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St. Basil’s marks the geometric center of Moscow (not to be confused with the geographic center, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower). It has been the hub of the city’s growth since the 14th century and was the city’s tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600. The original building, known as “Trinity […]

The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat (Russian: Собор Покрова пресвятой Богородицы, что на Рву) or Pokrovsky Cathedral (Russian: Покровский собор) are official names for a Russian Orthodox church in Red Square in Moscow. The church is also called the Cathedral of St. Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного), anglicized as Saint Basil’s Cathedral. It was built from 1555–61 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates […]

The Maid of the Mist is a boat tour of Niagara Falls. (The actual boats used are also namedMaid of the Mist, followed by a different Roman numeral in each case.) The boat starts off at a calm part of the Niagara River, near the Rainbow Bridge, and takes its passengers past theAmerican and Bridal Veil Falls, then into the dense mist of spray inside the […]

Hagia Sophia is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica(church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May […]

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot (192 m) monument in St. Louis, Missouri. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a flattened catenary arch, it is the tallest man-made monument in the United States, Missouri’s tallest accessible building, and the world’s tallest arch. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, it is the centerpiece of the Jefferson […]

Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank. It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalia. The Hellenistic period settlement was constructed during the reign of John Hyrcanus, 134-104 BCE or somewhat later, and was occupied most of the time until it was destroyed by the Romans in 68 CE […]