20 Best Castles Ever

• 1078
  William the Conqueror begins the construction of the Tower of London on the north bank of the River Thames to fortify key position, making foundation of one of the most famous castles in the World
• 1144
  The Knights Hospitallers begin expanding a fortress 140 kilometers northwest of Damascus known as Krak des Chevaliers
• 1150
  Edinburgh Castle, one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, is built upon the plug of an extinct volcano by the king David I
• 1157
  Eltz Castle, one of three castles in Rhineland-Palatinate which have never been destroyed, is built on a 70-metre rock spur in Koblenz, Germany, by the Eltz family
• 1190
  The King of Castile Alfonso VIII starts rebuilding of a Muslim wooden fort on a rocky crag in Segovia into a stone castle and makes it a royal residence
• 1200 ± 10
  King John's Castle is built on King's Island in Limerick, Ireland by order King John of England
• 1202
  The Predjama Castle is built at the mouth of a huge cave at Postojna, Slovenia
• 1213
  Kilkenny Castle is built by the Anglo-Normans in Ireland to control a fording-point of the River Nore
• 1250
  Cité de Carcassonne, an ancient Roman citadel on a hill on the right bank of the River Aude, France, is reinforced and extended by French government, becoming a strong frontier between France and the Crown of Aragon
• 1289
  Conwy Castle, a medieval fortification in Conwy, Wales, is built as part of the extensive program of castle-building initiated by Edward I after his conquest of Wales
• 1385
  Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, builds, with the permission of Richard II, a castle known as Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, in order to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War
• 1406
  Malbork Castle, the largest castle in the world by surface area, is completed by the Teutonic Knights in Marienburg, the administrative center of the Order in Prussia
• 1452
  Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II begins construction of a new fortress called Rumeli Hisar on the Constantinople side of the Bosporus in order to control the sea traffic on the Bosphorus strait
• 1520
  The fortified monastery on Mont Saint-Michel, an island commune in Normandy, is completed, becoming one of the most recognizable landmarks in France
• 1547
  Château de Chambord, the largest château in the Loire Valley and one of the most famous ones in France is built at the behest of the king of France Francis I
• 1586
  George Khevenhüller, a Carinthian nobleman, who purchased Hochosterwitz Castle on a high rock in Duchy of Carinthia, modern-day Austria, fortifies it to defend the region against Turkish invasions
• 1609
  Himeji Castle, a hilltop Japanese castle located in Himeji, Japan is completely rebuilt into a large castle complex by Japanese daimyo Ikeda Terumasa
• 1857
  Schwerin Palace, a palatial castle in Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, is built by architect Georg Adolph Demmler
• 1867
  Construction on the third Hohenzollern Castle, the seat of the House of Hohenzollern, is completed by Hohenzollern scion Frederick William IV of Prussia atop Berg Hohenzollern, a 234-metre bluff
• 1882
  Neuschwanstein Castle, a Romanesque Revival palace in southwest Bavaria, Germany, is completed by Ludwig II of Bavaria

Egyptian Obelisks

• 1950 BC
  The earliest Egyptian obelisk still in its original position is erected by Senusret I at Al-Matariyyah in Heliopolis, near Cairo
• 1450 BC
  The largest ancient Egyptian obelisk, weighing nearly 1,200 tons, is abandoned unfinished at the stone quarries in Aswan due to cracks in the granite
• 1200 BC
  Two red granite monolithic obelisks of different height are erected at the entrance of the Temple of Luxor emphasizing the heights and distance from the wall
• 10 BC
  Flaminio Obelisk, one of the thirteen ancient obelisks in Rome, is taken from the Temple of Sun in Heliopolis, Egypt, and placed on the spina of the Circus Maximus by command of Augustus
• 37
  An Egyptian obelisk of red granite, today known as Vatican Obelisk, is moved from the Julian Forum of Alexandria to Rome and placed at the Circus of Nero by order of Emperor Caligula
• 1586
  An obelisk that has been brought from Egypt to Rome by the emperor Caligula in AD 37 is erected by Italian architect Domenico Fontana at Saint Peter's Square in Rome
• 1829
  The Obelisk of Luxor, a gift of the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, is transported to the Place de la Concorde in Paris
• September 21, 1878
  The red granite obelisk of Alexandria, known as Cleopatra's Needle, is erected upright at a public park on the Victoria Embankment, London
• February 22, 1881
  Cleopatra's Needle, a red granite Egyptian obelisk, made during the reign of pharaoh Thutmose III, is erected in Central Park, New York