Humanity is at all times sought to erect a statue of the most ambitious - to express the extent of their country, their achievements and raise the spirit of fellow-citizens, to surprise its neighbors.

The desire for the perpetuation of the people and events through a huge and ambitious monuments in our genes. Much of the grand and genius came to our times only in the figures and legends, but much still with us. AdMe.ru gathered in this material are the greatest - in scope, reputation, cultural and historical significance - the statue. Of course, not all - to overload the material two or three dozen Buddhas seemed to us superfluous, namely, the Buddha took all the ratings the majority of seats. Also not included here, and Peter the Great on the Moskva River, which, though ranked as the highest statues in the world, but it is an artistic disaster.

The Bronze Horseman

St. Petersburg, 1770
Russia's first equestrian monument to the king. Installed on a unique solid stone pedestal, which was named Thunder-stone. His transportation - is a story of ingenuity and stubbornness. The monument is made of the project by Etienne Falconet, depicts the king and a commoner than is customary in the perpetuation of monarchs. Peter is dressed in simple clothes, instead of a saddle beneath the bearskin, only a laurel wreath and a sword, we are told that Peter - the great commander.
The inscription in Latin "PETRO primo CATHARINA secunda MDCCLXXXII", would seem to indicate who and who erected the statue, but in addition it is also a graceful allusion to the succession. It is also interesting that Peter the Great, his hand points to Sweden, and in the center of Stockholm is set like a monument to Charles XII, the chief opponent of Peter the Great Northern War, the left hand is directed towards Russia.


The Motherland Calls

Volgograd, 1967
One of the tallest statues in the world located in Volgograd, and is perhaps the main symbol of the Soviet people's struggle against fascism. 52-meter high statue of a woman, shagnuvshey forward calls his sons to fight with the enemy. Her image is associated with the ancient goddess Nike - the goddess of victory.
The thickness of the concrete wall sculpture is only 25-30 inches. Inside, the entire statue is made up of individual cells, cells as rooms in the building. Stiffness of the frame is supported by ninety-nine metal cables, always being in tension. At the top of all the steel of the sword to make holes to reduce sail.


The Motherland

Kiev, 1981
Ukrainian Motherland under the Russian, but above it on 10 meters, and also has direct relevance to the Great Patriotic War, as part of the National Museum of the History of WWII. The monument was opened in 1981 and began work on it Vucetic Eugene, who is also the author of Volgograd symbol of victory. Initially it was assumed that the entire statue is covered with gold leaf, but later this idea was abandoned, and the Mother-trimmed 1.5-mm steel.
Sword, who holds a homeland, a bit short, and it is believed that this was done after lengthy negotiations with the Kiev Metro, who insisted that "the weapons can not be above the cross", meaning cross bell of Kiev Pechersk Lavra, located next door. And indeed, the tip of the sword was below the cross on 12 meters.


Worker and Collective Farm

Moscow, 1937
The world-famous model of socialist realism and the symbol of the USSR was created for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937 at the height of Stalinist repression. A guy and a girl on the idea, embodied the proud owners of Soviet soil - the worker-peasant class. During the six years since 2003, and ending with the year 2009, the statue was on the restoration, and the pedestal was rebuilt. He is now 10 feet higher, and it posted a museum.


Spring Temple Buddha

Henan, China, 2002
The highest statue in the world - 128 meters, with all of the pedestal 208. Buddhists generally like to portray the Buddha on a gigantic scale - the statue of the god overflowing list of the highest in the world. But this is one of noveshih, steals the show. It was built shortly after the barbaric destruction of Buddha statues by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and it is believed that this kind of response to the terrorists - "Buddha will be more and they will be even higher."


Buddha in Leshan

Sichuan, China, VIII Century
This statue is considered the highest works of sculpture in the world. 71-meter seated Buddha cut by a rock for 90 years, and then around his body was built 13-storey temple, which was destroyed by fire, and is now available for viewing by the Buddha as a whole. The length of a finger of his hand - 8 feet, toes - 1.6 meters.


