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Historical Cultural Landmarks

The three landmarks that I do believe are most representative of the key idea in this chapter, “origin” include Stonehenge, Pyramids of Giza, and Angkor Wat. Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England. The monument consists of a ring of standing stones, with each of the stones standing around 13 feet high, seven feet wide, and weighs around 25 tons. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England that included several hundreds of the tumuli (burial mounds). Stonehenge is one of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom and is regarded as a British cultural icon. One of the most popular beliefs is that Stonehenge was built by the Druids, who were high priests of the Celts. Stonehenge was constructed for religious purposes to act as a site for sacrificial ceremonies. Based on this, Stonehenge is believed to be the origin of the Druids’ religious culture.

The pyramids of Giza are the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering the present-day Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt. All the three pyramids of Giza, as well as their elaborate burial complexes, were built during a frenetic period of construction, from around 2550 to 2490 BC. The pyramids of Giza were built by the Pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. The pyramids were built for religious purposes. The Egyptians were one of the first civilizations to believe in the afterlife as they believed that a second self, called the ka, lived within every human being, and therefore acted as burial sites. The Angor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world. The complex was built to honor the Hindu god Vishnu, but it was converted into a Buddhist temple by leaders in the 14th century. The complex depicts the history of the religious culture of the Buddhists and, therefore, an essential landmark.