Churches, Cathedrals, Temples, etc Quiz

Answer: India

Although known as the "Golden Temple", Harmandir Sahib is not actually a temple at all, but the Sikh religion's most holy gurdwara. It is located in the city of Amritsar (itself nicknamed "The Golden City") in the Punjab region of northwestern India.
Although construction was completed in 1604, it was rebuilt in 1764, and the thick 24-carat gold plating on the exterior of the upper floors that gives the temple its nickname dates only to the early 19th Century. The Guru Granth Sahib, the holiest text of Sikhism, is always present inside Harmandir Sahib.

Answer: Burma/Myanmar

Bagan is situated in the Mandalay region of central Burma, 180 miles southwest of the city of Mandalay and 430 miles north of Rangoon (now Yangon). The plains surrounding the city, known as the Bagan Archaeological Zone (pictured), represent the country's biggest tourist attraction. Cultural highlights include Ananda Temple, built in 1105 and the most famous of the Bagan Temples; Dhammayangyi Temple, constructed in 1167-70 and the largest in the region; the Bupaya Pagoda, built in the mid-9th Century which was destroyed in the 1975 earthquake but has been completely restored and gilded with gold; Thatbyinnyu Temle, built in 1150 and at almost 200-feet high the tallest of the Bagan Temples.

Answer: Moscow, Russia

Kazan Cathedral was first consecrated in 1625, but was destroyed by fire just a few years later. Rebuilt and again consecrated in 1636, it was expanded considerably during the early to mid-1800s. In 1936, though, Joseph Stalin ordered Red Square cleared of all churches to make room for his military parades, so the cathedral was torn down. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Kazan Cathedral was one of the first things to be rebuilt. Reconstruction using detailed measurements and photographs of the original took three years and it was consecrated for the third time in 1993.

The Russian Orthodox cathedral now stands proudly in the northeast corner of Red Square as it did before Communism.

Answer: Apollo

Side is one of the best-known classical sites in Turkey, and the Temple of Apollo is located at the end of its peninsula. Today, only a few columns remain of the temple, as is also the case in many other remains of that era such as the Greek sites at Corinth and Delphi, at Pompeii in Italy and at Didyma-Didim on the southwest coast of Turkey.
Perhaps the most important of the Olympian deities Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto and twin brother of Artemis, was the God of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music and poetry. Perhaps the best-preserved of all the temples named for Apollo is at Ortygia, a small island which is the historical centre of the city of Syracuse in Sicily.
It seems appropriate that the Temple of Apollo should be seen in moonlight, as in the spectacular photograph, since of course it was a mission also named for him that took man to the Moon.

Answer: Libya

One of the principal cities in the Hellenic world, Cyrene is both the oldest and the most important of the five ancient Greek cities in North Africa. Founded in 630 B.C. and nicknamed "The Athens of Africa", it remained a great capital for the best part of 1,000 years, until destroyed by the earthquake of 365 A.D.
Located near the modern town of Shahhat in the Jabal al Akhdar district in north-eastern Libya, the ancient city provided eastern Libya the classical name "Cyrenaica" that it still retains to this day.
The site of the city of Cyrene was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, and even today many parts, including much of the Temple to Zeus, remain unexcavated.

Answer: Timbuktu, Mali

Originally a seasonal settlement, Timbuktu is located just north of the Niger River on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in central Mali. Originally nominated in 1979, the central historic district of Timbuktu was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.

The reasoning behind this selection was threefold: Timbuktu's holy places were vital to early Islamization in Africa, the three mosques represent a cultural and scholarly Golden Age during the period of the Songhay Empire, and the construction of the mosques (still mostly original) illustrate traditional building techniques.

Answer: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Founded in 1830 in Fayette NY as "The Church of Christ", The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as The Mormon Church) now boasts more than 15 million members (6 million of those in the USA) across more than 176 nations and territories. The church was forced slowly westwards, first to Kirkland OH and then to Jackson County MO and to Nebraska before finally setting up home in 1847 in Salt Lake City in what was to become Utah Territory.
The Salt Lake Temple (pictured), which took forty years to build and was finally dedicated in 1893, is the church's most iconic symbol.

Answer: Mexico

The ancient city of Chichen Itza is now an archaeological site within the municipality of Tinum, in the Mexican state of Yucatán at the northern end of the Yucatán Peninsula. The old city site is dominated by the Temple of Kukulka, a Mesoamerican step-pyramid known to archaeologists as "Chichen Itza Structure 5B18".

The pyramid dates back around 3,000 years and was built as a temple to the Feathered Serpent deity Kukulkan, the Mayan equivalent to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. The temple itself is perched atop the pyramid, which has stairways on each of its four sides.

The northern side features spectacular sculptures of plumed serpents. The pyramid itself is approximately 80 feet high, plus another 20 feet for the temple at the top. It is the most visited pre-Columbian site in Mexico.

Answer: Sri Lanka

The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic was founded by King Vimaladharmasuriya I of Kandy, who ruled the kingdom from 1590 until 1604. The last capital of the Sri Lankan kings, Kandy is the second-largest city in Sri Lanka (after the present capital, Colombo). It lies in the midst of hills in the Kandy plateau in the center of the island. One of the most sacred places in the Buddhist world, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.
The tooth relic itself is encased in seven stupa-shaped (semi-hemispherical) golden caskets, each engraved with precious gemstones. A golden canopy was built over the main shrine in 1987.
This site should not be confused with the similarly-named "Buddha Tooth Relic Temple", established in 2002 in the Chinatown district of Singapore.

Answer: The Blue Mosque

Work began in 1609 and the Blue Mosque was completed in 1616 during the reign of Sultan Ahmed I for whom it was officially named. From the outside the structure appears either grey (daytime) or gold (at night), but the name "Blue Mosque" actually comes from the blue tiles that adorn the walls of the interior.
Built with a combination of traditional Islamic architecture incorporating many of the Byzantine Christian elements seen in its near neighbor the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque is considered to be the last great mosque of the classical Ottoman architectural period (1437-1703).
The dome rises 141 feet and the minarets 210 feet. The mosque can accommodate up to 10,000 people at one time.