Most unusual churches all over the world.
This article is not about religion, it’s about architecture. Not just architecture, but unusual architecture, and to be more exact – unusual churches.
There are extraordinary, strange, odd, unusual churches around the world.

St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow, Russia
Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed is a multi-tented church which stands on the Red Square in Moscow. This church looks really cool, because it has very unusual onion domes which look playful and colorful. The cathedral was built in 1555 -1561 by Ivan the Terrible to celebrate the capture of the Khanate of Kazan. A legend says that Ivan had the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, blinded to prevent him from building a more magnificent building for anyone else. In fact, Postnik Yakovlev built a number of churches after Saint Basil’s.
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California is frequently described as being “like America, only more so.” In California, America’s good points often seem even better and its problems even worse. Many people think of California as the state that symbolizes the American dream. There, individuals have the opportunity to succeed – to do and be what they want.
California has many different environments. Redwood trees grow only in two places: a small area in China and an area in northern California. The red-woods are very tall; a park in California has three of the world’s six tallest trees. The redwoods are also very old; some are 2,000 years old.
California’s Death Valley, the lowest spot in the United States, is also one of the hottest and driest. In Death Valley temperatures have reached 135°F and often there are no rains for years.
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Australia, the largest island in the Pacific, was named the fifth continent. Its fauna is unique. Most Australian animals are marsupial mammals. Their young are born very tiny – no longer than one or one and a half centimeters, completely blind and without hair. Immediately after birth, they move into a bag.

Wallabies are from the kangaroo family. They get around by hopping and they raise the young in a pouch. Farmers often kill them because they want to save the grass for their sheep. Wallabies have also been killed for their fur.
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Brighthelmstone was a little fishing village in the mid-eighteenth century. Most of the people living there were very poor. Then Dr Richard Russell said that drinking or bathing in seawater was extremely good for you and Brighton’s seawater was the best of all! So, Brighthelmstone became Brighton, a fashionable seaside resort.
The most famous visitor to Brighton in those days was King George Ill’s son. George III suffered from mental illness for some periods of his life. In 1811 he became so ill that his son was made Prince Regent. Regency Period lasted from 1811 to 1820. George III died in 1820 and the Prince Regent became King George IV.
In 1787 George asked the architect Henry Holland to transform the farmhouse where he first stayed into what became known as The Marine Pavilion. In 1815 George chose the architect John Nash to design what we see today, the magnificent Royal Pavilion. John Nash designed it in an Indian style. However, the rooms in the palace are mainly in a Chinese style.
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Scotland Yard is famous all over the world.
In the X century English king Edgar I Peaceful (943-975) presented the King of Scotland Kenneth II (up to 954-995) with land near the Palace of Westminster in London. Kenneth II built a residence there, which considered the territory of Scotland.
In 1603 the Stuart dynasty became the owner of the British crown. Scotland Yard was divided into two parts. The first one was called Great Scotland Yard and the second – Middle Scotland Yard. They were used as government buildings.
The first Police Service, founded by Interior Minister Robert Peel (1788-1850), appeared in 1829 in London. The complex of buildings, which belonged to members of the Scottish royal family for several hundred years, became the residence of Metropolitan Police Service. Since then the London police became known as Scotland Yard. London police officers are still sometimes called bobbies, the short form of Robert. In the past, they were also called peelers.
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The official name is People’s Republic of China. Its area is 9,596,960 square kilometers (3,705,407 square miles). China is Asia’s largest country.
China is the world’s oldest surviving civilization. In 221, Zheng, ruler of the small state of Qin, from which the country’s modern name comes, annexed the last of the six rival kingdoms and took the title of Qin Shi Iluangdi, meaning ‘First August Emperor of Qin’.
China’s oldest written history dates from about 90 BC. Known as the Shi Ji (‘Historical Records’), it was compiled by Sima Qian, a court astrologer and Grand Scribe. The 130-chapter book became the model for a series of 26 standard histories.
Ancient China traded with imperial Rome, but the Chinese and the Romans never met. The only link between the two civilizations was the Silk Road, which ran overland around the northern edge of the Himalayas from China to the eastern Mediterranean coast, with a branch leading south into India. During the 2nd century BC, camel caravans laden with silk, then a Chinese monopoly, began to move regularly along this arduous 11,200 km (7000 miles) route.
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The largest and longest construction project in history is the Great Wall of China. Millions of peasants and soldiers worked over a period of 1800 years to build it. It meanders across mountains and valleys. It is one of the biggest structures ever made by humans. The ancient Chinese built the wall to protect against invading armies. Today it is a symbol of China.
The Great Wall runs for over 6,500 kilometers, from the Gobi Desert in the west to the sea in the east, through some spectacular mountainous country. The entire wall is made of earth and stones. Its height ranges from 5 to 9 meters, and its width is 5 to 8 meters.
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