There is no mortar holding it together — the stones are held in perfect balance by nothing but gravity.
So what are the other best-preserved Roman wonders? A thread... 🧵
Each stone of the Segovia Aqueduct is perfectly shaped to fit tightly with the next. It was in use from antiquity all the way up to 1973. And what you see here is just the city's visible portion — it starts 11 miles away in the mountains...
The other stunningly-preserved aqueduct is the Pont du Gard, part of a 31 mile system. Again, stones were so precisely cut that no mortar or cement was needed.
For a sense of scale, look at the people crossing its bridge (water channel on top, bridge below):
Well, in the 3rd century, the Roman Empire began to buckle under the weight of state spending.
It frantically "printed" money until things went horribly wrong... (thread) 🧵
When Augustus slowed the expansion of the empire, wealth stopped flowing from conquered lands into the treasury. Managing expenditures (construction, armies, bureaucracy) became increasingly difficult.
Whenever costs exceeded tax income, emperors minted new coins to cover it. Mining precious metals increased the supply of gold and silver coinage.
Things remained pretty stable for two centuries...
This church has been under construction for 124 years. In 2026, it will become the tallest in the world.
It isn't funded by the state or even the Church — it's being built entirely by the people.
And it's far more impressive than you realize... (thread) 🧵
Barcelona's Sagrada Familia is proof that intergenerational construction is still alive. When complete, it will be the world's second tallest religious building of any kind.
142 years ago, it existed only in the mind of Antoni Gaudí — Spain's most visionary architect.
Nobody had seen his strange mix of Gothic and Art Nouveau before. Gaudí saw natural beauty as a gift from God, and made this the blueprint of his work.
Should federal buildings only be allowed to be neoclassical?
A thread... 🧵
Trump's "Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture" executive order would've prevented brutalist blocks like the FBI HQ if it existed in 1965.
But is that the right thing to do?
The order, revoked by Biden, restricted new federal buildings to "classical" styles: Neoclassical, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Beaux-Arts, Art Deco — and what it deemed "historic humanistic architecture".
The most uplifting architectural revival happening today is in Budapest.
The city is reclaiming its identity after decades of communist rule.
Here's what's going on... (thread) 🧵
And another example. Façades (and much more) all across the city are being brought back to life.
So why is it happening?
In the 19th century, Budapest became a twin capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It enshrined its lofty ambitions — to be the easternmost bastion of Western civilization — in architecture.