Around the World in Eighty Minutes

I went on a solo adventure the other day. I left home, without even carrying my passport, and I managed to visit sites in 15 different countries on all six inhabited continents.

How? Has the modern wonder of practical teleportation been invented? No, my own two feet carried me. Seems unlikely. Well, it's true, in a way.

That's the Cathedral of Puebla. Behind it is the Teleferico cable car station. And behind that is Cuauhtemoc Stadium. Three sites in one picture. Amazing!

Where I went was the Paseo de Gigantes, a park here in Puebla. Paseo de Gigantes means the Way of Giants or the Path of Giants. This doesn't exactly mean giants walk this way, though in a way, I was the giant walking along the paths.

At the entrance, I guess to remind you that you aren't actually leaving Puebla.

The Paseo de Gigantes has 56 models of man-made wonders all recreated for you and laid out very intelligently so that you can stroll through them and see these famous places. Not only are there models, but the ground around each is landscaped to be somewhat fitting to the area. And there are speakers which play music from the place being represented.

I just need a gorilla puppet and I could recreate the ending of King Kong!

In some ways this is a poor substitute for the real thing. Quoting Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark one could say these models are "but a shadowy reflection" of the real thing. That's true. But in another way, the model gives you a perspective you can't get otherwise.

Chichen Itza is a little too far away from Puebla to visit. But who needs to go to the Yucatan? It's here!

For example, one of the models was the Cathedral of Puebla, located right here in Puebla. I had just been to the Cathedral a couple days before. But what you cannot see from ground level is the top. You can barely see the central dome, being reasonably central and you can't make out the mural like scene on it. But in the model you can see all those details.

Flying buttress? At this height their more like slinking buttresses.

I saw the tops of things I have seen before and the tops of things that I have seen before, but never seen the top of before. You can examine the arrangement of gargoyles at Notre Dame, see the Sydney Opera House not from a profile view, and gaze down into the glass dome of the Reichstag in Berlin.

Hello little Reichstagers!

Another point of interest was this: Which sites are represented? As I said they came from 15 countries and all six continents, but the distribution was far from uniform. Also, keep in mind, these are all man-made structures, none of them represent natural landscapes.

The Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City (but in Puebla)

Mexico was particularly well-represented, with 17 of the 56 models being structures in Mexico. But that's reasonable given that this was all built in Mexico. They are proud of their libraries, churches, archaelogical sites, and palaces.

The Pyramid of Cholula? Why does that seem so familiar?

In second place was the United States with 8 models. Interestingly, the models only represented structures in either Washington, DC or New York City. Now if you're adding, this gives North America a whopping 25 out of the 56 models. That's nearly half. And yes, that is all there was from North America. Nothing in Canada, Central America, or the Caribbean was included.

You can't see it in my picture, but there's really a little Lincoln in there.

Europe was the next most represented continent with seven countries included (France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Vatican City) with 17 models. Something else I found curious, though many of those countries had more than one model, always all the structures from a country came from the same city. For example, there were three models from Germany, all buildings found in Berlin.

You can't see it in my picture, because there's not a little Pope Leo XIV in there.

Asia came in third with 7 models representing three countries: China (two models from Beijing and the Great Wall which is not really in just one city), Japan (three models from Tokyo), and India (which only had one model, the Taj Mahal.)

The Forbidden City seems less forbidden when its the size of your bed.

Africa and Oceania tied, each having three models, and for each of them, all the models coming from the same country. In Africa, that was Egypt with the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo and then the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx, both in Giza. Giza isn't technically the same as Cairo, though it's kind of the same as Cairo. In Oceania, all three models were from Sydney, Australia. 

Bird's eye view of the Sphinx, which is kind of part bird, right?

If you've been keep track, there is only one model left and it is from our least represented continent (not counting Antarctica): South America. The only model was of Christ the Redeemer, the statue in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

Lonely South America

How were the decisions made about which buildings to include? For example, Africa is a huge continent, but only Egypt was represented. On the flip side is the argument that Alrica made when I told her about my excursion. These are only models of man-made structures, no wonders of nature. How many famous man-made structures are there in Africa?

What would you say are some notable exclusions? Maybe the Acropolis of Athens? Perhaps the Great Buddha of Thailand? (Though I guess if you make a scaled down version of a scaled up version of Buddha, you just get Buddha.) The Hagia Sofia or Blue Mosque of Istanbul?

I was not at all disappointed in the models. In fact, I found them quite fascinating. I was just curious about what was included and how they went about making the decisions of what to include. (I don't even know who "they" is, so I am nowhere close to knowing how "they" decide.

And if nothing else, I visited 15 countries in less than two hours and never had to pass through border control. That's convenience.