Some buildings are simply large. A few are so ambitious, so total in their vision, that they reshape the very idea of what a building can be. The Palace of

On a rocky island in the Betwa River, in a quiet corner of central India, stands one of the country’s most atmospheric palace complexes, the fort of Orchha. Cross the

On the Left Bank of Paris, set behind one of the most beloved gardens in the world, stands a palace with a distinctly Italian air, its rusticated stone and bold

For seventy-two extraordinary days in the spring of 1871, the city of Paris governed itself. The national government had fled, the regular army had withdrawn, and into the vacuum stepped

High on a wooded peak above the town of Sintra, near Lisbon, stands one of the most extraordinary buildings in Europe: the Pena Palace. Painted in vivid reds and yellows,

On a small island in the Neva River, at the very heart of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, stands the fortress from which the whole of

High on the Tibetan plateau, rising on a hill above the city of Lhasa, stands one of the most extraordinary buildings in the world. The Potala Palace, a vast fortress-like

In the city of Solo in central Java, a short distance from the great court of the Susuhunan, stands a second and quite distinct royal palace, the seat of a

In the heart of Rome stands a real ancient Egyptian-style pyramid. The strange story of Gaius Cestius, Rome’s obsession with Egypt, and how the walls of the city saved it.

On a desert plateau at the edge of modern Cairo stand the most famous monuments ever built by human hands: the pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx. Raised more