The Best of All Possible Worlds Quiz

Answer: Colosseum

The Colosseum is an oval amphitheatre and the largest amphitheatre ever built. It could hold 50-80,000 spectators. Built out of limestone and volcanic rock called tuff, it was used for gladiatorial contests, executions, famous battle re-enactments, and dramatic plays. In 2007 it was documented as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

Pula is a Croatian city situated at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula. It is well known for well-preserved ancient Roman buildings. The Pula Arena is older and better preserved than the Colosseum as it was constructed in 27 BC - 68 AD. It is one the world's six largest surviving Roman arenas and could hold an estimated 50,000 people.

Answer: Wiltshire, England

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument near Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. It comprises a ring of upright stones, constructed between 3000 BC to 2000 BC, each approximately 4.0 m high and 2.1 m wide. Each stone weighs about 25 tons. The stones come from a quarry in Wales. How (or why) the stones were transported over 100 miles to the site is unknown. The stones are set within ancient burial mounds.

Stonehenge is a British cultural icon. and has been a protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882. In 1986 the site was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

Carhenge is a replica of England's Stonehenge using grey spray-painted old cars in the same formation as the present configuration of Stonehenge There are 39 cars in total with the 'uprights' buried trunk first up to 1.5 metres into the earth and the 'crosspieces' welded to the car below. The site is located outside city of Alliance, Nebraska, near the Wyoming border and has been open to the public since June 1987.

Answer: Las Vegas, Sky City China, Tokyo, Blackpool England

The Eiffel Tower is a wrought-iron lattice tower in the 7th Arrondissement in Paris. It was designed as the entrance to the World's Fair in 1889. It is 324m tall at its tip and is one of the most recognisable structures in the world.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your view, there are several imitations dotted around the globe. Some of these are exact but smaller replicas, some are simply inspired by the original.

Tokyo Tower (lower left) was built in 1958 due to the necessity to have a structure in central Tokyo that could house antennae for its electronic media outlets. It is actually 9 m taller than the Eiffel Tower. However there were problems with its capability with digital television media and it has been superseded by the 634m Tokyo Skytree built in 2012.

Upper left is Hangzhou. The 109 m tower is the central feature of a new suburb is Tianducheng (Sky City)which is a Paris-themed housing estate. Built in 2000 (this was the 16th copy of the Eiffel Tower) it was a virtual ghost town from 1995-2003 and has gradually increased to 30 000 people despite housing available for 50 000.

Upper Right. Las Vegas's iconic Strip is laced with imitations of other places including the Eiffel Tower The replica is part of Paris Las Vegas which is a a hotel and casino. The replica is half size at 540 feet and was opened in 1989.

The Blackpool Tower (lower right) is half size and is not free-standing but sits on a building which houses amusement arcade type entertainment. This is the oldest copy, built in 1894, only five years after the original opened.

Answer: Arc De Triomphe, Paris

The Arc de Triomphe stands at the western end of the Champs-Elysees at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle with 12 avenues radiating outward from it. The 50m high arch was in augurated in 1836 and honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Underneath in its vault is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

India Gate (originally named the All-India War Memorial) is a war memorial. Located on Kingsway in New Dehli, it was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who was both the main architect of the planned city of New Delhi, and a leading designer of war memorials. The 42m high Arch was opened in 1931. It has been observed by other architects as a "creative reworking of the Arc de Triomphe".

Answer: Aveiro, Portugal

Avero is 70km south of Porto, Portugal on the Atlantic coast. Besides fishing, the city's main industry (before tourism took over) was the production of salt. Vast saltpans have been constructed from shallow lagoons that separate Aveiro from the Atlantic. Seaweed harvesting was also developed as a secondary industry to salt. As the river silted up, a series of canals were dug to facilitate transport through to the Atlantic.

The Moliceiro is a work boat (that looks a bit like a Gondola) but it is used to collect the moliso (seaweed). Not much seaweed is collected in the 21st century and the boats have been a tourist attraction. The moliceiro boat is about 15 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. Its low edge allowed the loading of the molico, but it is its elegant bow and aft that, with its paintings, distinguish it from other Portuguese vessels.

Porto is known worldwide for its Port and a Pasteis de nata is an egg custard tart that is known elsewhere as a Portuguese tart.

