Wonders of the worlds: architectural marvels and oddities from other timelines

Buildings, monuments, statues, tombs, etc. Sort of on the line of the Seven Wonders, which were two tombs, two statues, a temple, fancy landscaping, and a lighthouse.

I'll start off with some tombs.

CAESAR'S COLUMN
American Plutocracy Falls sector, variant 1755
Location: former Central Park, New York City, Republic of Eastern America.

Rising to a height of some 300 feet, Caesar's column is in fact a pyramid, and a truncated one at that. A massive structure composed mostly of cement, it is in fact an enormous tomb, like the pyramids of egypt, but unlike them far more democratic in its contents: rather than a single God-King and perhaps a few servants, it contains, embedded in it like raisins in a muffin, the mortal remains of some half a million human beings.

After the Populist-Anarchist revolutionaries took New York from the Plutocracy, there was need to dispose of nearly a quarter million bodies in a hurry: the notion to entomb them in concrete and kill two birds with one stone by creating a grim monument to the fall of the Plutocracy was proposed by revolutionary leader Caesar Lomellini, after which the structure is named. Another quarter million were added in the subsequent purges and the disposal of "useless mouths" during next year's famine.

The structure was never completed due to excessive settling and the increasing difficulty of bringing bodies and building equipment up its steep sides (plus a severe concrete shortage), leaving it in it's current truncated-pyramid shape. It is nowadays in rather poor shape: aside from pockmarking by cannon fire during the Populist-Anarchist intercine conflict seven years after the fall of New York and further artillery damage during the taking of the city by the Christian-Marxist Restorationists 16 years after that, continued settling has caused cracks to form in the structure, and the decay of the bodies within has opened voids which have put further stess on it. Large pieces of (not first-quality) concrete have cracked and peeled away, up to the size of a bus, exposing human remains.

The Christian-Marxists have attempted to preserve it as a monument to the evils of the Anarchist-Popularists, and it is currently almost concealed by a mass of protective scaffolding: locked fences keep the public from approaching closer that 20 meters from its base. However, since the restoration of democratic government some five years ago, public opinion has turned towards the option of breaking it up and burying those emtombed within: given the sheer expense involved in stabilizing the structure, it seems likely the conservationists will lose the political battle, and New York (after some very bad decades, returning at last to the status of one of America's leading cities) will lose one of it's biggest tourist draws.

Bruce

THE PYRAMIDS OF ALEXANDRIA
Alexander of Macedon lives longer megasector, Empire survives to current day subsector, variant 4012
Location: North African coast near Alexandria-the-greatest, Aegyptos, Hellenic Confederation

Although called of "Alexandria" to distinguish them from the older ones of Giza, the Pyramids are not located in Alexandria proper, but some miles to the west along the coast, gazing out to sea. There are nine: four built during the First Empire period, three during the Second Empire after the second Persian re-conquest and before the Turkish Migrations, and two more during the Early Modern Hegemony, one of which was never more than a third completed.

The first pyramid was built by the Conqueror's son to honor his deified father, demonstrate his power and grandeur, and reinforce his position as Pharaoh among the local population. The cautious emperor Tiridates avoided building himself a pyramid, but his descendants were less modest: it was only due to the costs of the Latin Wars and the Persian revolt that pyramid-building in this era came to an end. Smaller than the Great Pyramid of Giza (none surpassed half its height or an eight of its volume, due to loss of technique), the pyramids were none the less brilliantly decorated with marble and electrum and white stone (some of which was later removed by later rulers with an eye towards economy, although the tomb of the Conqueror himself was generally left alone).

The Second Empire pyramids are the smallest and least impressive of the lot, although some of the decorative statuary has an almost abstract quality modern artists find interesting. The Great Pyramid of Philippos stands to one side, the better to stand out: the monument to the megalomaniacal conqueror of India, it stands ten feet higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza, and reputedly cost most of the plunder of the subcontinent. It was perhaps too much to live up for for his son Mithradates, who started an even larger pyramid but ended up being overthrown and replaced by a cousin more willing to work with the Empire's elites [1] and not ruin the empire with hilarious monument-building. The surviving base, covering nearly 20 acres, stands as a monument to the excess of that era as much as the Second Empire pyramids reflect the crudeness and retrogression of that time.

For Founder's Day two years ago, the Conqueror's pyramid was coated with a special synthetic that, according to the manufacturers, exactly duplicates the color and reflectivity of the actual gold coating the pyramid's capstone. It certainly is a wonderfully glittery sight when seen from a boat along the coast, although it can be rather eye-hurty from up close. Visitors from the rival empire of Serica tend to be rather dismissive of the display, chalking it up to Greek bad taste, although they still take a lot of pictures.


[1] An important milestone on the road to Boule supremacy, incidentally.

Bruce

Feel free to add stuff, folks.

