- [Narrator] Nature is
responsible for creating some of the largest objects on Earth, most notably the largest
organism on our planet, the honey fungus in Oregon, that measures 2.4 miles across. Yet, there are some even larger objects made by human beings. Brick by brick, piece by
piece, these huge structures may seem impossibly gargantuan, but they stand as a reminder of man's ingenuity and dedication. Here are ten of the largest structures ever made by humans. Number 10, The Great Wall of China. Around the 7th century
BC, small walls were built to protect parts of China's empires from raids and invasions. As more and more walls were built, they began connecting them
to create larger walls. As centuries rolled by, the wall grew to be the largest wall in the world, and earned the name The
Great Wall of China. It's regarded by many as one of the most impressive
architectural feats in history, and is often the first
thing that comes to mind when someone wonders what the largest objects on Earth are. The Great Wall and its branches add up to an impressive length of 13,171 miles. The longest tunnel in the world, the Gotthard Base Tunnel in the Swiss Alps is an impressive 35.4 miles long, but you'd have to drive the length of it more than 376 times to match the length of The Great Wall of China. They don't call it great for nothing. While it's often mismentioned as the only object visible from space, astronauts have revised this claim by stating that The Great
Wall is only visible from certain low Earth orbit positions with favorable conditions, while other structures are
also consistently visible. Number 9, The Three Gorges Dam. The first idea for building a large dam across the Yangtze River
was discussed in 1919 as a means of producing a
staggering amount of energy due to the strength of the river. But due to years of
war, government turmoil, and flooding in the area, the idea was shelved for decades. Finally, in 1994, construction began on what would become the
largest dam in the world, and one of the largest objects
ever created by humans. It weighs 34 million metric tons, and is made from enough steel to construct 63 Eiffel Towers, and a truly mind boggling
amount of concrete, 35,600,000 cubic yards, to be exact. To put that into context, the Hoover dam in Nevada used a measly 21 million cubic yards of concrete for its construction. This marvel of human ingenuity generated 98.8 eight terawatt
hours of energy in 2014, enough to power over 73
million Chinese households for a year, and has helped China not rely as heavily on fossil fuels. Number 8, New Century Global Center. With 18 million square
feet of floor space, the New Century Global
Center has the distinction of being the world's largest building, when measured by floor space. Located in the Tianfu New
Area of Chengdu, China, the building houses a shopping
mall, theater, waterpark, hotel, church, ice skating
rink, office spaces, and a nearly endless list of interesting and unique spaces. One of the largest draws is their huge indoor swimming pool with a 54 thousand square foot sand beach and huge screens that mimic
the sunrise and sunset. Their slogan loosely translates in English to "the one of everything," which may sound boastful, but if you ever explore
the massive structure you might feel like it's actually does have one of everything. Number 7, submarine communications cables. With all the gigantic objects mentioned, it seems silly to mention
communication cables, but believe it or not,
they're just as large as some of the hugest buildings on Earth. Submarine communications cables are used to carry signals across bodies of water to allow land masses to communicate. Basically, they help us
communicate digital data like telephone and Internet traffic. All continents are connected via submarine communications cables except for Antarctica. While you may assume all data is transmitted via satellite, submarine communications cables handle more than 95 percent of
international data transfer due to their reliability. These cables are typically
2.6 inches in diameter and weigh about 22 pounds for every meter, which means these cables actually weigh around 80 thousand metric tons. The cables can be stretched underwater from far apart areas, such as
San Francisco to New Zealand, but the longest cable, with
the catchy name SEA-ME-WE-3, begins in Australia, heads
through many countries in Asia, then around India, to head
towards the Mediterranean Sea where it touches nearly every North African and European country, before going through
the Strait of Gibraltar and heading north to
finally end in Germany. Whoo! The total length of this section of submarine communications cables is 24 thousand miles,
nearly double the length of The Great Wall of China. Number 6, Bingham Canyon Mine. While we think of height and weight as factors to determine the largest man-made objects on Earth, it's crucial to also
think about the opposite. While we do not see mines,
they can actually be gigantic. In South Africa, the TauTona
mine extends 2.4 miles into Earth, making it the world's deepest mining operation. To put that into context, you could take four and a half of the world's tallest buildings and stack them, one on the other, and not reach the bottom of the mine. Not to be outdone, the
Bingham Canyon Mine, also called the Kennecott Copper Mine, located near Salt Lake City, Utah, is the largest man-made
excavation in the world. Unlike The Great Wall of China, the mine is actually
consistently visible from space. In the 112 years that it's been mined, it's produced more than
19 million tons of copper, which is more than any mine in history. In this picture of the mine taken from the International Space Station, you can see the enormity
of this mined area, lovingly called "the pit." The small area to the right,
Bingham Canyon was once an entire town that was made up of miners that tended to the pit,
and their families. As the mine expanded over the years, it ended up overtaking
the entirety of the town, which was finally disincorporated in 1971. Number 5, Aerium. To house newly constructed airships, a huge construction hall was created in a spot outside of Berlin. This huge structure, named Aerium, became the largest building
on Earth by volume, as well as the single largest hall without supporting pillars. Unfortunately, the airship it was intended to house was never actually built, and the company went bankrupt, partially due to the
