Every big city, needs and surely has a symbol. The megacities have even more symbols.
How must be a symbol of a city? It has to be interesting, historically tight to the city, impressive, easy to describe and, above all, it must have a story!
A symbol of a city can be a building, a statue, a monument, or even a square, or maybe a street. etc. I can give you some examples:
-the symbol is a building: Big Ben or Tower Bridge in London, Tour Eiffel in Paris
-the symbol is a statue: Miss Liberty for New York
-the symbol is a square: Red Square in Moscow, El Zocalo in Mexico City.
-the symbol is a street: Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Champs Elysees in Paris
The symbol must be easy reproductible and in lying in a crowded visited place. It must be magnetic and attractive, and lasting. Sometymes, the symbols, even destroyed, remain in the public memory (The Twin Towers from New York). It is a must in a city to find and visit its symbols, it is a part of your job as travelers!
June 24th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
wow, who’s the red guy in Mexico City?
June 24th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
I cannot agree more that great cities do need their fair share of monumental architecture. At the very least, they must be somewhat quirky.
But that’s not the only thing that makes the city great. After spending some time in London, I realised that the culture and the people actually makes the city an absolutely fascinating place to live in. Really, you never know what you’re going to get every single day. Cheers!
June 25th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Amazing photos esp the Red Square and Eiffel Tower. For me, a symbol has to represent somewhat a piece of the history and culture of that city / place.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Awesome Shots!
I like that Egg in Barcelona*
June 25th, 2008 at 7:22 am
I love the pictures you put on this post! Beautiful!
June 26th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Beautiful photos! I miss the Twin Towers so much. But the Statue of Liberty is a very close second to NY’s symbol. Seeing it from afar on the ferry and then up close you can just imagine what it was like to see as an immigrant coming to the US back in the days.