Bruce

BROTHER WARRIOR - "The Mull Man"
Scotland becomes a superpower ...
Location - Mull of Galloway,Caledonia,Alban Empire

Brother Warrior is a statue on the Mull of Galloway commenmorating the Alban victory in the Second Great War. It was designed by sculptor Angus McDonald and engineer John Fitzroy. It was and remains the tallest statue in the world, also being the last non-relegious largest statue. Brother Warrior is also significantly complex from an engineering veiwpoint due to its posture with a raised claymore in the right hand and the left raised in a arm of friendship.

Dedicated in 1964 the statue measures 95 metres from sword tip to plinth top, the figure is 60 metres and the claymore 35. The plinth is carved into the rock peninsula of the Mull and has foundations based on the furthest stable point of the Scottish mainland. This has the effect of the warrior standing high about shipping passing the point and standing defiantly towards the continent.

The concrete of the statue is under constant minor repair as the inclinent weather conditions and exposure to wind causes decay and damage. Steel reinforcment cables have also been added as at several times the statue has began to show instability.

Another unique feature is the internal stairwell and light built into the upper part of the statue - in the warriors hat, this is because the original lighthouse was demolished to make room for the statue. It also leads to the famous "Call" because the foghorn was hidden below the structure and thus the Warrior appears to shout.

( Hope this is okay )

LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY, VICTORY
Robespierre IV leads the Republic (hereditary dictatorship) of France to victory over the Austro-Prussians and British in First Great War (POD different outcome for French Revolution and Robespierre)
LOCATION: Paris, France

Bonjour, tourist! You have the honor of gazing upon our most beloved monument! Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Victory was designed and constructed by legendary architect Gustav Eiffel in 1945, to celebrate Robespierre IV's victory over the enemies of the Republic.

Liberty, a huge statue of young woman in a long, flowing gown, represents the Liberty we defended against the tyrannies of Wilhelm III and George IV. She stands strong and beautiful, hair flowing under her Liberty cap and breasts bared to reflect the feminine heroes of the War, and she also represents Marianne.

Equality, a magnificent statue of a tall, strong Algerian soldier carrying the signature Crescented Tricolor, is a tribute to the honor and glory of all the colonial troops who died defending Liberty. His uniform shows him to be of the 29th Algerian Mechanized Infantry, a unit which suffered 90% casualties fending off the British Invasion of Normandy.

Fraternity, the striking figure of a wounded, bandaged, fez-wearing French Freemason carrying a sub machinegun, reflects how the Society held the nation together during the worst Austro-Prussian thrusts at the heart of our nation. The Freemasons were the right hand of Robespierre IV all throughout the Resistance.

Victory, the largest and central statue, is a magnificent tribute to Robespierre IV. From his famed handlebar mustache, to his signature culottes, he is as handsome as he is heroic. Robespierre IV led the country to Supreme Victory. In his left hand he holds several tattered battle standards of our enemies, and in his right he wields the Great Control, which he used to call down nuclear strikes upon Great Britain in 1943, wiping the filthy isles off the face of the planet, which in turn made the Austro-Prussian Empire surrender. C'est la vie!

The Ford Motors Building (far left), completed in Manhattan in 1924, is the tallest structure in the world at 1330 feet.

It's not a wonder of the world, but there's Stadtholder Tower in Recife. It's more than four hundred meters tall and was finished back in the late 20s.

The VOC's HQ is impressive, but it's not tall. It just covers several blocks of Amsterdam and is done in the classic Dutch architectural style.

Sent on my Gogphone
11:00 9/13/2012

Hi Mom from Heaven!

God, until you actually get inside this place, you have TOTALLY NO idea how amazing it is. A giant ball filled mainly with hot air just floating around the world. Filled with buildings and fountains and trees, even!

I remember when you and Pops bought our first geodesic house back in the 40's and that salesguy Bucky went on and on about how his domes could be made so ginormous that they could even float in air. Pops laughed in his face, but bought the dome anyway. Who'd ever guess that a dome salesman would ever get to be High Architect of the whole fucking country.

Anyway, I'm glad he did cause maybe nobody else would have ever had the balls, power, and money to build this thing. And pictures just don't do it justice. Can you even imagine what it must have took to build a carbon framework over 5 miles in diameter? To fill it with a whole tiny world and stuff? Even airships look like minnows next to it.

So far, I've only met a couple of people who actually live here fulltime, and they're just like you said they'd be. Elitist assholes who think that just because the call their city "Heaven" they really are angels. Most of them even try to look like angels, fake whitened skin, pink eyes, wearing white togas and so forth. Of course, there's not a dark person to be seen.

Anyway, having seen this place I now can't wait for our cruisezep to dock and get me out. It's just too creepy.

I'll post again when we're back on board.

Luv Ya

Lancaster was the capital of a sort of fascist Britain I had in one of my stories, replete with gigantic buildings in Communistic style, like Stalin or Ceaucescu had

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

Cool thread idea! Here's one from LTTW (though I don't know if it'll still be standing by the present day).

