Landmark Replicas

Very few of us can travel the world, visiting all the famous landmarks and monuments we'd like to. Some are inaccessible for reasons of security, fragility, or actual use as working structures.

My proposal is part theme park, part museum, where many of the best-known tourist sites are recreated. The White House, for example, is highly restricted; Stonehenge is tumbled to pieces. Imagine a park where a full-scale White House is fully accessible to the public.[link to illustration]

Stonehenge could be recreated in current form and in its ancient arrangement. Visit Neuschwanstein, the Palace at Versailles, the Parthenon in its heyday, and the Taj Mahal. Attend a spectacle at the Roman Coliseum. Scattered around the place would be mini-attractions like a replica Easter Island head, Qin terra cotta warriors, and the Venus de Milo.

Of course, these would be made of inexpensive materials wherever possible. And, in some cases, it would be necessary to reproduce them at a smaller scale for practical reasons. The point is that it would allow many more people to experience, enjoy, and learn about remarkable landmarks that they have previously only seen pictures of--and often only the exterior, at that.

Not included: a replica of Disneyland, a speculative recreation of the Colossus of Rhodes, etc.