28 Famous Landmarks Hiding Shocking Secrets You Never Knew About

The Cathedral of Our Lady ⛪️ is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Antwerp, Belgium. Today’s seat of the Diocese of Antwerp started in 1352 and, although the first stage of construction was ended in 1521, has never been fully completed. It was constructed in the Gothic style by architects Jan and Pieter Appelmans. It contains a number of significant works by the Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens, as well as paintings by artists such as Otto van Veen, Jacob de Backer and Marten de Vos. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Belgium, with its tower rising 123 m over the city.
The first Christian missionaries arrived in the 7th century. The first parish church dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul was constructed in the current Sint Michielsstraat. After the Viking raids in 836, the church was damaged and restored, and subsequently dedicated to Saint Michael. In the 10th century, a group of twelve secular canons were connected to this church. Becoming more popular, the chapel was demolished and replaced by a much bigger Romanesque church.
During the night of 5–6 October 1533, the new church caught fire. The Antwerp mayor Lancelot II of Ursel is credited with playing a major part in the salvation of the church.Through his active help and coordination, the cathedral is said to have been saved from total ruin. Nevertheless, 57 altars had not been saved and went up in flames.The completion of the second tower was delayed due to the fire and was ultimate abandoned. The church was made the cathedral of the bishopric of Antwerp in 1559. It lost this title in 1801 during the period of French occupation of Belgium by the promulgation of the Concordat of 1801. It was made a cathedral again in 1961.
During the Iconoclasm of 20 August 1566 (part of the Beeldenstorm at the start of the Eighty Years‘ War), Protestants destroyed a large part of the cathedral’s interior. In 1794 the French revolutionaries who conquered the region plundered Our Lady’s Cathedral and inflicted serious damage. Between 1965 and 1993, a complete restoration took place.
The cathedral has a carillon with 49 bells. The largest bell or bourdon is named Karolus.

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Meidum 📜 is an archaeological site in Lower Egypt. It contains a large pyramid and several mudbrick mastabas. The pyramid was Egypt’s first straight-sided one, but it partially collapsed in ancient times.The area is located around 72 kilometres (45 mi) south of modern Cairo.
The pyramid at Meidum is thought to be the first of three main pyramids built by Sneferu. It has been argued construction began under the reign of Huni, the last pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, and merely continued by Sneferu. Because of its unusual appearance, the pyramid is called el-heram el-kaddaab (false pyramid) in Egyptian Arabic.
Firstly, the outer layer was founded on sand and not on rock, like the inner layers. Secondly, the inner step pyramids had been designed as the final stage. Thus, the outer surface was polished and the platforms of the steps were not horizontal, but fell off to the outside. This severely compromised the stability and is likely to have caused the collapse of the Meidum Pyramid in a downpour while the building was still under construction.
Franck Monnier and others believe the pyramid did not collapse until the New Kingdom, but there are a number of facts contradicting this theory. The Meidum Pyramid seems never to have been completed. Beginning with Sneferu and to the 12th Dynasty, all pyramids had a valley temple, which is missing at Meidum. The mortuary temple, which was found under the rubble at the base of the pyramid, apparently never was finished. Walls were only partly polished. Two stelas inside, usually bearing the names of the pharaoh, are missing inscriptions. The burial chamber inside the pyramid itself is uncompleted, with raw walls and wooden supports still in place which are usually removed after construction.Affiliated mastabas were never used or completed and none of the usual burials have been found. Finally, the first examinations of the Meidum Pyramid found everything below the surface of the rubble mound fully intact.

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The Ain Diwar Bridge, 📜 also known as the Zangid Bridge,is a ruined masonry arch bridge in Cizre, 3.5 km northeast of the town of Ain Diwar, Syria. The bridge is within vicinity of the Syria, Iraq and Turkey border region and about 500 m west of the Tigris River which it previously crossed.
According to some sources, the Ain Diwar bridge was built in the 2nd century by the Romans to give them access to Upper Mesopotamia. The Romans also previously set up the Bezabde Camp (modern day Cizre, Turkey) nearby.It was refurbished by the Seljuks and Arabs in the late 12th or early 13th century. The Ain Diwar Bridge is often referred to as a great example of Islamic architecture and civil engineering. Stone carvings on the bridge depict astrological figures, zodiac signs and cavalrymen, which are attributed to Zengid architecture.The structure is listed neither by O’Connor nor Galliazzo in their comprehensive surveys of Roman bridges.
According to a recent (2014) reappraisal by David Nicolle, the bridge is entirely Zengid in origin, without any previous construction. It was built from 1146 to 1163 AD.

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