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jimmy spako wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 12:28 pm

llllllllllllllllllll wrote:

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Fri Sep 19, 2025 10:54 am Honorary mention: It's technically a three-building complex of madrasas, but the Registan, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, also ranks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registan

Christ I want to go to Central Asia.

I forgot that I had been there long ago until this post popped up, because my memory (for my own life) is frustratingly faulty.

Impressive to go, even more impressive to forget!

I have been fortunate enough to travel a bit and see a few of the buildings here including St. John of the Divine and the Alhambra.

I've also been blown away by the great mosque of Cordoba: The blue mosque of Kuala Lumpur: And definitely the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca: A bunch of cool Christian cathedrals in Spain/France/Germany/Austria/Czech Republic.

Libraries! The main NYPL branch, and definitely the main branch of the Seattle library. Fantastic museums like the Met and the Louvre. Some ridiculously large use-buildings: armories or hangars.

Stood in front of the John Hancock building - inarguably the best designed skyscraper -many times.

I would have a hard time picking the second most impressive structure. But no question that #1 is La Sagrada Familia. It is a whole different vision for what a catheral experience can be. Impressive from the outside but the interior is honestly otherwordly. Everyone should see it and drink in the experience of it - even if you hate Catholicism.
= Justin

This is a great topic. I find large, empty indoor spaces calming for some reason.

I would like to experience some of the Islamic architecture is this thread, and have not.

Churches, they are are impressive. I remember York Minster being incredible. But also, churches have a lot of the same stuff.

The McNamara terminal at the Detroit airport has a perfectly straight concourse that is about a mile long. It is high ceilinged and bright with many windows. Standing at one end when it's not busy you can see that it keeps going and going but you are not sure how far it goes. It's a cool effect of a long enclosed space with good illumination.

The former Thompson Center in Chicago, soon to be Google, is a wild Helmut Jahn 17 story glass atrium. There are open stairwells lining the interior with waist height railings. It is absolutely stunning and induces vertigo just by standing on the main floor looking up. I hope Google does the rehab right.

I'm sure this seems hokey to some, but the Lincoln Memorial in Washington moves me - the scale, the words on the wall, the weight of the history it reflects. I would spend a little time meditating on it all there, if you can.

Anyway, that's a few more.

I forgot the Cathedral in Brasilia. An incredible space. One of the rare modern buildings that has the same “weight” as something much older.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto

Maybe Saint Chapelle?

Sainte Chapelle by benadrian, on Flickr
this is a panoramic photo and is weirdly distorted.

Maybe Todai-Ji temple in Nara with a mega-buddha inside? That's a 15 meter buddha!

Todai-ji Temple, Nara by benadrian, on Flickr


Mega Buddha, Todai-ji Temple, Nara by benadrian, on Flickr

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:08 pm

jimmy spako wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 12:28 pm

llllllllllllllllllll wrote:

Christ I want to go to Central Asia.

I forgot that I had been there long ago until this post popped up, because my memory (for my own life) is frustratingly faulty.

Impressive to go, even more impressive to forget!I

Ha! I only forgot the specifics of places and structures I visited, fortunately not all the rest of that trip, made at 20, through Western China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, before travelling to Turkey and finally landing in Europe and getting a job.

I'm not sure of the most impressive structure I have ever entered. Those things don't make the lasting impression on me that they should, I think sometimes I take those sort of things way too much for granted when I am in them, and am more blown away by the natural world and those are the things that leave more of an emotional imprint. I think I get distracted easily by others in that sort of context and have a harder time bonding or absorbing everything in a way when it's a tourist attraction, not sure. Maybe I would have to say the Hagia Sophia.

jimmy spako wrote:

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:08 pm

jimmy spako wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 12:28 pm

I forgot that I had been there long ago until this post popped up, because my memory (for my own life) is frustratingly faulty.

Impressive to go, even more impressive to forget!I

Ha! I only forgot the specifics of places and structures I visited, fortunately not all the rest of that trip, made at 20, through Western China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, before travelling to Turkey and finally landing in Europe and getting a job.

I'm not sure of the most impressive structure I have ever entered. Those things don't make the lasting impression on me that they should, I think sometimes I take those sort of things way too much for granted when I am in them, and am more blown away by the natural world and those are the things that leave more of an emotional imprint. I think I get distracted easily by others in that sort of context and have a harder time bonding or absorbing everything in a way when it's a tourist attraction, not sure. Maybe I would have to say the Hagia Sophia.

Did we discuss this way back when? I remember asking on the old forum if anyone had been (before I left), and there was at least one reply. And I posted some pics (after I returned) per someone else's request.

Central Asia wasn't so much about structures—despite the Registan being just jaw-dropping—agreed. Way more about atmosphere. The walnut forest in Arslanbob, Kyrgyzstan; hiking in that country's Skazka Canyon; the vistas over Lake Issyk-Kul; the drive over the Tien Shan Mountains to Bishkek; hiking to carved Tibetan stones in those mountains w/a teenage guide; a booze-soaked birthday party for a toddler plus a power outage in Osh (power outages everywhere, come to think of it); drinking in the park w/middle-aged teachers in Karakol; changing money on the black market at the bazaar in Tashkent; the entire city of Khiva, Uzbekistan; the ride thru the Karakalpak desert to the ruined mudbrick castles of Khorezm; a Dungan Chinese dish of fried, slightly fermented chicken w/potatoes or a plate of duck kebabs in Almaty... those all equal or surpass my memory of any building or more-famous historic site.

At the danger of being too romantic, I'm sure some of this has changed immensely in the last 12 years. But some of it hopefully has not.

I tend to remember food, nature, journeys, and experiences even more than buildings. And the commercialization of and expectations around "must-see" structures sometimes cheapen them a little for me (probably a shortcoming on my part, granted).

andyman wrote:

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Sat Sep 27, 2025 12:18 pmCentral Asia wasn't so much about structures—despite the Registan being just jaw-dropping—agreed. Way more about atmosphere. The walnut forest in Arslanbob, Kyrgyzstan; hiking in that country's Skazka Canyon; the vistas over Lake Issyk-Kul; the drive over the Tien Shan Mountains to Bishkek; hiking to carved Tibetan stones in those mountains w/a teenage guide; a booze-soaked birthday party for a toddler plus a power outage in Osh (power outages everywhere, come to think of it); drinking in the park w/middle-aged teachers in Karakol; changing money on the black market at the bazaar in Tashkent; the entire city of Khiva, Uzbekistan; the ride thru the Karakalpak desert to the ruined mudbrick castles of Khorezm; a Dungan Chinese dish of fried, slightly fermented chicken w/potatoes or a plate of duck kebabs in Almaty... those all equal or surpass my memory of any building or more-famous historic site.

Ermm, mind if I ask what you do for a living?
Are you a character in a spy novel?

Hahahahah! Flattered.

I work in journalism. But on the technical side of things, mostly as a fact checker and/or copy editor. Occasionally as a writer or top editor. In those days, I freelanced for a fashion magazine, a parenting magazine, and a food magazine.

OE’s travelogues and food writings are definitely one or the highlights of this forum.