Tikal National Park, Guatemala.

Tikal National Park

The Tikal National Park, in the Peten region in Northern Guatemala, comprises an area of 222 mi² or 576 km². The park contains some of the most fascinating archaeological remains of the ancient Maya Civilization. Tikal is the ruins of an ancient city found in a rainforest. Ambrosio Tut, a gum-sapper, first saw Tikal in the mid nineteenth century, from the top of a sapodilla tree, obrserving various temple's roof combs in the distance and reported the ruins to a La Gaceta, a Guatemalan newspaper, which named the site Tikal. The Berlin Academy of Science's Magazine then republished the report in 1853. Archaeologist and treasure hunters then began visiting the forest. Today tourism to the site may help protect the rainforest.

Temple I or Great Jaguar around 1900's

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's is a church in the Renaissance style located in the Vatican City west of the River Tiber and near the Janiculum Hill and Hadrian's Mausoleum. Its central dome dominates the skyline of Rome. The basilica is approached via St. Peter's Square, a forecourt in two sections, both surrounded by tall colonnades. The first space is oval and the second trapezoid. The façade of the basilica, with a giant order of columns, stretches across the end of the square and is approached by steps on which stand statues of the first century apostles to Rome, Saints Peter and Paul.

St. Peter's Basilica

Arc de Triomphe (Paris, France)

Arc de Triomphe de I'Étoile

Is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the centre of the place Charles de Gaulle, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. It should not be cunfused with a smalleer arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrrousel, which stands west of the Louvre. The Arc de Triomphe("Triumphal Arch") honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

Arc de Triomphe at night

The monument was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806 and its iconographic program pitted heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. It set the tone for public monuments, with triumphant patriotic messages.