Medieval
Hagia Sophia, Borobudur, Angkor Wat, the Gothic cathedrals. Engineering reaches new heights as faith and royal power compete for the largest enclosed spaces ever built.
Part of Architectural Wonders
11 moments in this segment.
- — Hagia Sophia. Justinian's great dome. 31m wide, suspended on pendentives — an engineering breakthrough. Was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly 1,000 years. Cathedral, mosque, museum, mosque again (2020).
- — Great Mosque of Damascus. Built by Caliph al-Walid on top of an old Christian basilica that had been a Roman temple of Jupiter. The model for the next 1,300 years of mosque architecture.
- — Borobudur. 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Java — the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Nine stacked platforms with 504 Buddha statues. Abandoned for centuries; rediscovered in 1814.
- — Angkor Wat. Suryavarman II's Khmer temple — originally Hindu, later Buddhist. The largest religious monument in the world by total area. Featured on Cambodia's flag.
- — Notre-Dame de Paris. Gothic cathedral that took 182 years to build. Flying buttresses, three rose windows, the gargoyles. Nearly destroyed in the French Revolution; saved by Hugo's novel. The 2019 fire destroyed the spire; restoration completed Dec 2024.
- — Chartres Cathedral. The most intact medieval Gothic cathedral. 176 stained-glass windows survived intact through both World Wars (removed and hidden). The "Chartres Blue" pigment still hasn't been fully reproduced.
- — The Alhambra. The Nasrid palace in Granada — the last Muslim stronghold in Iberia. Muqarnas vaulting, the Court of the Lions. Surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs in 1492; the Hall of the Abencerrajes still has bloodstains in the marble.
- — Salisbury Cathedral. The tallest church spire in the UK at 123m. Built on water-meadow ground without proper foundations; the spire has been leaning for 700 years. Holds one of the four surviving original copies of Magna Carta.
- — The Forbidden City. Ming Emperor Yongle's palace complex in Beijing. 980 buildings, 9,999 rooms. Off-limits to commoners for 500 years. The world's largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures.
- — Florence Cathedral (Duomo). Brunelleschi's dome — 42m wide, built without a wooden centring frame, an engineering puzzle that had defeated everyone for 100 years. Still the largest brick dome in the world.
- — Machu Picchu. Inca royal estate, 2,430m above sea level. Built in dry-stone polygonal masonry that survives major earthquakes. Abandoned during the Spanish conquest and not seen by outsiders until 1911.
