Cool monumental architecture you should have in your game world

[Anders]

This thread is for monumental cool architecture that exist in our world and that you could have in your game world. Because people build amazing things and your game world could reflect that. (I'm heavily predisposed towards the pre-industrial world here, because that's the way I roll.)

Check out the Norias of Hama. The wheels are all made of wood. The largest wheel is 69 feet in diameter and, when operational, raised 52,800 US gallons of water per hour. That is awesome! And your world should have something like that.

[Varyon]

The Temple of Kukulcán at Chichen Itza (in Yucatán) is designed (on purpose or by accident - I lean toward on purpose) such that around the equinox it casts a shadow that looks like a serpent crawling down the steps of the pyramid as the sun goes down.

[Anders]

The Pantheon in Rome.

Magnificent temple with a huge dome. Lit by an oculus in the ceiling (a circular opening in the dome). On April 21st (the traditional founding day of Rome) the light hits the entrance. On this day the Emperor would enter the building and be illuminated by a column of light (if the sun shone).

[thorr-kan]

Avebury, UK, an entire village *inside* an Neolithic stone circle. It is "the largest megalithic stone circle in the world."

I've been fascinated with the place since I read about it in Palladium's Beyond the Supernatural, back in the '80s. In 2008, I got to visit it after convincing a dozen of my best friends this was a viable alternative to Stonehenge for a tourist visit.

I was right.

Three concentric stone circles. Part of a large complex of Neolithic sites. A working Saxon church. Why does the ditch and earth wall around it face *inward?* Come on, if you can't work with that I can't help you.

[cptbutton]

Stepwells

In areas where water availability varies a lot through the year, you build reservoirs to hold it. And then build stairways down the side to make it easier to go get it in the dry season. And as long as you've got all those mason and laborers, why not add some decoration and cool architecture?

And some secret doors, only accessible in certain seasons?

Of course, after the local civilization collapses, who knows what unearthly horrors will move in.

[thrash]

What happens if you have an extra-jurisdictional enclave in your city, where none of the regular laws, social structures, or building codes apply?

Kowloon walled city

The real-world example inspired a lot of the look-and-feel of cyberpunk, but one could also imagine an "anything goes" district in a low-tech city becoming a 3-dimensional dungeon.

[Johnny1A.2]

It's cliche, it's traditional, but it is in a class by itself:

Giza!

[Johnny1A.2]

Not quite as monumental as Giza, but still fascinating and inspirational (and not just to me, they showed up in the old Logan's Run movie):

The Fort Worth Water Gardens

[thorr-kan]

Qanat.

Ancient, subterranean aqueduct systems. Our ancestors may have been primitive, but primitive don't mean stupid. Used to good effect in the Belasarius series by David Drake and Eric Flint.

[Johnny1A.2]

OK, there's the famous Rock of Gibraltar.

Clouds Over Gibraltar


Rock of Gibraltar

To begin with, it's an immense mass of rock, politically a bit of the UK surrounded by Spain, it controls the Straits of Gibraltar and thus access to the Mediterranean Sea (and thus is potentially strategically important even today), it has a long history and was apparently once home to Neandertals.

It's also riddled with caves, including one that contains a functioning amphitheater and that has been the site of underground (literally) rock concerts:

Saint Michael's Cave