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Aug 02, 2023

Here are the world's tallest monuments, and how tiny we are compared to them

The Motherland Monument in Kiev, Ukraine is 102m high. -- TheSoarNet/Pixabay

The Motherland Monument in Kiev, Ukraine is 102m high. -- TheSoarNet/Pixabay

Thanks to three-dimensional technology, an animation studio is showing us just how small we are compared to the world's many monuments.

One of its latest projects – released in early March – is a size comparison featuring the likes of Stonehenge in Britain, the Statue of Unity in India and Machu Picchu in Peru.

Whether it's the most beautiful beaches, the best-value city breaks, the most affordable restaurants, or the top spots off the beaten track, the tourism industry is full of all kinds of rankings that give travellers inspiration. But some of the world's major destinations can be all the more fascinating when considered in terms of their true scale.

This is precisely what GlobalData achieves with its three-dimensional comparisons.

Exceeding 1.3 million views, one of its latest creations is a ranking of the world's tallest monuments, comparing them to an average sized human, measuring 170cm. In the video, viewers can spend 15 minutes taking in sites as diverse as the Motherland Monument in Kiev, Ukraine (102m high), Big Ben in London (96m), the National Monument (Monas) in Jakarta, Indonesia (137m), the Victory Monument in Moscow, Russia (141.8m), the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt (146.6m), Cologne Cathedral in Germany (157m), and the Great Wall of China, standing at an altitude of over 1,000m, and Machu Picchu in Peru, at an altitude of 2,430m.

At 182m tall, the Statue of Unity in India is the world's tallest statue. — Wikimedia Commons

The 3D studio ranks the statues of the world according to their size by removing their bases from the calculations. It reveals that the statue of Shiva located in the Swiss town of Meyrin, in the canton of Geneva, is the smallest on the list, standing at 2m tall.

It is largely surpassed by the statue of David in Florence, Italy (5.17m) or that of Abraham Lincoln in Washington D.C. in the United States (5.8m).

The animation incorporates characters helping viewers to take in the magnitude of certain achievements, such as the Grand Buddha of Ling Shan in Jiangsu, China (79m high without the base) or the Statue of Unity paying tribute to the Indian statesman Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (182m without the base), located near the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the state of Gujarat in India.

Since its inauguration in 2018, it is, in fact, the largest statue in the world.

The 3D animation only gained traction on TikTok at the beginning of May; it was already pretty popular on YouTube and Instagram before that. The creators propose more unusual rankings, including, more recently, a size comparison of characters from the famous One Piece manga. – AFP Relaxnews

Tags / Keywords: globaldata , motherland monument , statue of unity , big ben , cologne cathedral , great monuments of the world

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