beautiful buildings

The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall. The Taj Mahal incorporates and expands on design traditions of Persian and earlier Mughal architecture.

Mont-Saint-Michel is an island commune in Normandy, France. It is located about one kilometre off the country's northwestern coast. Since the 8th century AD, the island has been the seat of the monastery from which it draws its name. According to legend, the archangel Michael appeared in 708 to Aubert of Avranches, the bishop of Avranches, and instructed him to build a church on the rocky islet. A causeway connects the island to the mainland.

Hagia Sophia is a former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica, later an Ottoman imperial mosque (1453- 1931) and now a museum in Istanbul. Built in 537 AD, it was famous in particular for its massive dome. It was the world's largest building and an engineering marvel of its time. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture".It remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520.

The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet was the residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. It is now a museum. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The 5th Dalai Lama started its construction in 1645 after one of his spiritual advisers pointed out that the site was ideal as a seat of government, situated as it is between Drepung and Sera monasteries and the old city of Lhasa.

The Catherine Palace is a Rococo palace located 30 km south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars. The residence originated in 1717, when Catherine I of Russia hired German architect Johann-Friedrich Braunstein to construct a summer palace for her pleasure. In 1733, Empress Elizabeth commissioned an expansion of the palace but found her mother's residence outdated and incommodious. In May 1752 Wlizabeth asked her court architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to demolish the old structure and replace it with a much grander edifice in a flamboyant Rococo style. On 30 July 1756 the architect presented the brand-new 325-meter-long palace to the Empress.

Wat Rong Khun also known as the White Temple, is a contemporary, privately-owned art exhibit in the style of a Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. When funds were not available for renovation of the original Wat Rong Khun, Chalermchai Kositpipat, a local artist, decided to completely rebuild the temple and fund the project with his own money. He designed and constructed the new Wat Rong Khun, which opened to visitors in 1997. The artist intends for the area adjacent to the temple to be a center of learning and meditation and for people to gain benefit from the Buddhist teachings. The works are ongoing, but are not expected to be completed until 2070.

The Burj Al Arab (Tower of the Arabs) is a luxury hotel located in Dubai. It is the third tallest hotel in the world. It stands on an artificial island 280 m (920 ft) from Jumeirah Beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. Work on the artificial island began in 1994 and the hotel was completed in 1999. The shape of the structure is designed to resemble the sail of a ship. Burj Al Arab was designed by multidisciplinary consultancy Atkins led by architect Tom Wright. Several features of the hotel required complex engineering feats to achieve. The design and construction were managed by Canadian engineer Rick Gregory also of WS Atkins.

The Gresham Palace is an "Art Nouveau" building located along the Danube River in Budapest. Completed in 1906 as an office and apartment building, it is today a luxury hotel (Four Seasons Hotel Budapest Gresham Palace). Gresham Life Assurance Company commissioned local architects Zsigmond Quittner and Jozsef Vago to design the structure, and in 1904, they began construction of the Gresham Palace, which was completed in 1906 and opened in 1907. In 2001, the Irish investment company Quinland Private extensively rebuilt the structure as a luxury hotel, restoring such original details as a large staircase, stained glass, mosaics, ironwork, and winter gardens. The hotel reopened in June 2004.