The World's Most Impressive Massive Monuments

CHRIST THE REDEEMER, RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

While it may not be the biggest statue of Jesus Christ in the world, Cristo Redentor is probably the most well-known. Built of reinforced concrete with an outer layer of soapstone, the 30-meter-tall statue took nine years to build and cost the equivalent of three million dollars.

Christ the Redeemer was designed in the Art Deco style, resulting in a rather more streamlined Jesus than most people are used to but also helping preserve the details of the figure against wind erosion.

In 2006, a chapel in the statue's base was consecrated and quickly became Brazil's most sought-after wedding destination. In 2010, the world was treated to the bizarre spectacle of a green and yellow Christ when the city used colored spotlights to honor Brazil's other religion-the national soccer team.

AFRICAN RENAISSANCE MONUMENT, DAKAR, SENEGAL

Commissioned by Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade as a prestige project, the African Renaissance Monument is the tallest statue in Africa, but also one of the most controversial. The sheet-bronze statue cost $27 million to construct during a time when Senegal wasn't exactly overflowing with cash.

While it was claimed the work was the creation of a local architect, it was in fact designed by a Romanian and built by North Koreans. That might explain why the statue looks so oddly Stalinist, with cartoonish body shapes that don't look particularly African at all, and as depictions of human figures they were criticized by local imams as idolatrous.

The monument does generate a fair amount of tourist revenue, but Wade's bizarre and controversial claim that the statue represents his intellectual property means that he gets 35% of the take.

MOTHER OF THE MOTHERLAND, KIEV, UKRAINE

Mother Motherland (the Soviet-approved non-specific version of Mother Russia) is such a popular object of statuary that it's necessary to point out that this is specifically the MM in Kiev, part of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War.

Stainless steel and just over sixty meters tall, the statue is a source of grumbling for local Kievans, who like many Ukrainians resent any hint of Russian subversion of their national identity.

The statue's location was allegedly sited close to Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery to provide a sort of scenic Soviet counterpoint to the Orthodox Christian landmark.

Although after a plea from the monastery's metropolitan Mother Motherland's sword was shortened by two meters so it wouldn't reach higher than the Lavra's highest cross.

GENGHIS KHAN EQUESTRIAN STATUE, TSONJIN BOLDOG, MONGOLIA

The endless windblown steppes of Mongolia aren't known for their tourist appeal, but ambitious Mongolian hospitality company the Genco Tour Bureau aims to change that the only way they know how: a 120-ton stainless-steel statue of unstoppable killing/sex machine Genghis Khan.

Mongolians have long honored Khan as their national hero and the symbol of their country's boldness, determination, and skill at archery, and his statue by the banks of the Tuul River (where Genco claims he first discovered his legendary golden whip) is set to be the center of a Genghis Khan historical theme park.

Visitors will be able to take an elevator into Khan's horse's head, sample authentic Mongolian cuisine, sleep in the same kind of felt tents that the Khan's troops once slept in, and for some reason play billiards.

To those who might think it strange to attend a theme park celebrating a man who most of the world thinks of as a ruthless killer, most Mongolians will point out that great conquerors like Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte are still revered in the West today.

Although if there's a theme park where you can ride an elevator into Napoleon's horse we have yet to hear about it.

STATUE OF LIBERTY, MANHATTAN, USA

The statue that everybody in the entire world refers to as the Statue of Liberty is actually properly named "Liberty Enlightening the World," a fun fact that you can feel free to forget immediately.

Conceived by French architect Frederic Bartholdi, the statue was intended to honor the undying spirit of friendship and cooperation between two peoples that today consider each other a walking joke, and was funded by donations from French citizens as a gift to the American public.

Oddly, the prospect of a free gigantic statue wasn't universally popular in the States, where popular sentiment held that American art should be made by Americans and reflect real figures rather than allegorical concepts like liberty.

Many were also peeved to find that while the statue was free, America had to foot the bill for the pedestal it would stand upon, with the New York Times declaring "no true patriot can countenance any such expenditures for bronze females in the present state of our finances."

Eventually publisher Joseph Pulitzer stepped in with a promotion: anyone who donated any money at all towards the pedestal's construction would get their name printed in his papers.

While a campaign like that today would collect donations primarily from Hugh Jass and Seymour Butts, Pulitzer's eventually earned $100,000 from people who would send in amounts as small as five cents.

THE MOTHERLAND CALLS, VOLGOGRAD, RUSSIA

Largest and most famous of the Mother Motherland representations that dot the former Soviet Union, The Motherland Calls stands atop Mamayev Hill, the site of some of the fiercest fighting of the Battle of Stalingrad.

93 meters from foot to sword-tip, this bad-ass Mother is as tall as the Statue of Liberty and its pedestal combined, and for a time it was the tallest sculpture in the world. It remains one of the world's largest non-religious sculptures, but its future is under threat.

Groundwater changes and soil erosion have shifted the statue's foundations, and while the city government denies that a problem even exists, the statue has moved more than half a foot and may be close to collapse. A quiet campaign of conservation and restoration started in 2010.

PETER THE GREAT, MOSCOW, RUSSIA

At close to a hundred meters in height, the statue commemorating Tzar Pyotr I and the Russian Navy is the eighth largest statue in the world. According to a Virtual Tourist poll, it is also the tenth ugliest building in the world, and is generally believed to have been constructed only because the designer was a close personal friend of the mayor.

The statue is so widely disliked by the citizens of Moscow (a city that he reportedly despised) that in 2010 municipal authorities offered the statue to the far more appropriate locale of St. Petersburg.

Petrograd wisely turned down the enormous eyesore, and so Peter and his toy boats will continue to sail up the Moskva River unless a terrorist or civic-minded art critic blows it up.

GUANYIN OF THE SOUTH SEA OF SANYA, HAINAN, CHINA

Most Westerners aren't familiar with Guanyin, a major and revered figure in both Buddhism and Taoism, so foreigners sailing into port at Sanya might be a bit taken aback when they see a 108-meter-tall three-faced white-steel goddess-thingie standing on a pedestal in the middle of the bay like it's no big deal.

Worry not, for Guanyin is the goddess of compassion and mercy, and this particular Guanyin (the tallest in the world) represented a multinational Buddhist effort, with monks and pilgrims from Taiwan, mainland China, Macao, and Hong Kong working together for six years to construct the massive statue.

Guanyin was given three "aspects" to represent a sort of 360-degree blessing of the entire world, and each aspect carries a different religious symbol: a sutra, a string of prayer beads, and a lotus.