Don't Just Do Something, Stand There! Quiz

Answer: The Little Mermaid

"The Little Mermaid" is a sculpture made out of bronze and sits at on a rock at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was commissioned by Carl Jacobsen of Carlsberg due to his fascination with Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale of the same name after seeing a ballet in Copenhagen's Royal Theatre. Edvard Eriksen created the sculpture and it was unveiled in 1913.

Despite having been decapitated twice - the head not being recovered in one of these attacks - having her arm sawn off, and being knocked off her pedestal by explosives, she remains where she has been for over 100 years.

Answer: Lion

The island of Delos is part of the Cyclades archipelago found in the Aegean sea between Greece and Turkey. According to Greek mythology, this is where Apollo and Artemis were born. In certain versions of the myth, the island itself was created by the god Poseidon. Various sacred temples have been unearthed on the island by French archeologists in 1873. The "Terrace of the Lions" features up to twelve marble lion statues (potentially up to sixteen statues at one time), all facing east towards the sacred lake. They were a gift from the people of Naxos.

Answer: Winged Victory of Samothrace

"The Motherland Calls" also known as "Mother Russia" is eighty-five metres tall and weighs in at 7,900 tonnes and is made of concrete. The sculpture is of a woman with a sword raised over her head and left hand extended. It was designed by Yevgeny Vuchetich, a sculptor and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin and unveiled in 1967.

Inspired by the Ancient Greek sculpture, the "Winged Victory of Samothrace" also known as "Nike of Samothrace" which stands a mere 244 cm and is sculpted from marble. Nike was the Greek goddess of victory.

This sculpture is housed in the Louvre in Paris.

Answer: Gold

The "Spring Temple Buddha" is named for a nearby hot spring with apparent curative properties. Taking eleven years to build (1997 to 2008), it can be found in the Lushan County, Henan, China. The statue stands on two pedestals, the Diamond seat and Sumeru seat which increases the statue's height to 208 metres.

The Chinese government announced this project after the destruction by the Taliban in 2001 of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan.

Answer: The Gates of Hell

"The Gates of Hell" was cast by French sculptor, Auguste Rodin. It depicts "The Inferno", which is the first section of Dante's work, "The Divine Comedy". The work is six metres high and four metres wide and holds 180 different figures of which "The Thinker" sits in the top centre.

The sculpture was commissioned in 1880 and Rodin worked on it for thirty-seven years until his death in 1917. Originally cast in plaster, three bronze casts were made in 1917 and can be seen at the The Musée Rodin, Paris, The Rodin Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and The National Museum of Western Art in Ueno Park, Tokyo.

Answer: Moses has horns.

The 235 cm marble sculpture was originally commissioned by Pope Julius II in 1505 for his tomb. Unfortunately, Pope Julius II died thirty-two years before the sculpture was completed. "Moses" was placed in the San Pietro in Vincoli church in Rome, Italy.

The "Vulgate" was the Latin translation of the Bible, largely done by St Jerome under commission of Pope Damasus I in 382AD, used at the time and Michelangelo used Exodus chapter 34 as his inspiration. In the translation, Moses' face is described as horned after descending from Mount Sinai, having received the Ten Commandments. Latter historians believe the translation should have had the word 'glorified' instead of horned and that Jerome made an outright error.

Answer: Be Female and have wings

The Egyptian Sphinx is carved from limestone and depicts the body of a lion with the head of a man and is found on the west bank of the Nile river on the Giza Plateau in Egypt. It is 73 metres long and stands over 20 metres high. Traditionally the Greek sphinx has the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and the head of a woman.

It is suggested that the Egyptian sphinx is actually a phonetic corruption of the Egyptian word "ssp-anx" which is a name given to royal statues in Ancient Egypt as well as the New Kingdom.

The Egyptian Sphinx is notable for not having a nose. Evidence suggests that the nose was chiseled off, although an urban legend of Napoleon's cannon fire breaking the nose off persists to this very day.

Answer: Gustave Eiffel

The "Statue of Liberty" stands on Liberty Island in the harbour of New York City. One of the most recognized sculptures in the world, Lady Liberty was one of the first things seen by immigrants arriving by ship. Her right hand holds a torch extended above her head, she holds a tablet in her left hand on which is inscribed the date of the "Declaration of Independence", July 4, 1776.

At her feet lie a broken chain. France financed the building of the statue and the USA had to build the pedestal. Joseph Pulitzer, for which the iconic Pulitzer Prize is named, was instrumental in garnering donations and more than 120,000 contributors provided the funds for the pedestal to be built.

It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.

Answer: Soapstone

A number of experts from various countries were involved in the design and creation of this statue. Paul Landowski and Albert Caquot, a sculptor and engineer from France, Gheorghe Leonida, a Romanian sculptor was responsible for sculpting the face and Heitor da Silva Costa, a Brazilian engineer was the primary designer.

The statue is of Christ with arms outstretched. Due to the nature of the design, it was decided to use reinforced concrete instead of steel, over layed with soapstone. Construction started in 1922 and the statue was unveiled in 1931.

Answer: Easter Island

Easter Island had over 900 of the Moai statues placed on stone platforms called ahu, around the perimeter of the island. They are human figures with overly large heads carved predominantly from compressed volcanic ash called tuff, although some where carved from basalt.

They stand on average four metres tall and weigh approximately 12,5 tonnes. Indicators suggest that the Moai statues toppled sometime between 1722 and 1838, oral histories suggesting that this was as a result of earthquakes.