Mental Floss

ARCHITECTURE

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (left) stands on the Eiffel Tower staircase in this 1889 photo.

It's expected to fetch as much as $60,000.

iStock.com/Wenjie Dong

For many, living dozens of feet underground in a windowless bunker is the only way to scale the social ladder.

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The mail-order home is nearly a century old.

Ittiz at en.wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 3.0

The story of Herman Sörgel, the man who wanted to create a new super-continent called Atlantropa.

Outinaz, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0

The unique design was an early prototype of New York City's Guggenheim Museum.

PunkToad, Flickr // CC BY 2.0

Polymath Park brings together four Wright-related homes not far from Fallingwater.

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"Dragon gates" are one example of how feng shui has shaped the city.

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One was moved halfway across the world, brick by brick.

Jason Eppink, Flickr // CC BY 2.0

In the 1910s, the city of New York demolished the apartment building David Hess owned in order to extend a major thoroughfare. But the city didn't seize the entirety of his land—and he wasn't about to give it up lightly.

T-Centralen Station in Stockholm, Sweden

Where form meets function.

Get your fill of funky architecture.

iStock

Thanks to heavy smog, the Taj Mahal isn't as white as it used to be.

Morfeus Arkitekter. Photo: Silja Lena Løken / Statens vegvesen

This remote roadside toilet puts all other rest stops to shame.

Courtesy of Fernando Artigas

The building is propped up on stilts, letting guests peer over the forest canopy.

iStock

Four major earthquakes have hit Pisa since the tower was completed.

Andrea Moroni, Flickr // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A law makes it illegal to paint the buildings any other color.