78 million Euros spent to build the unusable building. A Malaysian company saw an opportunity, and opened a massive theme park inside, called Tropical Islands. This popular tourist
destination now houses many themed areas as well as the biggest indoor rain forest in the world. Number 4, Large Hadron Collider. Sometimes, in order to understand things at the smallest microscopic level, we need something huge to help us out. The Large Hadron Collider was built in hopes of helping scientists answer some of the open questions
in the field of physics. To run the tests they needed to run, they needed machines and experiments that had never been created before. The Large Hadron Collider
has many distinctions, such as the world's largest and most powerful particle collider, the largest single machine ever built, and the world's most complex experimental facility ever built. But, if you pop it into Google Maps, you won't be shown anything. So how is it so large? Well, the massive tunnel needed to run these tests is actually built underground. It was built by CERN, the European Organization
for Nuclear Research. On the Swiss-French border,
near Cern's headquarters, the circular tunnel is an astonishing 16.5 miles long, 12 feet wide, and cost around 5-10
billion dollars to build. Number 3, the Great Mosque of Mecca. With information
extrapolated from the Koran, it's estimated that work
began on the first component of the Great Mosque of Mecca in 2130 BC. Century by century, leader by leader, the building was expanded and improved, leading to it currently
being the largest mosque in the world and the
second largest building, by volume, in the world. It surrounds the Kaaba, which is considered Islam's holiest place, as well as other significant sites, such as the Black Stone,
the Well of Zamzam, Station of Abraham, and Safa and Marwa. It's a site of constant pilgrimage, and has been expanded through the years to accommodate the massive amounts of people visiting the site. The most recent expansion
project began in 2007, and is still underway, meaning that it will continue to hold the crown as the largest mosque and one of the largest man-made structures on the planet. The nearby areas have also
been built-up considerably, which has led to the largest clock tower to loom over the Great Mosque of Mecca. Number 2, Boeing Everett Factory. To build something huge
you need a building that is massive. While Boeing's one billion dollar 777X Composite Wing Center is big, and the Air Force's 11.5
million cubic meter plant in Fort Worth, Texas is even bigger, they're not the largest buildings. In Everett, Washington sits
the Boeing Everett Factory. Construction began in
1967 for this goliath that builds Boeing 747s,
767s, 777s, and 787s. At 13.3 million cubic meters, it's the world's largest
building by volume. It takes up a mind-boggling
78.7 acres of land. In addition to being a place of work for over 30 thousand people, it also houses over 150
thousand visitors each year. To take care of its many
employees and visitors, the factory now also houses the Boeing Employees Credit
Union, several cafes, and a visitor center called The Future of
Flight Aviation Center. Number 1, Burj Khalifa. The word skyscraper was first coined in the late 19th century to apply to the new steel framed buildings that were being constructed that were over ten stories tall. As buildings kept being
built taller and taller, new ways were created to describe them, such as Super Tall, to
describe those over 984 feet, and Mega Tall, to describe
those over 1969 feet. But as skyscrapers keep growing, it's clear that we may not know just how tall they can potentially be. At 2722 feet, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest building in the world Due to it's massive height, it holds a staggering amount of records, such as world's highest
outdoor observation deck, the world's tallest existing structure and tallest building ever built, building with the most floors, and world's longest
elevator travel distance. Originally called The Burj Dubai, it was renamed to the Burj Khalifa, after the ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates. Khalifa bin Zayed lent Dubai the more than 10 billion dollars the country needed to pay off their debtors and allow the construction to complete. The project cost about 1.5
billion dollars all together. There have been mentions
of potential plans to lengthen the top of the tower, partially due to the announcement that the Jeddah Tower, slated
for completion in 2020, and currently being built in Saudi Arabia, plans to be 600 feet taller. Naturally we can expect another building to take the crown from Jeddah down the line as well So, as we ask ourselves how high can skyscrapers actually go, it's important to
consider the X-Seed 4000. The X-Seed was an
experimental design intended to hypothetically show us how the tallest building in the world could be built. It garnered a lot of attention due to its unbelievable scale. The proposed height would
have been 13,123 feet, or 2.5 miles high, almost
five times the height of the Burj Khalifa. If it had been built in its
intended Tokyo location, the height would have put the X-Seed over 700 feet taller than Mount Fuji. So, why didn't it get built? The overwhelming scope of the project certainly scared many
away, but practicalities like the cost of real estate in Tokyo was a huge factor. In addition, there were
far too many questions regarding the practicality
of the construction. Is something this gigantic stable against the earthquakes
that frequent Japan? How would the one million inhabitants get around the building,
a light rail system or an advanced shuttle? And how about elevators? How long would it take
to get up 800 floors? While there are many questions
and issues that arise, it's important to consider that these similar questions
would have been asked about the Burj Khalifa. While the actual
construction of the X-Seed now seems impossible, who knows what advancements would make it possible a decade or two from now. Do you think we'd ever be
able to build something even half the height of the X-Seed? Or have you visited any
of the amazing structures mentioned in this video? Let me know in the comments
section down below.
