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Click here to re-watch the video and see pictures of the world's most famous places

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100 Most Famous Buildings/Structures of All Time

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From the Taj Mahal to Fallingwater, how many of these have you seen?

When it comes to learning about the history of a new destination, travelers should look no further than its iconic buildings. Of course, there are other ways to discover the local culture, which can be reflected in the food, the textiles, and the dialects, but it's the buildings that can reveal the most about a place. Local landmarks are-in essence- silent witnesses to past eras, kingdoms, and tastes, but they can also offer us clues to what the future holds (not to mention make for a great travel gram, too).

Consider this lineup to be a travel bucket list of sorts. These buildings are renowned for various reasons-some for their architectural charm, others for their historical significance, and some for a healthy mix of both. A fair amount of them are well-known, of course: Think Europe's museums, churches, and other landmarks whose replicas live on in souvenir shops and countless photos. There are also, of course, a decent number on this list designed by famous architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Oscar Niemeyer too. And while some of these edifices exist off the beaten path, they're just as important in their own right. Here, AD rounds up iconic buildings from around the world that you'll be glad you've seen when you look back on your travels. It's been said that travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer, and we couldn't agree more.

1. Hagia Sophia - Istanbul, Turkey

2. The Guggenheim - New York City, USA

3. Taj Mahal - Agra, India

4. Dancing House - Prague, Czech Republic

5. Château de Chenonceau - Chenonceaux, France

6. Niterói Contemporary Art Museum - Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

7. The Pyramids of Giza - Giza, Egypt

8. Acropolis of Athens - Athens, Greece

9. Le Centre Pompidou - Paris, France

10. The Gateway Arch - St. Louis, Missouri, USA

11. Musée d'Orsay - Paris, France

12. The Gherkin - London, U.K.

13. Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasília - Brasília, Brazil

14. Mosque of Córdoba - Córdoba, Spain

15. Westminster Abbey - London, U.K.

16. Dresden Frauenkirche - Dresden, Germany

17. Château Frontenac - Québec, Canada

18. The Colosseum - Rome, Italy

19. One World Trade Center - New York City, USA

20. The Lotus Temple - New Delhi, India

21. St. Basil's Cathedral - Moscow, Russia

22. Dome of the Rock - Jerusalem, Israel

23. Casa Milà - Barcelona, Spain

24. The White House - Washington, D.C., USA

25. Forbidden City - Beijing, China

26. Sagrada Família - Barcelona, Spain

27. Lincoln Center - New York City, USA

28. The Shard - London, UK

29. Le Mont-Saint-Michel - Normandy, France

30. Bran Castle - Bran, Romania

31. Angkor Wat - Siem Reap, Cambodia

32. Sultan Ahmed Mosque - Istanbul, Turkey

33. Konark Sun Tower - Konark, India

34. Chrysler Building - New York City, USA

35. Sacré-Coeur - Paris, France

36. Potala Palace - Lhasa, Tibet, China

37. Musée du Louvre - Paris, France

38. Sydney Opera House - Sydney, Australia

39. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao - Bilbao, Spain

40. Fallingwater - Mill Run, Pennsylvania, USA

41. The Pantheon - Rome, Italy

42. Space Needle - Seattle, Washington, USA

43. Villa Savoye - Poissy, France

44. House of Parliament and Elizabeth Tower - London, U.K.

45. Burj Khalifa - Dubai, UAE

46. Leaning Tower of Pisa - Pisa, Italy

47. São Paulo Museum of Art - São Paulo, Brazil

48. The Flatiron Building - New York City, USA

49. The Sistine Chapel - Vatican City

50. Eiffel Tower - Paris, France

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50 Iconic Buildings Around the World You Need to See Before You Die

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From the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, to the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, how many of these iconic buildings have you seen?

