The entrance to the Louvre is a giant glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei, being about 70 feet tall and 115 feet at the base. It is made of 603 rhombus segements and 70 triangular segments, and was finished in 1989. It was commissioned to be made, alongside an underground lobby, because the original main entrance couldn't handle the large number of visitors that the Louvre was seeing. Patrons enter the pyramid, descend into the lobby, and then ascend to the main buildings.
When construction began, many people complained that the futuristic pyramid conflicted to greatly with the classical architecture of the rest of the Louvre. Further complaints have been made, with the perpetration of an urban myth that the pyramid was constructed with exactly 666 glass panes. This is untrue, with the actual number of panes being 673.
In Dan Brown's book the da Vinci code, he also perpetrates the notion that there are 666 panes. The pyramid itself also is the final solution to the questions given to the main character, with the pyramid housing the remains of Mary Madeline.
No comments:
Post a Comment