What's The Best Religious Building?

[Solon]

Pantheon of Rome:



Hagia Sophia of Istanbul:



Notre Dame Cathedral:



Kandariya Mahadeva temple in India:



The Horyu-ji temple at Nara, Japan, oldest surviving wooden structure:




The Vatican:



Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia:



Temple of Horus:



Parthenon of Athens:



The Mosque of Djenne, Mali:



I know I missed some, but what the hell, I think I covered much of the globe here.

[Demeter]

1. A California Redwood Circle

talk about your natural high.

Or a large or small waterfall.

A garden in bloom

a naked mountain side.

Why worship Man's works?

[saltpoint]

2. Just a minor complaint on a magnificent post:

You need an "All of the Above" choice in the poll, and maybe add Pan's meadow.

I appreciate the aesthetics on this post in a week when missiles are destroying people's lives in the Middle East. Thank you for using these images to remind of of the longer trajectory.

[Solon]

4. I was thinking about that...

My problem was the limit of 10 for a poll, I missed the many structures of the Americas, from Cahokia Mounds to the many temples of Latin America. Not to mention the temple complexes of Oceania and Polynesia, etc. If the poll was between 20 choices, I might have put those in, in addition to an "other" and "all of the above" option. But a point in my post is this, these are all technically world heritage sites, and there are good chances that many of our distance ancestors had a direct hand in the building of most of them. That, I think, is the point of my post.

[saltpoint]

5. I hear you completely. I failed to say "extremely minor" instead of

just "minor" in my first response.

I love these constructions, and have an eye also for the sacred rivers and glens and oak groves...

I see them all as sanctioning an unmitigated aesthetic or contemplative beauty.

I'm recommending your post for the Greatest Page, and say thanks for posting it.

[Solon]

7. I figured its a counterbalance for my other post I posted late last night.

Its still in GD actually. I'm a study in contradictions. :)

[skipos]

3. Anyone been to Mont St Michel in France?

I have to say, as a Catholic I wasn't a big fan of the Vatican. It seemed to be all about the $$$ and glitz and power as opposed to some of the other places you mentioned, which are about the beauty and craftsmanship.

[wtmusic]

6. The Taj Mahal

[Metta]

8. The building of peace, equality and justice for all.

Everything either leads to that or it goes over the cliff.

[BOSSHOG]

9. THORNCROWN CHAPEL - EUREKA SPRINGS, ARKANSAS

Check it out:

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Thorncrown_Chapel.html

One of the most incredible architectural structures in the world and one of the world's greatest secrets.

[catbert836]

10. A couple of suggestions:

Stonehenge



The Great Ziggurat of Ur



The Mosque at Samarra



Mayan Pyramind of Chichen Itza



Saint Basil's Cathedral



Dome of the Rock

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. The Taj Mahal

because besides being a tomb, it is the representation of Heaven.

[AnnieBW]

12. I Was Between Three of them

I was torn between the Parthenon, the Pantheon (amazing place, according tot he History Channel), and the Temple of Horus. But, since I'm Athena's girl, I've gotta go with the Parthenon.

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. Define "best"

Seriously, what criteria should we be applying? Most spiritually inspirational? Most aesthetic architecture? Ability to overwhelm? Best examples of the religious context for which it was built?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

14. Just watched a special on the Kremlin.

It's right up there. It was a church at one time.

[smirkymonkey]

15. I can't choose just one - they are all amazing in their own way.

It's funny, I am not religious, but I am very inspired by religious architechture.

[NYdemocrat089]

16. I voted for the Vatican, but I also think La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

is amazing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Familia

[Odin2005]

17. Notre Dame

Gothic-style cathedrals are dificult to build TODAY, imagine how hard it must of been to buld them in the High Middle Ages. Some took over a century to complete.

[NAO]

18. The Serapium, before the Christians destroyed it any brutally murdered

Hypatia, the neo-platonist librarian. The Serapium was an annex to the Library of Alexandria that had survived all the previous disasters that hit the main buildings over the centuries. It was done in by the disaster known as "Christianity".

Empowered by Christian Emperor Theodosius to persecute pagans, a mob of angry Christians brutally murdered Hypatia, a well respected woman who was a neo-platonic philosopher and a teacher of mathematics and astronomy. They then burned the library at the Serapium, which represented the Wisdom of the Ages, before destroying the building and smashing everything that was not destroyed by the fire.

This event is recorded in history as the "triumph" of Christianity over pagan culture.

Read the story here:

http://huuweb.org/Sermons/Hypathia%20The%20Last%20of%20the%20Neoplatonist.html

[skyblue]

19. Phallic stuff going on there, but I have to like the Parthenon, because

Greece is supposedly where Democracy came about, and many who invented Democracy were probably Gay, and it's sickening that the GLBT crowd is being treated as second class citizens in so many ways.

Plus also I like the idea of multiple gods with human qualities of jealousy, hatred, and so on, because I figure that the world is wacked out. Consider a world with trillions of bugs. Bugs? Consider a bunch of lifeless Rocks (planets) in the sky. Consider that Dinosaurs who lived for millions of years were just WIPED OUT by a Rock because some Deity just got tired of them or something. It all seems rather freaky to me.

[catbert836]

21. Actually, the Ancient Greeks

for the most part thought that homosexuality was weird. However, this dod not stop them from practicing the Cult of Boy Love, in which a teenage boy would become a sexual apprentice to a man of about his father's age, usually a friend of his family.

[Silent3]

20. I'd like to add La Sagrada Familia in Spain

On the other hand, I'm tempted to vote for the Temple of Horus simply because I was there in March this year. :)