Vast and ancient

This is the Qutb Minar, the minaret of the Quwwat al-Islam mosque in south-west Delhi. It is about the height of the freight-configuration Saturn V rocket that was used to launch Skylab - significantly larger than an Ariane 5 or than anything the Russians currently launch - and it probably represents a comparable reification of man-years.

The foundations were laid by Qutbuddin Aibak of the Mamluk dynasty, at the end of the twelfth century roughly as a group of wandering scholars decided Oxford might be a nice place to build a university; Iltutmish finished the tower in 1230.