Giant Statues of Gods and Legends (9 Photos)

A Kannon, two Buddhas, a mythical bird and a mountain giant

A white Kannon above a Sendai street, a Buddha cut into a riverside cliff and a bird from the Ramayana lying across a hilltop in Kerala. Nine giant statues of gods, kings and legends, from ancient Egypt to 2022.

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🌿 Earth Goddess — By Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal in Atlanta, USA 🇺🇸

Her hair is planted in red, yellow and green, and water runs from her hand into the pool. The Earth Goddess is 25 feet tall and planted with 18,000 annuals. She was the highlight of the garden’s 2013–14 Imaginary Worlds exhibition and then stayed in its permanent collection.

📷 Photo: Eric Yarnell / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

More: People Made of Plants

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🦅 Jatayu — By Rajiv Anchal in Chadayamangalam, Kerala, India 🇮🇳

Look for the tiny person standing on the wing. Rajiv Anchal’s Jatayu is 200 feet long, 150 feet wide and 70 feet high, lying across a rock in Kerala’s Kollam district.

💡 Myth Fact: In the Ramayana, Jatayu is the bird who tried to stop Ravana from carrying off Sita. Local legend says he fell, wounded, on these rocks.

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🗿 Apennine Colossus — By Giambologna in Vaglia, Italy 🇮🇹

The visitors at the base give the scale of this crouching giant, the Apennine mountains in human form. Giambologna made it in the late 1580s for the Medici garden at Pratolino, now the park of Villa Demidoff north of Florence.

💡 Inside Fact: The giant is hollow. Rooms were built inside it, including a chamber inside the head, lit through openings in the eyes and ears.

More: The Apennine Colossus

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✝️ Christ the Redeemer — By Paul Landowski in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 🇧🇷

Seen from above, the crowds on the terraces look tiny beside it. The statue is 30 meters tall, with arms 28 meters across, and stands on Corcovado, about 700 meters above the city. Paul Landowski designed it, engineer Heitor da Silva Costa built it, and it opened in 1931.

💡 Build Fact: The statue is reinforced concrete, covered with about six million soapstone tiles.

More: Christ the Redeemer: An Icon of Faith and Artistry

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🪷 Buddha Statue of Hyderabad — By S. M. Ganapathi Sthapati in Hyderabad, India 🇮🇳

The Buddha stands on Gibraltar Rock in the middle of the lake, with the city lined up along the far shore. It is 18 meters tall and carved from white granite, the work of sculptor S. M. Ganapathi Sthapati, and was installed on its platform in December 1992.

💡 History Fact: It got there on the second try. In March 1990 the statue capsized while being moved by barge and lay at the bottom of the lake for two years. The accident reportedly killed ten workers.

📷 Photo: iMahesh / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🏛️ Great Temple of Abu Simbel — Abu Simbel, Egypt 🇪🇬

Four seated figures of Ramesses II guard the entrance, and the visitors walking up barely reach their knees. Each colossus is about 21 meters tall.

💡 Rescue Fact: None of it stands where it was carved. To save the temple from the rising Nile, it was cut into more than 1,000 blocks and rebuilt 180 meters inland and 64 meters higher, reopening in 1968.

📷 Photo: Holger Uwe Schmitt / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🏙️ Sendai Daikannon — Sendai, Japan 🇯🇵

The street, the cars and the power lines all stop far below her shoulders. Sendai Daikannon is a 100-meter white-robed Kannon, a height chosen for the 100th anniversary of the city. She holds a wish-granting jewel in her right hand and a water vessel in her left.

💡 Size Fact: Another 21 meters of the structure sit underground, a figure chosen as a wish for prosperity in the 21st century.

More: Sculptures You Probably Didn’t Know Existed

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⛰️ Leshan Giant Buddha — Leshan, China 🇨🇳

Visitors gather at the feet while a tour boat passes below. The seated Buddha is 71 meters tall, carved into a hillside in the eighth century where the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers meet. UNESCO calls it the largest Buddha sculpture in the world.

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🔱 Statue of Belief — By Naresh Kumawat in Nathdwara, India 🇮🇳

The visitors on the stairs look tiny below the base. Shiva sits with one knee raised and his trident at his side, and the Statue of Belief stands 369 feet tall on Ganesh Tekri hill in Nathdwara, Rajasthan. It opened in October 2022.

💡 Visitor Fact: Four elevators take visitors up inside the statue to viewing galleries at 270 and 280 feet.

📷 Photo: WikiAnchor10 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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