Shape architecture

A huge geoglyph in the shape of an elk or deer discovered in Russia may predate Peru's famous Nazca Lines by thousands of years.   The animal-shaped stone structure, located near Lake Zjuratkul in the Ural Mountains, north of Kazakhstan, has an elongated muzzle, four legs and two antlers. A historical Google Earth satellite image from 2007 shows what may be a tail, but this is less clear in more recent imagery. Excluding the possible tail, the animal stretches for about 900 feet at its farthest points (northwest to southeast), the researchers estimate, equivalent to two American football fields. The figure faces north and would have been visible from a nearby ridge. "The figure would initially have looked white and slightly shiny against the green grass background," write Stanislav Grigoriev, of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of History & Archaeology, and Nikolai Menshenin, of the State Centre for Monument Protection, in an article first detailing the … [Read more...] about CBS News Logo Mysterious elk-shaped structure found in Russia

In recent years China has shown a penchant for unusual, and what many may call daring, architecture in the shape of everything from "Giant Trousers" to a bird's nest to a piano and their very own replica Eiffel Tower. China's State Council and the Communist Party's Central Committee has recently taken a dim view of the imaginative structures announcing on Feb. 22, 2016 that "oversized, xenocentric, weird" buildings will no longer be permitted. Though it's unclear if the directive applies to both public and private buildings, it looks like we will be seeing less of these eye-catching structures. Here's a look at the some of the "weird" fun architecture. Here, Chinese workers walk past a 1:4 scale mini leaning tower of Pisa in Shanghai, September 7, 2004. … [Read more...] about CBS News Logo China’s weird architectureChina’s weird architecturePiano HouseChina’s weird architecture