Christ the Redeemer

Cristo Redentor or the statue of Christ the Redeemer at the peak of the Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca Forest Park in Rio de Janeiro is an icon and a symbol for the city of Rio de Janeiro. Towering over the city at 130 feet tall, the statue weighs 635 tonnes and is considered the largest Art Deco statue in the world and the 5th largest statue of Jesus in the world. No wonder then that it has made it to the list of the New7 Wonders of the world with other such wondrous objects like the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.
Although the concept of the statue was proposed as early as the mid-1850s, nothing came of it then and it wasn’t till 1921, when the proposal was brought up again and supported by the Catholic Circle of Rio, that the statue became a real possibility. The Circle The group organized an event called Semana do Monumento ("Monument Week") to attract donations and collect signatures to support the building of the statue. The donations came mostly from Brazilian Catholics. The designs considered for the "Statue of the Christ" included a representation of the Christian cross, a statue of Jesus with a globe in his hands, and a pedestal symbolizing the world. The statue of Christ the Redeemer with open arms, a symbol of peace was finally chosen.

Construction took nine years, from 1922 to 1931 and cost the equivalent of US$250,000 (which amounts to an equivalent of $3,257,463 in 2012). The monument was opened on October 12, 1931.
On July 7, 2007, Christ the Redeemer was named as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World in a list compiled by The New Open World Corporation.

During a violent electrical storm in 2008, the statue suffered some damage due to lightning. The Rio government took restorative measures to fix the damages and to repair the lightning rods on the statue to prevent such a mishap happening again.

The statue looks over the city of Rio and is an awe-inspiring and wonderful sight. The statue has become so popular that there are multiple references to it in media as well, notably in the extremely addictive game Angry Birds Rio, the movies Fast Five and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and in console games like H.A.W.X, Driver 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Majestic with his arms open wide, Christ the Redeemer is truly a wonder of the world.

-Anshuman