This is Sparta

Sparta was a city-state of ancient Greece. It was the chief city of a region called Laconia. They don’t care about art or philosophy unlike Athens. Spartans loved military strength and ruled harshly. At age 7, boys had to leave their parents. They grew up together in military style groups. The strongest and bravest became captains. They became soldiers at age 20 and retired at age 60. Girls’ upbringing was less strict.
Two kings ruled this state together. The “kings” were not absolute monarchs, but only generals and priests. The real power was in the hands of the ephors. Only citizens could participate in the government. The National Assembly consisted of Spartans who have reached 30 years.
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Bronze Horseman – monument to Peter the Great

Bronze Horseman, monument dedicated to Peter the Great, became one of the symbols of St. Petersburg. There are a lot of myths and legends about it. Opponents of Peter and his reforms warned that the monument depicted the “Horseman of the Apocalypse”. Supporters of Peter said that the monument symbolized grandeur and glory of the Russian Empire, and that Russia would remain so as long as the rider did not come down from his pedestal. As history has shown, the apocalypse has not arrived, but the legends associated with the majestic monument, are still alive…
The opening ceremony of the famous monument more than 200 years ago was extremely solemn. Magnificent bronze Peter I on horseback appeared before the astonished crowd. The right hand of the king majestically pointed to the Neva, the Academy of Sciences and the Peter and Paul Fortress, symbolically indicating the main objectives of his government: education, trade, and military power. Under the hooves of the horse there is a snake – a symbol of evil, the resistance of the Peter’s reforms.
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Novodevichy Convent – Bogoroditse-Smolensky Monastery

The Novodevichy Convent, its early name is Bogoroditse-Smolensky Monastery, is located in the South-West of Moscow at the bend of the Moscow River. It is one of the oldest church buildings. It was founded in 1524 by Grand Duke Vasili III in memory of the liberation of Rus from the Polish-Lithuanian invaders and the annexation of Smolensk to the Russian state in 1514. Since that time, the monastery has become a privileged abode, in which the women from the royal family were tonsured as nuns.
In 1591 Novodevichy Monastery confronted the troops of the Crimean Khan Ğazı II Giray. In those same years a cemetery arose on its territory.
The widow of the eldest son of Ivan the Terrible, Queen Irina Godunova, Peter the Great’s sister Sophia and his first wife Evdokia Lopukhina were imprisoned in Novodevichy Convent.
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Hoover Dam – Boulder Dam

The Colorado River often left the coast during the melting of the snow in the Rocky Mountains and flooded many of the farms in Colorado and Utah. The idea to create an artificial reservoir for irrigation of the arid state of California and generate electricity was born in the US in the early 1920s. It was required to build an unusually powerful dam in the mountains.
The President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, showed keen interest in the dam project. There was no such a unique hydraulic structure in the world.
The US Congress allocated special funds for the construction of the dam. They decided to build it in the Black Canyon, on the border of Arizona and Nevada, 48 km southeast of Las Vegas.
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Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang

In March 1974, the peasants who lived near the city of Xian, decided to dig a well. They worked tirelessly for 12 days in a row, five-meter deep pit was dug, but the water was never found. On the 13th day the shovel of a peasant stumbled on something hard. So the famous Terracotta Army was discovered…
Soon archaeological work began near Xian. The peasants found the first and apparently the main Terracotta Army battle unit which consisted of 6,000 figures. In 1980, scientists found the second unit – about 2,000 statues. In 1994, the General Staff was found underground – a collection of senior military commanders. A total more than 8,000 statues of soldiers and horses and 90 war chariots were discovered.
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Mont Saint Michel – island abbey

You can reach “sea” abbey by car only during low tide. The six-kilometer causeway was built in 1879. The Benedictine monks decided to build their sanctuary on an impregnable rock in 966. However, according to legend, the idea of the construction of the abbey belonged to Michael the Archangel.
The island is small – only 900 m and its sharp top rose above the sea level by nearly 90m. The island is surrounded by water.
In the VII century persecuted followers of the Christian religion settled in coastal caves. But they were afraid to build something on the amazing rock, because of high tides.
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Gugong – Forbidden City

Forbidden City (Gugong) is in the center of the capital of China – Beijing, north of the famous Tiananmen Square. According to prayer: “Heaven meets Earth, wind and rain come together and Ying and Yang live in harmony here”. This palace of the emperor is the world’s largest palace by number of rooms and is about 600 years old.
During the reign of the Ming and Qing one of the main religious rituals of emperors was praying. The emperor was considered sacred, born by Mother Earth and Father Heaven, so he alone was allowed to worship the god of the earth and the god of the sky.
The Yongle Emperor (personal name Zhu Di or Chu Ti), who ruled from 1403 to 1423, ordered to build a wonderful temple close to the center of Beijing. The construction began in 1406 and was completed 14 years later. Walls, fences, roofs were constructed by around a million workers. In 1420 the building was ready but it was forbidden to cross its borders for mere mortals. Only the emperor and his family, eunuchs, concubines, guards and servants could be there.
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