Christ the Redeemer

Rio de Janeiro, 1931
Symbol throughout Brazil, established on Mount Corcovado, like hugs and blesses the whole of Rio de Janeiro, lying under the hill, and also resembles a cross, which was crucified. Money to build one of the most famous statues in the world all gathered in Rio de Janeiro - donations had accumulated more than two million reais.
In 2007, recognized as one of the new seven wonders of the world.


Statue of Liberty

New York, 1886
A gift of the French nation to the Americans in honor of the century establishment of independence in the late 10 years - as always short of money. Americans, for example, that under the arrangement were to build a pedestal, had to spend a lot of charity events.
Many people know that the left hand of the statue - a plate with the date July 4, 1776, but the fact that one foot woman tramples broken shackles of an allegory - a fact much less known. The seven rays of Liberty on the crown - the seven continents (western geographical tradition priderzhivatsya this view). Fans of conspiracy see this U.S. imperial ambitions, already existing since XIX century.


Great Sphinx

Giza, Egypt, date unknown
Lying on the sand lion with a human head - the oldest surviving monumental sculpture in the world. The length of the statue - 73 meters, height - 20 meters, it is carved out of monolithic limestone rock, and the transverse bands across the body is often due to damage from the rains in abundance on their way to Egypt when there was a different climate. A statue to face the rising sun and the Nile. As it was known before, nobody knows, "the Sphinx" - a Greek word and translates as "strangler."
Over the years, the Sphinx was buried up to their shoulders in the sand, and only in 1925, he was completely freed from it.


Pharaohs at Abu Simbel

Nubia, XIII century BC
All four giant statues at the entrance to the Great Temple of Abu Simbel - the image of Ramses II, in which, in fact, the temple was built. In the relative integrity of only three survived the 20-meter king, but they could not be, if not grandiose engineering and archaeological operation, which took place in the 60s. During construction of the Aswan Dam was found that when the dam will be put into operation, both the temple at Abu Simbel will be flooded and lost forever. Therefore, the temples were cut into blocks weighing 30 tons, was dismantled, moved to a safe location upstream and farther from the water and assembled exactly as it was.


moai

Easter Island
On Easter Island, which is called the local Rapa Nui, there are 997 stone statues "moai". They are all cut from the monolithic and ot hardened volcanic ash, and almost everyone is looking deep into the island, except seven, which are located inland and look at the sea. According to legends of local residents, lies in the moai supernatural power of ancestors of the first king of Easter Island - Hotu-Matu'a. They created their representatives are almost extinct tribe of "long-eared," stretched lobes of their ears heavy ornaments, that's why all the moai long ears. From "korotkouhih" all the secrets for creating and moving moai carefully concealed, and that's the reason so little of our knowledge about these amazing statues.


Genghis Khan

Tsonzhin-Boldog, Mongolia, 2008
The largest equestrian statue in the world has been opened recently - three years ago. Its a strange location - in the open field, 54 kilometers from Ulan Bator - because according to tradition, at this point in the future Khan vast land found his gold whip. The height of the monument - 50 feet, the pedestal, which houses a museum, gallery, restaurants and even a billiards room, surrounded by 36 columns, the number of all the Khans of the Mongol Empire, from Genghis Khan. Net field around the statue will transform into a huge tourist area with yurts as hotel rooms and theme parks.


Angel of the North

Gateshead, England, 1998
The most avant-garde statue assembled in this material. Its author - Anthony Gormley, best known for his sculptural unexpected solutions. This "angel" has a height of 20 meters, width - 54. Weight - 208 tons (heavier than the Statue of Liberty), most of which falls on a concrete foundation. Otherwise, an angel with a sail could not resist. The author would like to create the illusion of hugs, a kind but more like the wings of the open floors of clothes, and so the British love to call their country, but a grand vista "geytskhedsky an exhibitionist."