Page 11 - DK Eyewitness Travel Guides - The World's Must-See Places

INTRODUCTION 9

~Paris's Notre-Dame
<athedral is a masterpie<e
of Gothi< ar<hite<ture

TOURISM
The feet of thousands of visitors also or parts of them, are closed for renovation. However, completed in 1959, the year that J0rn Utzon' s Sydney
put sights at risk, and many have had to restrict access you might want to visit Mali in the spring to watch the Opera House was begun. These were among the first
because of this. However, tourism can help preserve renovation of Djenne Mosque, when around 4,000 buildings to make use of computer technology. Less
sights by providing an income from entrance fees. townspeople gather to replaster the mud-brick building than 50 years later, this technology helped produce
in a splendid festival. marvels such as the titanium waves of Frank 0. Ghery's
We now have a chance to see inside the world's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.
most spectacular sights-to wander their corridors and MEN AND MATERIALS
squares-and our curiosity is unbounded. Many of Conservation requires skilled craftspeople. A stone- Buildings are monuments to patrons and architects
the sights in this book are only a weekend break away. mason these days may be as much in demand as one and through them their names have been handed
Some of them provide exhibitions, talks, conferences, in the Middle Ages. The right materials are important, down to us. At ancient sites, the archeologists are also
or concerts, while others are the upholders of colorful too. They are not only required to be authentic, but remembered, men driven by the desire to be the first to
rituals and traditions. Not all of the sights are so easily they must also work within their limitations. Stone can uncover treasures lost for millennia imagine the delight
accessible, however. Religious devotees often sought only reach a certain height and it wasn't until the 19th of the explorer who first sighted Egypt's Abu Simbel
remote places for their contemplations and some sights century that the 482-ft (147-m) high Great Pyramid
are remote for strategic reasons, for example, the Inca at Giza was surpassed. Buildings have become emblems of whole nations the
estate of Machu Rcchu in Peru, so hard to find that it Statue of Liberty, the Registan, Angkor Wat, the Taj
was lost to the world for centuries. Discoveries pepper the 19th century, a time when Mahal Romantic, exotic, seductive, the names speak
steam power made travel easier and artifacts from volumes. By the same token, churches, monasteries,
Many ancient and prehistoric sites were oriented in sights were waiting to be uncovered. Ideas were mosques, temples, and shrines have become defining
alignment with the movements of the Sun, the Moon, revived, too, and the century saw the rebirth of many symbols of different faiths, and their spaces may
the planets, and stars, and being there at dawn or at a styles. France's Arc de Triomphe revisited the Classical produce an inner peace. More modestly, buildings help
solstice is to feel their potent magic Other sights also style, while Budapest's Pari iament revived the Gothic to conjure up the I ives of their former occupants, be
have their special times when choirs and music fill the style. Castle building was spectacularly revived in King they the homes of artists such as Rubens in Antwerp,
churches; when a festival recalls a building's heyday; Ludwig's fantasy, Neuschwanstein, in Germany, and in or palaces for rulers, like the Forbidden City in Beijing,
when a full Moon hovers over the Taj Mahal, the Sun Portugal's Pal ace of Pen a, where various styles were home to emperors of dynastic China.
sets on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, or when incorporated into the stately pi I e.
the snow is snug around St. Petersburg's Winter Whatever a building's form and function, and
Palace. Some museums are free on a particular day, In the 2Oth century, new shapes became possible whatever its age and condition, it always has many
and visiting a sight early in the morning is always a through the use of reinforced concrete, notable in the stories to tell. In these pages, walls are peeled back and
good way of avoiding the crowds. Rainy or baking-hot structures of Oscar Neimeyer's Brasilia and in Frank the layers of history are revealed to provide an oppor-
seasons should be avoided, and sometimes, buildings, Lloyd Wright's Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, tunity to step inside and I et the imagination roam.