In Song Shan, Henan Province, about an hour's drive from Luoyang or Zhengzhou, is a temple site dedicated to the martial arts. One of its attractions is the Forest of Pagodas, 256 tiered monuments to individual monks who lived between 791 AD to 1803 AD and are buried there.
The symbol of the city, this tiered pagoda overlooking the Perfume River is considered one of the prettiest monuments in Vietnam. Its name means "Heavenly Lady" or "Celestial Woman" and refers to its legendary founder
This 8th Century AD Buddhist monument in Indonesia has multiple tiers or terraces covered in stone carvings depicting Buddhist beliefs and teachings. It is considered the largest collection of Buddhist reliefs in the world. This massive structure includes many small temples, some of which contain statues of the Buddha. The whole complex is some three and a half miles long. The 128-foot summit is crowned by an enormous bell-shaped stupa, a construction built to house religious relics.
This monument is an interesting combination of Islamic and Hindu architecture and symbolism. Built in 1605 for the Mughul emperor Akbar, its multitiered shape resembles a wedding cake.
Constructed in the 2nd Century BCE, this six-tiered Egyptian pyramid is a monument to the Egyptian Pharaoh Djoser, whose tomb lies under it. Its stair-step profile distinguishes it from the better-known and earlier (19th Century BCE) smooth-sided pyramids at Giza, a suburb of Cairo, that are the sole surviving member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Lest it be thought that tiered monuments exist only in the Far East, this stepped pyramid outside Mexico City faces the Pyramid of the Moon at the opposite end of the Avenue of the Dead. It is part of a massive complex of Mesoamerican temples of the 2nd Century AD where human sacrifice was once conducted. Like Stonehenge in England, it is a place of pilgrimage at the spring and fall equinoxes.
