【推荐1】The Taj Mahal

Shah Jahan finished building the Taj Mahal in 1648. He was a rich and powerful emperor, and he built the Taj Mahal as a memorial for his wife.    1     The word “taj” means crown, and “Mahal” was the name of his wife. Twenty thousand people worked for 18 years to complete this beautiful domed building. A thousand elephants carried huge stones and jewels from all over India and central Asia to the Taj. Shah Jahan wanted this memorial to be a burial place for himself and his wife.

The Taj Mahal is on the Yamuna River in Agra in northern India.    2     Its picture is in most travel books and brochures. It is open daily from sunrise to sunset. For about fifteen rupees(or about US $0.33), anyone can enter this peaceful and quiet place.

As you enter, you pass through beautiful, silent gardens. From the gardens, you cross a wide courtyard. Suddenly, you see the dome of the main building through a tall, red sandstone gate. At daybreak, the Taj Mahal's white walls turn rose. At noon, they blaze white. At dusk, they become dark grey.    3    

After you pass through the gate, you step onto a wide stone platform. You look over another garden with pools. Everything is arranged carefully in fours.    4     The garden is divided into four parts. There are straight rows of colorful flowers and trees in each of the parts. At the four corners of the Taj Mahal, there are pointed tall towers. After the gardens, you go down stone steps towards the main building with the tomb and the graves of Shah Jahan and his wife.

After hundreds of years, the Taj Mahal remains a lovely and peaceful place.    5    

【推荐2】Valencia is in the east part of Spain. It has a port on the sea, two miles away on the coast. It is the capital of a province that is also named Valencia.

The city is a market center for what is produced by the land around the city. Most of the city's money is made from farming. It is also a busy business city, with ships, railways, clothes and machine factories.

Valencia has an old part with white buildings, colored roofs and narrow streets. The modern part has long, wide streets and new buildings. Valencia is well known for its parks and gardens. It has many old churches and museums. The university in the center of the city was built in the 13th century.

The city of Valencia has been known since the 2nd century. In the 8th century it was the capital of Spain. There is also an important city in Venezuela named Valencia.

【推荐3】The oldest stone buildings in the world are the pyramids. They have stood for nearly 5,000 years, and it seems likely that they will continue to stand for thousands of years yet. There are over eighty of them along the banks of the Nile, some of which are different in shape from the true pyramids. The most famous of these are the "Step" pyramid and the "Bent" pyramid.

Some of the pyramids still look as much alike as they must have been when they were built thousands of years ago. Most of the damage suffered by the others has been at the hands of men who were looking for treasure or, more often, for stones to use in modern buildings. The dry climate of Egypt has helped to keep the pyramids in good condition, and their very shape has made them less likely to fall into ruin. These are good reasons why they can still be seen today, but perhaps the most important is that they were planned to last forever.

The "Step" pyramid had to be on the west side of the Nile, the side on which the sun set. This was for level of the river to protect it against the regular floods. It could not be too far from the Nile, however, as the stones to build it needed to be carried in boats down the river to the nearest point. Water transport was, of course, much easier than land transport. The builders also had to find a rock base, which was not likely to break under the great weight of the pyramid. Finally, it had to be near the capital, or better still near the king's palace so that he could visit it easily to personally check the progress being made on the final resting place for his body.