Like a great many of the churches in Europe, the cathedral of Notre Dame is built on a spot that was formerly used as a pagan temple devoted to the Roman god Jupiter. In the fifth century, after Catholicism had taken hold in Paris, a church was built at...

Almost from the moment it was started in 1172, the bell tower for the Pisa Cathedral began to lean. A weak foundation only seven feet deep, coupled with sandy soil and seeping water from the nearby Arno River all contribute to the Leaning Tower of...

Louis XIV of France considered himself a glorious king, so he decreed that a glorious palace be built at Versailles, 11 miles southwest of Paris. And while many people consider that he succeeded in his effort, others have said the palace was a miserable...

Corals are large colonies of tiny animals that grow slowly upward and outward as a thin layer of living tissue. Each year, these colonies, or coral reefs, leave behind a layer of limy skeleton which is so tough it almost feels like rock. Scientists...

In 1931, Nevada legalized gambling. Soon after, Las Vegas became to that activity what Hollywood is to motion pictures -- the capital. The state of Nevada has 151,362 slot machines, with almost 100,000 of them in Clark County, home to Las Vegas. In...

When George Vancouver explored Alaska's coast in 1794, Glacier Bay didn't exist. Instead of an inlet, Vancouver found a solid wall of ice hundreds of feet high with ice blocks crashing into the sea. Since then, the glacial ice block Vancouver saw has...

CAPITAL: Sacramento JOINED UNION: September 9, 1850 STATE BIRD: Valley Quail STATE FLOWER: Golden Poppy MEANING OF STATE NAME: Named by Spanish after Califia, a mythical paradise in a Spanish romance written by Montalvo in 1510 LAND AREA: 155,973...

Known to the Shoshone, Blackfeet, and Crow Indians for years, white men first reported viewing Yellowstone in 1869. Their awe-filled descriptions of a land full of steaming fountains, and subsequent official U.S. expeditions to the area, led to...

Few continents of the world have as much variety as North America. Included in the vast expanse of Canada and the United States are the wide rolling plains of the Midwest; the rugged Rocky Mountains; one of the world's great rivers, the Mississippi;...

The Amazon River in South America is the second-longest river in the world after the Nile. This geographic feature is 4,080 miles long and runs from the Andes Mountains in Peru through Brazil to the Atlantic Ocean. The Amazon contains more water than...

Just outside Salt Lake City, Utah, is a natural phenomenon called the Great Salt Lake. It is an inland body of water that is eight times saltier than the ocean, which gives it unusual properties. The lake is so salty that swimmers can float in the...

At 280 feet below sea level, the spot of Badwater in Death Valley National Monument is the lowest point in America. With adjectives like "death" and "bad" tacked onto words, this area has lows other than elevation. This is harsh country, one that early...