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Pictures of Famous Structures

Check out our range of free pictures of famous buildings, structures, statues, bridges, landmarks, monuments and locations. Find photos, images and information related to well known towers, tall buildings, popular tourist locations, historical sites and more. Feel free to use the images as you please, whether they're graphics for a science project or examples of various engineering principles and architectural designs. Take a look at some amazing photos of the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, the Parthenon, Stonehenge, Golden Gate Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, Petronas Towers, the Thames Barrier and more.

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Pictures of Famous Buildings, Structures, Statues, Bridges & Landmarks, Free Photos & Images

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Pictures of Famous Structures Check out our range of free pictures of famous buildings, structures, statues, bridges, landmarks, monuments and locations. Find photos, images and information related to well known towers, tall buildings, popular tourist locations, historical sites and more.

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Architecture is the science of the design of structures or buildings such as houses, places of worship, and office buildings. Architecture is also the profession of an architect. A person must study at an institution of higher education (university) to become an architect. Architecture can be about small designs, such as a garage, or large designs, such as a whole city. Architecture often overlaps with civil engineering, and architects and civil engineers often work together.

In the past, people built huts and wood houses to protect themselves from the weather. For safety, they were often close together. Great civilizations like the Ancient Egyptians built large temples and structures, like the Great Pyramids of Giza. The Ancient Greeks and Romans made what we now call "Classical Architecture". The Romans, working over 2000 years ago, copied the arch from the Etruscans, who copied it from the Mesopotamians. The stone columns, which still hold up so many important buildings, like the Parthenon in Athens, were simply copied from the first wooden posts.

Classical Architecture was very formal, and it always obeyed laws. It used symmetry, which really means balance, and it used proportion which means keeping shapes in certain ways. The Golden Mean was a rule (or law) which said, (to put it very simply) if you are making a room, or any other thing, it will work best if you always make the long side 1.6 times longer than the short side. There are many laws in Classical Architecture, like how high the middle of an arched bridge needs to be (which depends on how wide the bridge needs to be). These laws were learned from thousands of years of experience and they are as true today as they were 2000 years ago.

In some parts of the world, like India, the architecture is famous for carving the stone on temples and palaces. Different architectural styles were made in China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Africa, Mexico, and Central and South America.

Later, people in Western Europe in the Middle Ages made Romanesque architecture, then Gothic architecture. Gothic buildings have tall, pointed windows and arches. Many churches have Gothic architecture. Castles were also built at this time. In Eastern Europe, churches usually had domes. People added their own ideas and decoration to the Classical Architecture of the past. The Renaissance brought a return to classical ideas.

In the late 18th century with the Industrial Revolution, people began to invent machines to make things quickly and cheaply. Many factories and mills were built during, or after this revolution. Decades later, in the Victorian era, architects like George Fowler Jones and Decimus Burton still followed the Gothic style to build new churches. Up to this point, buildings were limited in size and style by the strength of the wood and masonry used to construct them. Gothic cathedrals were among the largest buildings because the gothic arch when combined with buttresses allowed stone buildings to be built taller. For example, the cathedral in Ulm, Germany is over 500 feet tall. However, building with stone has its limits, and building too tall could result in collapse, an example of which is the Beauvais Cathedral, which was never completed.

Towards the end of the 19th Century with a second Industrial Revolution, steel became much cheaper. Architects began to use inventions like metal girders and reinforced concrete to build. An example is the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Buildings can now be built taller than ever before. We call them skyscrapers. This new technology has made us free from traditional limitations, and because of the new possibilities presented by these materials, many traditional methods of construction and ideas about style were reevaluated, replaced, or abandoned. Cheap, strong glass soon brought transparent exterior walls, especially for office buildings.

Modernism is the name for the architectural style which developed because of these new building technologies, and its beginnings can been seen as early as 1890. Modernism can also refer to a specific group of architects and buildings from the early to late 20th century, and so may not be the proper term to use for many building built since then, which are sometimes called "post-modern".

Many of the world's greatest structures were built by modern-day architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, I. M. Pei, Adrian Smith, Edward Durell Stone, Fazlur Khan, and Bruce Graham.

Related pages

Images for kids

In Spanish: Arquitectura para niños

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