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Reminder: this is what subways look like in Russia.
The most beautiful subway stations around the world (thread): 🧵
1. Mayakovskaya, Moscow (1938)
2. Komsomolskaya, Moscow (1952)
Moscow's metro could easily fill an entire thread. Subways can and should have chandeliers and Baroque friezes.
3. City Hall Station, New York (1904)
America could have had a beautiful subway. This station, with stunning vaulted ceilings, tiled arches and skylights, was abandoned 40 years after opening.
4. Baker Street, London (1863)
The oldest underground station in the world, and almost completely unchanged for 160 years.
5. Toledo, Naples (2012)
One of the deepest stations on the Naples metro, with colors meant to evoke the depths of the ocean. Passengers reach platform level by passing beneath a "crater of light".
6. Elektrozavodskaya, Moscow (1944)
A station dedicated to the pioneers of electricity, with an innovative lighting system woven into neoclassical marble reliefs.
7. Arts et Métiers, Paris
An ode to steampunk science fiction and French novelist Jules Verne - copper cladding, portholes and exposed bolts.
8. Marienplatz, Munich (1971)
One of the most recognizable for its sheer simplicity - the work of German architect Alexander von Branca.
9. Alisher Navoi, Tashkent, Uzbekistan (1984)
The shimmering stations of Tashkent have only recently been revealed to the world after decades of photography bans. Arabic influence is obvious in the striking geometry and flower motifs.
10. Rådhuset, Stockholm (1975)
Organic architecture hewn into the bedrock below the city - the exposed walls make it look like a natural cave system.
The Great Pyramid is the oldest of the 7 Wonders of the World — and yet it's the only one still standing.
So what happened to the other six?
Here's what we know about them... (thread) 🧵
An "official" list of wonders was proposed by Greek writers like Antipater of Sidon over 2,000 years ago.
These lists survive to this day, and though they vary slightly, they tend to include the following seven...
The youngest is the Lighthouse of Alexandria, built around 280 BC.
Back then, Alexandria was a crucial trade port — the gateway to the Mediterranean. Its lighthouse was 400 feet tall, the world's second tallest structure after the Great Pyramid...
C.S. Lewis, one of the 20th century's top intellectuals, considered himself too smart for Christianity.
So how, at age 32, did he suddenly become one of its greatest advocates?
He was struck by a strange feeling — and something Tolkien said to him late at night… (thread) 🧵
C.S. Lewis's conversion didn't begin suddenly. He first began to feel a deep longing, pointing him to seek out the most beautiful things in life: music, art, romance.
And yet, nothing he could find completely satisfied it...
He called this profound longing "joy", and intuited:
"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world."