Corcovado, Rio: Number 187 from the 1000 places to see before you die book

You almost wonder why you bother really.

Perhaps the Ancients kept on outbeating themselves around their empires to prove a point and we no longer have the records to know..or perhaps the Great Pyramid at Giza, which was finished circa 2560BC was always the tallest pyramid in the world, and has remained so. To go more recent from medieval times, perhaps the Great Wall of China, at some 8,851 km was the longest wall in the world then,  and has remained so. Perhaps the Colosseum, when it was finished in 80AD, was the largest stadium in the world, and has remained so.

And then we have, on the top of Corcovado Mountain a figure of Christ the Redeemer- all 39.6m of him, including its base, with a reach of 22m fingertip to fingertip which was in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest statue of Christ, and was also included in the New 7Wonders of the world (albeit to be fair it was a hodgepodge finalist list including the Great Pyramid of Giza getting in the top 7…………….. as number 8 as an honorary candidate..and including Petra, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, the Colosseum, Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China).

So…lets look at the facts here. Completed in 1931 to commemorate the 1922 centennial of Brazilian independence (yep theres a story in there as to why it was 9 years late!!) Christ the Redeemer is actually only the third tallest Christ in the world.  In a classic case of outdoing what is already there- it was the tallest until the 1980’s when Bolivia built the El Cristo de la Concordia statue, which admittedly only stands 33m but, if you include its mount (always important it seems in arguing a world record) , reaches a final height of 42 meters.

Both countries Im sure pulled out the rosary beads when in November 2010, a tiny little village in Poland called Swiebodzin, which is inhabited by a mere 21,000 people, decided to spend $1.5m and five years building one that is 51m tall- making their statue of Christ the King monument the tallest in the world.  To be fair the statue is only 33m – according to the blurb which is “one metre for every year that Jesus lived” however when you take into account  its 3m gold crown and the mound it sits on,  it tops a very respectable 51m….yet to date has not hit anything other than the Guinness Book of Records.  

What’s the lesson here……build the biggest thing you can then get wiped out by another race (calling Mars……calling Mars) or don’t bother because technology allows us to always build bigger and better so put the funds into the poor people in your country instead of building a statue “to attract pilgrims” as the local priest in Swiebodzin says was the rationale for building the Christ the King monument??

Anyhow, back to the ” Christ the Redeemer” statue on Corcovado which has fallen in and out of favour with the Catholic Church as to its maintenance but now looks to be fully funded with Vale, the mega large Brazilian mining company, signing an agreement in 2010 to sponsor any restoration.

the view when i arrived

me and Christ the Redeemer

Access is either via a cable car (sadly my tour guide thought there were too many people lining up from the 3 cruise ships in town so we didn’t do that) or by driving. It was a ghastly miserable day anyhow- fog streaming in off the sea, raining heavily, and quite hard work on the top of any mountain- whether or not God’s presence felt closer or not.

And so, wet, cold and damp I trudged up the steps to stand at the foot of Christ. Slippery feet man…that black marble they used all around the base had tourists falling over left , right and centre.  Pity his feet were a few metres above our heads otherwise Id have mistaken their falls for eagerness to replicate St Francis or at least Easter Friday and kiss the soapstone toes.

Now- here is an interesting dilemma on reviewing this entry.

Was it included as it was the largest statue of Christ in the world …or the second if you take into account the mount under El Cristo de la Concordia ….and now anyhow the third given Christ the King?  Interesting that the largest statue of Mary (which is in Bulgaria) and incidentally stands at a far smaller 32 metres ,  isn’t included in the book. …nor is the second nor third largest Mary statue….nor indeed either number 1 or 2 of the world’s largest statues of Christ (mount included!!).

Even if that were the rationale behind its inclusion….it has now dropped to number 3 on the world stage of Jesus statues  (albeit perhaps either with a tectonic plate shift the Corcovado Mountain might gain another 11m or so, or Vale might open up their back purse and stick a massive 14m crown on his head).

Could it have been included in the book because of the view……however TableTop mountain in South Africa has a pretty cool view (and a cable car) and Sugarloaf rock on the next bay around in Rio has a similar view (and a cable car)…as below pictures show (yes- it was still miserable and raining)?

even the monkey hated the cold and the rain

So I presume its included because there is a view AND it is from one of the largest statues of Christ in the world.

So on that basis I googled to look at views from Number 1 and Number 2 of the highest Jesus statues … here’s number 1 and this is the best I could find of Number 2.

So, on the basis that you are into modern age and religious sculptures and with views and it already exists…then Christ the Redeemer retains its spot in the 1000 places to see before you die book as it is large and has the best view. Besides which…it’s a pretty famous statue so should be seen.

If however, you are after something that  is modern age and religious and has views and exists AND is unlikely in our lifetime to be “topped” AND incidentally doesn’t appear in the 1000 places to see before you die book , then I raise for consideration the  world’s largest statue- the 502 metre tall Spring Temple Buddha in Henan, China.

Mind you, skim a bit deeper and you find out the statue (oh that mount issue keeps on cropping up) is only 128 m and plans are afoot in this decade to build a 152m, mount aside,  Maitreya statue in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India costing some $250 million.

As I say…compete on sand castle building on your local beach. At least then you hold a record for a while and save yourself millions trying to be remembered when someone just pips the post by building their castle on a dune that has a fantastic tropical island view.