About This Quiz
Of the thousands of remarkable statues around the world, you may know where to find the Statue of Liberty, and maybe the Sphinx. But what about all the others? From The Thinker and Venus de Milo to the Olmec Colossal Heads and Moai, see if you can match the famous statue to where in the world you'd find it.The Gateway Arch, which opened to the public in 1967, celebrates the westward expansion of the United States. It's 630 feet tall, which makes it the tallest arch in the world.
The Little Mermaid sits on a rock in the harbor off the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark. The statue, created by artist Edvard Eriksen, is only 4 feet tall, but, being bronze, weighs 385 pounds.
The artist Auguste Rodin originally considered calling it, The Poet (Le Poète) -- but we all know this statue as The Thinker (Le Penseur). The Thinker can be seen at the Musée Rodin, in Paris, France.
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It's believed The Great Sphinx, a creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human, was built by Ancient Egyptians on the west bank of the Nile River in Giza probably sometime between 2558–2532 BC, which would have been during the reign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Khafre. However, there is a differing theory that it was the Pharoah Khufu, Khafre's father, who had it -- and the pyramids -- constructed.
When city leaders had the opportunity to show their city of Birmingham, Alabama, off at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, they commissioned a statue of Vulcan to represent their industrious city -- and won the grand prize for best exhibit. In 1905, Vulcan was moved to Birmingham, where today he, atop his original pedistal, can be found on top of Red Mountain.
Sculpted from marble sometime between 130 and 100 BC, the Venus de Milo was found on the Greek island of Milos in 1820. Since 1821, the statue has been available to the public at the Louvre museum in Paris, France.
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By presidential proclamation, the American flag flies 24/7 over the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, which was commissioned as a memorial to all Marines. It depicts flag-raising on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. During the summer, the U.S. Marine Corps holds evening Sunset Parades at the memorial, located near Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.
This Art Deco-style Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) statue of Jesus Christ, completed in 1931, overlooks Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from the top of Mount Corcovado. In July 2007, Christ the Redeemer became one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
There are at least 17 basalt boulders carved, at some time before 900 BC, to represent human heads -- with flat noses, fleshy cheeks, and slightly crossed eyes. The heads can be found in the states of Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico, which was once the Olmet civilization (part of Ancient Mesoamerica).
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Built in 1966 at the top of Magnetic Mountain, this 7-story-tall statue called Christ of the Ozarks can be found overlooking Eureka Springs, Arkansas. While some visitors have reported that the statue's eyes move, it's not true -- it's explained not by divine intervention, but by the movement of the sun's light.
Although originally Michelangelo's David stood, for nearly 400 years, in front of Palazzo Vecchio, in Piazza della Signoria, today Michelangelo's Renaissance sculpture stands in the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, an art museum in Florence, Italy. A replica of the statue also stands outside the Palazzo Vecchio.
Today, Easter Island (or ‘Rapa Nui’), which is roughly 2,250 miles northwest of Chile, is mostly uninhabited -- except for the Moai. Moai statues are believed to have been created between 1250-1500 AD. In 2008, a Finnish tourist was banned from the island for three years after he chipped off an ear from a Moai statue.
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The Motherland Calls statue, which stands on Volgograd’s Mamayev Kurgan Hill in Volgograd, Russia, is leaning, and perhaps a bit too much. It's been calculated the statue, which was dedicated to the WWII triumph at the Battle of Stalingrad, will likely topple when it finally tilts 10 inches -- which could happen at any time.
The Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha, can be found near Po Lin Monastery at Ngong Ping, on Lantau Island, in Hong Kong, China. The statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, which was completed in 1993, also has three levels below, including the halls of the Universe, the halls of Benevolent Merit, and the halls of Remembrance.
Riding on I-94 near Gladstone in North Dakota? Take Exit 72 to enjoy the world's largest collection of scrap metal sculptures on the Enchanted Highway, which begins at Exit 72 and ends 32 miles away in the town of Regent -- where you can stay in The Enchanted Castle.
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Look up near the Jhandewalan metro stop, on the westbound train to Dwarka, and you'll see the 108-foot monkey-god, Hanuman, looking over New Delhi's Karol Bagh district. Hanuman, according to Hindu mythology, commands the monkey army.
The Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue, is a 140-foot-tall statue of Genghis Khan on horseback, is part of the Genghis Khan Statue Complex located on the bank of the Tuul River, outside Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. While visiting the statue, check out a replica of Genghis Kahn's famous golden whip.
"The Bean," as it was first nicknamed, is in Millennium Park at AT&T Plaza in Chicago, Illinois. Using liquid mercury as inspiration, artist Anish Kapoor completed Cloud Gate in 2006.
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The Colossus of Rhodes, a sculpture of the Greek god, Helios, was built in 280 BC on the island of Rhodes in Greece. It's believed that the statue, made of bronze, was originally about the same height as our Statue of Liberty. One of the seven wonders of the world, was destroyed during an earthquake in 226 BC.
In the 8th cenutry, this Giant Buddha of Leshan was carved out of a hillside of Xijuo Peak, in Sichuan Province, China. The sculpture, which overlooks the confluence of the Dadu, Min, and Qingyi Rivers, is the largest Buddha in the world. And since 1996, has been on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.
Sendai Daikannon, a 330-foot-tall statue overlooking the city of Sendai, Japan, is the tallest statue of the Japanese Buddhist Bodhisattva.The goddess is depicted in "wish-fulfilling Kannon" form, holding a gem in her hand.
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He's only about two feet tall, but Manneken Pis, called "Brussel's Oldest Citizen," has made a splash in the city, where he's been relieving himself on the corner of rue du Chene and rue de l'Etuve since the 1960s. Today, he's considered a national symbol of Belgium, and is regularly dressed in costume.
About 30 miles outside of Rapid City, four U.S. presidents look down from 5,725 feet: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. It took three years for sculptor Gutzon Borglum to completely carve George Washington’s face into the granite.
The now-dry Sacred Lake of Delos, across the road from the Terrace of Lions, is believed to be where the Ancient Greek god Apollo was born. The lion statues, originally thought to have numbered 12, although only seven remain, are thought to have been dedicated to Apollo around 600 BC.
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Measuring from the base of the lotus pedestal it stands on to the top of the head, the Spring Temple Buddha, which represents the Vairocana Buddha, stands as the tallest statue in the world, according to Guinness World Records. Near the Foquan Temple, which was built during the Tang dynasty, this buddha was erected in the 21st century.
The Knotted Gun is a pro-peace sculpture depicting a Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver with a knotted barrel, created in the mid-1980s after the assassination of John Lennon. Today there are more than 20 copies of the Gun around the world, but to see the originals -- there were three -- you'll need to visit the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, European Commission in Kirchberg, Luxembourg, or Bagers plats, in Malmö, Sweden.
You can thank artist Tom Frantzen for creating this humorous statue called, De Vaartkapoen. The bronze statue of two men, depicts a police officer being tripped by a manhiding in a sewer manhole is located in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Brussels, Belgium.
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It took sculptor Antonio Canova four years to carve this statue, which depicts the head of Napoléon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, on the body of the Roman god of war, Mars. Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker can be viewed at Apsley House, in London, England.
The Artemision Bronze statue, also called the God from the Sea, is a larger-than-lifesized representation of either the Greek god Zeus or Poseidon. Created between 480–300 BC, the statue -- in two pieces -- was discovered at the bottom of the sea off Cape Artemision, in northern Euboea, in the 1920s. Today, you can see it at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece.
The town of Murdeshwar, in Bhatkal Taluk of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka, India, is a coastal town on the Arabian Sea. It's famous for the Murdeshwar Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, but while there you'll also find the second-tallest Shiva statue in the world.
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Pietà , which depicts Jesus across his mother, Mary's, lap after he's been crucified, can be seen inside St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Michaelangelo completed the marble sculpture in 1499, and it was originally housed in the Chapel of Santa Petronilla, a Roman mausoleum.
The Kelpies, which overlook the Forth & Clyde Canal, are a tribute to the history of horse power in Scotland. These two oversized horses can be found at The Helix, between Falkirk and Grangemouth in the Forth Valley.
This statue of the goddess of Victory is a sculpture of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. It originally overlooked the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, on the island of Samothrace, Greece. Today, you can see The Winged Victory at the Louvre in Paris, France, where she's been on display since 1883.
