The Taj Mahal.
Built in 1630 - 48 by the emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife
Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb, made of white marble and inlaid with other stones, is in
Agra, north India. Shah Jahan is also buried there.
The Great Wall of China.
Built originally to keep out nomadic invaders from the north, most of the
present wall was constructed during the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644). Altogether,
the wall winds for 2240km (1400 miles) across northern China and has an average
height of 7m (23 ft). It is the only man-made feature naturally visible from
space.
The Easter Island Statues.
Colossal elongated heads - up to 9.5m (32 ft) high - carved from volcanic
rock. The South Pacific island on which they stand was discovered on Easter Day
1722 by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeven - and the statues were probably made
by the ancestors of the islands Polynesian inhabitants.
The Eiffel Tower.
Built for the 1889 Paris Exhibition by the French bridge engineer Alexandre
Gustave Eiffel. Made of wrought iron, it stands 300m (984 ft) high on the left
bank of the Seine. It's revolutionary lattice-work earned Eiffel the title
'Magician of Iron'.
The Mayan City of Tikal, Central America.
Tikal, the ceremonial centre of the Mayan empire, dates from about 300 BC and
was rediscovered in 1848 by a team of Guatamalan explorers. Situated in northern
Guatamala, its temples and buildings include the imposing Pyramid of the Great
Jaguar and the Palace of the Nobles.
The Space Shuttle.
The United States space shuttle 'Columbia' was first launched from
Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1981. With a crew of two or three, it is designed to
carry satellites into space, to retrieve and repair them, and to build large
stations in space to help with further space exploration. It's main feature is
that it is re-useable.
Chartres Cathedral.
The Gothic cathedral, dating from the 12th and 13th
centuries AD stands on a hill overlooking the French market town. Among its
glories are its stained-glass windows (173 in all), which produce a unique
'Chartres-blue' light.