Answer: Sydney, Australia

The Dubai Golf and Yacht Club was built in 1993 and is located on Dubai Creek near the airport. Centrepiece is the main building which like the Sydney Opera House is designed to looks like sails but that is where the comparison ends. The Golf course is considered one of the best and most expensive in the world though non-golfers can have a really good meal from several different-themed restaurants at a more modest cost.

Answer: Notre Dame, Paris

Notre-Dame de Paris means "Our Lady of Paris" but is nearly always called simply Notre-Dame. It is a Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cite in central Paris and is one of the best examples of French Gothic architecture. Its use of the rib vault for its ceilings and external flying buttresses are the archetype for all French Gothic architecture. It was started in 1160 and was essentially complete by 1260 but 1345 before it was fully completed. The cathedral was extensively damaged by fire in 2019. There was a proposal to modernise the church in the restoration process but this was vetoed in favour of preserving the original design.

Chartres Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres is a Roman Catholic church in Chartres. It is 80 km southwest of Paris and is the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. Whilst it often quoted as being a copy or at least based on its more famous counterpart in Paris, it was constructed earlier between 1194 and 1220. The cathedral is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It's main feature (and what differentiates it from its Paris cousin), is two contrasting spires. One is a 105-metre (349 ft) simple pyramid completed about 1160 and the other is a a 113-metre (377 ft) early 16th-century decorative spire constructed on top of an older tower.

Answer: Barcelona - London

The Torre Glòriesis a 38-story, 144m skyscraper located north-west of the city in the Poblenou neighbourhood and marks as such, a gateway to the new technological district of Barcelona. King Juan Carlos I opened the building in 2005. Curiously, with an obvious resemblance to a shape of lipstick, it has no nickname. It is one example of a number of high-tech architecture structures in Barcelona.

London in the 20th century was not known as a 'skyscraper hub'. However, with skyscrapers like the Walkie-talkie, The Shard and The Gherkin, London has become known for its quirky modern architecture.

The Gherkin, whose proper name (its address) is 30 St Mary Axe, is a commercial skyscraper in London's financial district. It was opened in April 2004. It has 41 floors and is 180 metres (591 ft) tall. It is located on the sites of the Baltic Exchange and Chamber of Shipping, which were irreversibly damaged in 1992 in the Provisional IRA bombing of the site. The building has become one of the most recognisable landmarks of London and features in several popular culture references.

Answer: San Francisco

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait which connects San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The bridge is one of the most recognised symbols of San Francisco. When it was opened in 1937, it was the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world. The main span is 4,200 feet (1,280 m) and the total height of the towers is 746 feet (227 m). Irving Morrow, little known residential architect, designed the bridge towers, and the colour International Orange was Morrow's own choice and another factor that makes the bridge unique.

The 25 de Abril Bridge is a suspension bridge that connects Lisbon, to the smaller city of Almada on the south bank of the Tagus river. It was opened on August 6, 1966. Comparisons to the Golden Gate Bridge are obvious as they are both suspension bridges of similar colour (But the Lisbon bridge is NOT International Orange). The latter was built by the American Bridge Company which constructed another San Francisco Bridge, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The span is 1013m and therefore about 270 m shorter than the golden gate. The upper deck carries six car lanes and the lower deck carries a double track railway. The lower deck was added in 1999.
Originally called the Salazar Bridge in honour of Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar who signed off its construction. After the Carnation Revolution in 1974, which overthrew Salazar's dictatorship reign., the bridge was ironically renamed for April 25, the date of the revolution.

Answer: Parthenon, Athens

The Temple of Concordia is an ancient Greek temple in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. This was one of the main cities of Magna Graecia in Ancient Greece with a population between 400-800 000 around 400BC.
The city and the temple are south coast of Sicily, Italy. The temple was built around. 440-430 BC and is the largest Doric temple in Sicily. According to Barone, Graziano and Pettinelli in 2007 in "Archaeological Prospection" The Temple of Concordia, "apart from the Parthenon [is] the best preserved Doric temple in the world."

The Parthenon is a former temple on the top of the Athenian Acropolis, in the centre of the city and dedicated to the goddess Athena, who is considered the patron of the city. It was built between 447 and 438 BC It is 69.5 by 30.9 m (228 by 101 ft) and is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the peak of the Doric order.