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Installed in 2016, Dignity, the 50-foot Native American woman made of stainless steel, sits between Exits 263 and 265 on Interstate 90, near Chamberlain, South Dakota. The statue was a gift, inspired by Native American culture of the area and in celebration of South Dakota’s 125th anniversary of statehood.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus was completed in 2015 in of Roxas City. Reaching 132 feet into the air, it's considered to be the largest life-like statue of Christ in the Philippines -- in fact, the head, alone, is estimated to weigh 7 tons (which equals 14,000 pounds).
It debuted in 2010, but it took three years to construct Christ Blessing, also known as Kristus kase Berkat in Manado, or Jesus Blesses. With its pedestal, it's nearly 160 feet tall.
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The large limestone statues atop Mount Nemrut (Nemrut DaÄŸ) in Adiyaman Province, Turkey, are believed to be deities the mausoleum Antiochus I ordered built for himself, during his reign of Commagene between 69 and 34 BC. It's been listed as a World Heritage Site since 1987.
Once known as the Edinburgh Bridge, the Cavenagh Bridge, which spans the Singapore River, has been the only suspension bridge in Singapore since it was completed in 1867. Today it's a pedestrian-only bridge, restricting anything -- including cattle and horses in addition to vehicles. It's also the site of the People of the River statues, sculptures of five boys diving into the river.
The Victory Column, called Siegessäule in German and nicknamed Goldelse by Berliners, has a 25-foot statue of the goddess of Victory on its top. It was commissioned to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, Austro-Prussian War, and Franco-Prussian War.
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The Guishan Guanyin of the Thousand Hands and Eyes isn't the tallest statue in China, but at 325 feet tall, it's pretty close -- it's the fourth-tallest statue in China, and the seventh-tallest in the world. The statue, depicting Avalokitesvara, stands in Weishan, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
Buddha Park, also known as Xieng Khuan in local language, isn't actually a statue -- it's a park full of more than 200 Hindu and Buddhist statues. To visit, you'd need to travel to an area that's southeast of Vientiane, Laos, by the Mekong River.
There are copies of the Farnese Hercules, including at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece, as well as in the Antalya Museum in Turkey. This strikingly big sculpture is found in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy.
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Set in steel and standing more than 30 feet high, and wider than tall, the Maman, depicting a spider, is one of the world's largest sculptures. It's permanently located at Tate Modern, in London, England. Don't forget to look at the sac when you visit -- it's full of 26 marble eggs.
While the main focus of this piece by Polish artist Jerzy Kalina, is a woman, the sculpture actually consists of 14 people -- her family members behind her. It was unveiled in Warsaw in 1977, and can now be seen at the intersection of Piłsudski and Świdnicka in Wroclaw, Poland.
On the Pest side of the Danube Promenade, where Zoltan Street would meet the Danube if you extended the road, you'll find a stone embankment covered with 60 pairs of iron-forged shoes -- the Shoes on the Danube Bank. The statue, a memorial to those who were killed by the Arrow Cross Party-Hungarist Movement in Budapest, Hungary, during World War II.
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Tulsa, Oklahoma, once called itself the "Oil Capital of the World" -- because it once sat on a large source of oil. This 75-foot-tall, 43,500-pound statue, the Golden Driller, is an oil worker, dedicated to the people in the petroleum industry. It's said that the oversized roughneck can withstand 200 mph winds.
Since 1568, the Virgin Mary has been the spiritual patron saint of Trujillo. So it's not a big surprise, then, that you'll find the world's tallest statue of the Virgin Mary, Venezuela's Peace Monument, there. Created in 1983 by sculptor Manuel de la Fuente, she holds a pigeon, a symbol of peace, in her right hand.
You'll find this 112-foot-tall steel statue of the Hindu deity Shiva at Coimbatore, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Designed by founder of the Isha Foundation, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, it's meant to inspire the practice of yoga. Completed in early 2017, the Adiyogi Shiva statue has been named Largest Bust Sculpture by Guinness World Records.
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At the southeast corner of U.S. 1 and Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Hallandale Beach, Florida, you'll find the mythical winged stallion, Pegasus, slaying the dragon. The 11-story bronze statue is surrounded by fountains that provide music, fog, and LED lighting for the dragon's fire.
Legend is that one day when the devil was feeling particularly spirited, and let his demons out to play. You can visit the grotesque from that story, the Lincoln Imp, in the angel choir in the Lincoln Cathedral, in Lincolnshire, England, where he sits high on a pillar.