The most famous giant statues carved into the rocks

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

There are a huge number of stunning statues in the world that you can admire for hours, and for which you can take a risky and long journey to unknown lands to see these colossal works of talented and skillful masters of the past and present time.

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a monumental granite rock located in South Dakota, USA. The mountain is famous for carving giant sculptural portraits of four US presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in its granite rock. The height of each face is about 18 meters, and the width of the entire sculpture is 122 meters. Work on the creation of the figures was carried out from 1927 to 1941. The sculptor Gatzon Borglum and his team of 400 assistants carved huge heads into the rock, blasting the rocks with dynamite, and then, to give them the necessary shape, they carved faces with a chisel and hammer.

Crazy Horse Memorial

About 15 kilometers southwest of Mount Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is the largest memorial in the world dedicated to the late Indian leader Furious Horse, carved out of solid rock. Construction on this giant statue began in 1948 by Polish-born sculptor Korczak Zyulkowski. When the creator of the famous sculpture died in 1982, without having time to bring his grandiose plan to its logical conclusion, his wife and children continued their work. If, nevertheless, someday the monument is completed, its width will be 195 meters, and the height is 172 meters. At the moment, of the entire statue, there is only the face of the horseman, completed in 1998.

Stone Mountain

America is home to another legendary granite carving, Stone Mountain, located in Georgia. It is a bas-relief sculpture of three Confederate leaders: President Jefferson Davis, General Robert Edward Lee and Thomas "Stone Wall" Jackson. The height of the granite sculpture is 58 meters and the width is 93 meters.

Bamiyan Buddha statues

Afghanistan used to be home to two huge statues of Buddha at once in the Bamiyan Valley, less than 200 km northwest of Kabul. They were carved into the sandy hills themselves about one and a half thousand years ago, 55 and 37 meters high, respectively. But both figures were savagely destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, who believed they were pagan idols and should be destroyed.

Big Buddha

The Big Buddha statue in Leshan in Sichuan Province, China, is the most prominent property of a Buddhist temple dating back to the first century. The seated Buddha was carved from the side of a mountain in the eighth century and reaches 71 meters in height and 28 meters in width. His smallest toe is big enough even for one person, one can only imagine the gigantic dimensions of this sculptural work.

Decebalus statue

The tallest sculpture in Europe carved into the rock is the statue of Decebalus, the Dacian king (86 - 106 AD). This rocky creation is located on the banks of the Danube River, near the city of Orsova, Romania. The sculpture, which is 40 meters high, was completed only five years ago.

Great Sphinx at Giza

Much more ancient and famous statue is the Great Sphinx in Giza. It is believed that the Sphinx was carved out of limestone around 2500 years before the birth of Christ. The height of the world famous statue depicting a reclining lion with a human head reaches 20 meters, and its width is 73.5 meters. This sculptural work, like no friend, is surrounded by many secrets and legends.

Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel is a rock in which two famous ancient Egyptian temples are carved, located in the southern part of Egypt. The temples were carved into limestone rocks around the 13th century BC. In the 60s, the temples in Abu Simbel were carefully sawn and moved to a new location due to the construction of the Aswan Dam. Four statues of Ramses II, each 20 meters high, adorn the main entrance to the temple.

Petra city

The city of Petra is located in the territory of modern Jordan, 660 meters above the surrounding area, the Arava Valley. It is believed that the city is from 2000 to 4000 years old, it is even mentioned in the Old Testament. This mysterious place was discovered by the Swiss Ludwig Burghart. Today, in Petra, palaces, temples, tombs, an ancient theater and other numerous buildings have been discovered, very well preserved to our time, and all carved in stone.