Top 5 Facts: Megastructures

Credit: FXFOWLE

Great Wall of China

The original megastructure, the Great Wall stretches an incredible 8,851km (5,500 miles), making it easily the longest man-made structure on Earth.

Three Gorges Dam

The 2km dam spanning the Yangtze submerged 13 existing cities, 140 towns and over 1,300 villages, requiring the relocation of 1.5 million people.

Fresh Kills Landfill

This retired garbage dump covering 12 square kilometres (4.6 square miles) of New York’s Staten Island was once piled higher than the nearby Statue of Liberty.

Banaue Rice Terraces

Built largely by hand over 2,000 years ago, these terraced rice paddies cover 10,360 square kilometres of steep mountainside in the Philippines.

Mirny Diamond Mine

This colossal open-pit mine located in Easter Siberia, Russia, is 525 metres (1,722 feet) deep and 1.25km wide. In the Sixties it produced two tons of diamonds per year.