCK YEAH!
Then holy crab on a crutch you saw normies behind glass? Just where those poor, unconnected plebes belong! 😬
I’d have been shocked if you mentioned, “…and then I worked at McDonald’s for three decades,” instead of the tour inspiring you to go STEM!
How Could It Not!?
Thanks for sharing. ❤️
There's not much left of the Mer de Glace glacier, but every year they still carve a giant ice tunnel into it so you can walk into a glacier. Pretty fascinating
Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul.
Built in 537 by the late Romans and still standing even though it's in a relatively active earthquake zone, it's amazing it's been around for 1500 years without collapsing. The central dome is so huge and so high, it's amazing to think how they built it back then without modern machinery or technology.
IIRC it did collapse, though very early on in its life. Like, barely after it was built. Got hit by earthquakes. But it was repaired, obviously.
So the answer is Maintenance.
I bet some bridges in America could do with some of that.
And the site of the easiest to plainly identify earliest example of graffiti. Some Viking wrote on it long ago "Half-Dan was here"
There was a period where I regularly got to go inside Boeing’s Everett factory for work (I didn’t work for Boeing though). For those who don’t know, it’s one of the largest buildings in the world, built in the 60s to manufacture 747s. Now they build all kinds of aircraft there.
“Big” is an understatement. Even “cavernous” falls short. It’s easy for your brain to forget you’re in an indoor space until you look up and see a roof over your head. It’s like a miniature city in there. It’s got its own road network, fire department, cafeterias, and I heard it can even have its own weather.
My route to and from the job site every day took me through alleyways and around sites where workers were actively putting airplanes together. I got to watch an entire fuselage be moved from one side of the factory to the other by the overhead cranes. But my favorite part of the whole place were the underground tunnels that you could use to get around. You could still see old civil defense fallout shelter signs in the stairwells, and even though I wasn’t supposed to take pictures in the facility I did anyway:
These remind me of the old steam (heating like Iceland) tunnels at my uni. We weren't allowed down there. It was awesome.
•
Well... I've tried to find out just now. Most taller lighthouses are on small rocks in the sea. On some the lighthouse covers the entire rock. I have also discovered that there are potentially taller land-based lighthouses in the uk, this one just seems to be best at advertising it.
Angkor Wat is very cool, remarkably well preserved, beautiful and a huge area of ornately carved buildings and a palace to walk around in.
you will not be disappointed, all the images are clear enough that you can still read the polytheistic graphic history that they carved into the Palace walls.
and there's one main Palace, but like the Palace area extends away further and there's almost zero people who go to the ancillary buildings which also have really cool carvings and are basically pristine.
Based on size? Spaceship Earth in EPCOT Center.
On a more personal scale, a lighthouse.
gives OP a hug It’s okay, they mean well.
Sagrada familia in Barcelona. Genuinely jaw dropping and nothing else has topped it in my travels.
A nuclear reactor would be at the top of the list, but it wasn't as fascinating as Dutch windmill when I was 6 years old.
When first I learned of the tower at Bok Tower gardens I thought, how ostentatious of a man to build himself a tower. But then I was given the rare privilege of standing at it's precipice. I get it now. I felt like a wise wizard, like Saruman, looking down at the world. If ever I am able I must have a tower, if only to drink my morning coffee and wonder from above at the majesty of the world beneath me.
I also played a short melody on the bells, from house of the rising sun, before being asked to stop touching everything.
It was a long time ago, so my memory may not be exact, so I'll try my best to describe what I saw, also I was not allowed into every room, but I did sneak away and take a peek behind a door, it was a broom closet.
The inside had very intrically carved antique furniture, dark brown, maybe mahogany. I was not allowed to open the cupboards, I did, it was empty. Blue or teal mosaic tiling on the floor, a white marble bathroom tucked away in the corner with I believe golden fixtures. The metal staircase wound up along the sides into the reaches of a Gothic vaulted ceiling. It didn't feel like a church, it felt more like being in a Freemason temple. Oh the front door is golden or brass and I believe there is a grave at the front as well.
The next floor contained the Gardens archives. I was not allowed in and only saw a dim and lonely room with desk and lots of papers or books. I wish I could have spent several days in there rifling around.
Next up was the old cisterns that used to be used to collect rain water from the roof and water the gardens. They look like giant steampunk iron containers. Not much in there but assorted boxes and such. I wanted to bang on the containers, but tempered myself.
I do not remember the next floor very well, I think there was a mildly modern office, with a windowed door? I think remember seeing the American flag, but the memory is hazy.
Next up was the library. I was excited when I heard the word library, and disappointed to learn it was the largest library of Bell ringing music (I don't know the proper term for 'Bell ringing music'). There were also some books and such, but wasn't as interesting looking as I had hoped, and we didn't spend time there.
I do not remember the next floor at all, perhaps because it was unremarkable or because the next floor was where I really wanted to be, the very top.
Standing at the balcony was breathtaking. The bells were to there and of course they were a sight to themselves, but the view from the edge was...inspiring. I wanted to be able to stand up there every day, every sunrise and sunset. The sun was near to setting by that time, as we were touring after hours, so the lighting was perfect. I could see the houses and trees and fields stretched far into the distance. I didn't want it to end. I needed a staff! I needed a throng to command or a people to assure, or even better, a quiet life locked in my tower studying the mysteries.
The world needs more towers. I do not understand why today's rich have not built themselves great and beautiful towers for study and art instead of ugly sprawling resorts for decadence and indulgences. Every city and town should have one for the people as well. We could use some perspective, and inspiration.
Bring back beautiful towers!
And wizards!
My apartment has a rooftop patio, and even at 125m up I can see very far. Can confirm, it's inspiring. That's why we have ferris wheels and small airplanes, though - vantage!
Hot air balloon ride wit ma SO,
Safest flight time was in the early AM so we got an amazing sunrise view out of it!
West Kennet Long Barrow is a Neolithic barrow over 5,500 years old. It's part of the numerous neolithic structures in Wiltshire, UK (which includes the frankly far less impressive but more famous Stonehenge).
Going inside it is a very odd feeling. You can see and touch ancient work marks put there by people who are so remote to us we know very little about them. I've visited numerous ancient world heritage sites and its unique (to me) in how close you feel to those people.
An ancient Buddhist temple in Kyoto. I don't recall its name without looking it up.... But it was much less crowded than most of the other temples and shrines in the area.
Absolutely one of the most beautiful cities in the world, which unfortunately has led to a lot of over tourism. I hope they can get it handled better so that the city isn't completely overrun by them/us.
I think just letting the Chinese tourists know that there are places in Japan that also have gorgeous, ancient shrines and temples and buildings might help to spread the tourism out. I don't mean that as a dig against the Chinese; Kyoto is a very accessible and beautiful place to visit flying out of Beijing or Shanghai, so naturally Chinese tourists congregate there more than people from other places do. Go to one of the bigger shrines or temples in the area, and almost everybody around you will be Chinese. Got to send some to Nara! So close to Kyoto and so rich in history.