Here are some of the busts of famous historical figures carved into rocks from around the world.
Emperors Yan and Huang
The busts of the emperors Yan and Huang are located above the Henan countryside in China. Emperor Yan and Huang (the Yellow Emperor) are considered to be Chinese people’s ancestors. According to a legend, Huang taught the Chinese people how to build houses and how to tame animals while Yan taught people how to plow fields and is therefore considered the father of agriculture in China.
Carved into a mountain on the Yellow River, the monument has a total height of 106 meters and is among the highest statues in the world. The construction took 20 years and it was completed in 2007.
The Crazy Horse Memorial
The monument honors Crazy Horse, an Oglala member and it is located in South Dakota, in the United States. Crazy Horse, or Tasunke Witko, was a skilled warrior and a hero of his tribe. He was fatally wounded by a military guard in May 1877.
The monument’s construction began in 1948, by the Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, but it is far from being finished. Ziolskowsi worked on the monument until his death in 1982. Since his death, his wife Ruth, and his children have continued on it. The sculpture’s final dimensions are planned to be 195 meters long. If completed as planned, it might become the world’s tallest statue, even taller than the Statue of Unity in India.
The monument was created according to the descriptions that eyewitnesses provided because no one has ever seen a photo of Crazy Horse.
The statue will roughly look like this once it is finished. Currently, the outstretched arm, hand, and fingers are being built.
The Bust of the Young Mao Zedong
The bust of the Young Mao Zedong Statue is located on Orange Isle, Changsha. It honors the Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
The Hunan People’s Government began the construction in 2007 and completed it in 2009. The statue is 83 meters long, symbolizing Mao’s age at his death, and 41 meters wide, symbolizing the number of years he led the Chinese Communist Party. It is also 32 meters high which represents Mao’s age when he wrote a poem dedicated to Changsha city.
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore is located in South Dakota, and it is one of the most famous monumental rock carvings around the world. It depicts four United States presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
Each face is 18 meters high, and the width of the whole monument is 122 meters. The construction began in 1927 and ended in 1941. Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers sculpted the four heads by blasting away huge chunks of the mountain with dynamite
Decebalus Rex
The colossal carving of Decebalus is located in present-day Romania. Decebalus was the last king of Dacia and he fought against the Roman emperors to preserve the independence of his country.
The King’s sculpture is the tallest rock relief sculpture in Europe with a height of 55 meters. It was built between 1994 and 2004, it is situated on the rocks over the Danube River. The site along the river is known as the Iron Gate which forms the border between Romania and Serbia.