L'AIGLE ("The Needle"): The biggest of the early Optel (optical telegraph) semaphore towers built by the Chappe brothers in Jean de Lisieux's French Latin Republic in the first decade of the nineteenth century. L'Aigle is the hub of the network, where all the various lines stretching to the extremities of France converge. Its size and height is partly to accommodate all the multiple sets of shutterboxes for this reason, but also partly to make a point about Lisieux's views on centralisation of power and creating monuments to Jacobinism to eclipse the achievements of the aristocratic and racially impure ancien régime. L'Aigle is 180m tall, eclipsing Cologne Cathedral as the tallest structure in the world at the time of its construction.

L'Aigle dominates the Île de la Cité, having been built over the ruins of Notre Dame Cathedral, demolished during Hébert's anti-religion purges in the early days of the Revolution. Partly because of this and partly because of dislike of technological progress in general, when the Republic was toppled many ultraroyalistes wanted L'Aigle destroyed and the Cathedral rebuilt. However, the semaphore network proved too useful to the new constitutional monarchy and this never happened. A bone was thrown by consecrating L'Aigle so it is technically regarded as a church tower, and adding some suitable Catholic iconography to what were built as blank utilitarian brick walls and steel girders. The tower is sometimes called "the France-shrinker" because of how it and the semaphore networks effectively 'shrunk' France through meaning that news messages and military orders could go from one end of the country to the other in just a few hours.

In the 1820s, further experiments with Optel shutterboxes led to a large mural consisting of many shutter 'pixels' being constructed in front of one side of L'Aigle. This allowed simple images to be shown, although its expense and complexity meant the display never proved to be the general breakthrough that its inventors had hoped.

Something from my neck of the woods that feels very FABR-esque:



After centuries of neglect, the Southern Spire of St. Elisabeth's Cathedral in Košice was finally completed in 1881, following several years of planning and construction. The project was based on an early 1870s concept by the Hungarian architect Imre Stendl.


(OOC: Just an OTL sketch of said concept by Stendl. The Southern Spire remains half-finished to this day, lending the cathedral its characteristic assymetric outward appearance.)

The Great Buddha of Lhasa
Carthage Destroys Rome megasector, Celtic North America sub-sector, variant 5112
Location: Imperial Highway mile 1855, Empire of Bod

As one approaches Lhasa, the religious capital of the Empire of Bod, along the Imperial Highway (something of a Wonder of the World itself, its eight lanes running from the Ganges Delta to the Tien Shan by way of the world's highest plateau), visitors are greeted by the sight of the Seven Magnificences Buddha, carved into the side of the last mountain to be passed before entering into the Holy City. Carved into the mountain in a seated posture, the Great Buddha is some 622 feet high, its head alone being over 120 feet in height.

The statue is brightly painted: frequent retouching is necessary in the fierce climate of the Plateau of Bod, and whenever the weather permits platforms for painters are lowered from a rock gallery above the Buddha's head. Of late some concerns have been raised about the free-standing right forearm and hand, raised in blessing and some 210 feet high, which may be developing stress fractures.

Citizens of the Gallic Union sometimes claim that the statue of Dagda Reclining on the Holy Isle is even larger, but most don't take this seriously, pointing out that Dagda Reclining is essentially a man-shaped earthen mound with an outer covering of cut stone, and as such does not count as a statue at all.

Bruce

Sinister Geometries
Napoleon conquers Britain sector, variant 9753
Location: Frobisher People's Wilderness, State of LaSalle, Rocky Mountains mega-sector, Union of North America

The last, mad emperor of North America (and "Emperor-in-exile" of Europe and much else), Napoleon X, dispatched hundreds of thousands of "enemies of the state" to an purgatory of hard labor in the Rockies, where with pick, hammer, and high explosives they would carry out a task of colossal pointlessness, carving the mountain's granite into colossal geometric shapes, some hundreds of feet high: cubes, cylinders, cones, pyramids, rhomboids, even spheres and various polyhedrons.

The majority of these structures were never completed, due to faults in the rock causing necessary pieces to break off, often with substantial loss of life. (In a few cases the projects were continued, by carving down the rock to a smaller size and starting a new shape). A few of the prisoners managed to survive the full twenty-two years of the project, being freed after the tyrant's death and the establishiment of the Societist regime over most of the former North American Empire. It remains one of the most peculiar legacies of the man of whom it was said "His subjects are his enemy, against which he wages war most ferociously."

Bruce

Thande said:

Cool thread idea! Here's one from LTTW (though I don't know if it'll still be standing by the present day).

L'AIGLE ("The Needle"):

Click to expand...

Are you sure there's not a typo in the tourist brochure ? It might be missing a few letters ("l'aiguille"). Shody printing that was if you ask me.