Misc
Seven Man-Made Engineering Wonders of the Ancient World
Take a look around any major city today, and it’s evident that humans are pretty incredible builders.
We can create suspension bridges that span the widest rivers, or sleek skyscrapers that are over 1,000 m (3,300 ft) high. Even further, we can design these complex structures with extreme amounts of precision and consistency.
But while there is no shortage of modern engineering accomplishments to marvel at, it’s true that our ancestors also made impressive feats in the field of civil engineering. Ancient cultures were able to do things that still baffle people today, such as constructing majestic pyramids, erecting flawless walls out of huge boulders, or carving out multiple underground, monolithic churches from a rocky ridge.
Engineering Feats of the Ancient World
Today’s infographic comes to us from Norwich University, and it showcases details on seven civil engineering wonders from the Ancient world.
Note: Some ancient wonders, like the Great Pyramid of Giza, Roman aqueducts, and the Great Wall of China can be found on a previous infographic that counts them among the 10 Most Impressive Civil Engineering Projects of All Time
Ancient engineers and architects were able to pull off some pretty impressive feats.
Let’s take a detailed look at the seven listed here, including the aspects that continue to baffle modern engineers today.
Ancient Man-Made Wonders
1. Saksaywaman, Peru (16th century)
Imagine three giant stone walls made of giant boulders that all fit together perfectly, like puzzle pieces. The Incas managed to build these outside of Cusco, using boulders up to 120 tons in size. No one knows how they moved them from a quarry 3 km (2 miles) away to the site – and even more perplexing is how flawless they fit together.
2. Leshan Giant Buddha, China (803 CE)
This is the world’s largest carved stone Buddha statue in the world, and it stands 232 tall in China. The carved hair of the statue even has a hidden, built-in drainage system that displaces rainwater to protect it from damage.
3. Chand Baori, India (10th century)
This one of the world’s deepest stepwells, and it provides water to a hot, arid region before modern plumbing was possible. The stairs weave 3,500 steps, or about 13 stories, down into the depths where carved stones collect rainwater.
4. Underground Churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia (12th and 13th centuries)
These 11 underground churches were carved out of rock from the top-down. They are also connected, using a complex system of drainage ditches, tunnels, and subterranean passageways.
5. Teotihuacan, Mexico (450 CE peak)
At its peak, this ancient urban city sprawled 22 miles (35 km) with over 200,000 inhabitants. Not only does it have some of the largest pyramidal structures on the planet, but it also has many other unique traits, such as being aligned with celestial, geographic, and geodetic points of significance.
6. El Mirador, Guatemala (300 BCE)
This is the largest of five known Pre-Classical Mayan cities and it contains the world’s largest pyramid by volume. A total of 15 million man-days of labor were needed to create the iconic temple, named La Danta.
7. The Lost City of Mohenjo Daro, Pakistan (2500 BCE)
This city is over 4,500 years old, and it was unknown to modern people until 1921. It housed up to 35,000 people, and contained complex water and sewage system on a grid plan. Mohenjo Daro is regarded today as one of the most important archaeological finds, unveiling details on the Indus Valley people – one of the most widespread and mysterious civilizations of the early Ancient era.
Maps
Mapped: How Much Does it Take to be the Top 1% in Each U.S. State?
An annual income anywhere between $360,000-$950,000 can grant entry into the top 1%—depending on where you live in America.

How Much Does it Take to be the Top 1% in Each U.S. State?
There’s an old saying: everyone thinks that they’re middle-class.
But how many people think, or know, that they really belong to the top 1% in the country?
Data from personal finance advisory services company, SmartAsset, reveals the annual income threshold at which a household can be considered part of the top 1% in their state.
Some states demand a much higher yearly earnings from their residents to be a part of the rarefied league, but which ones are they, and how much does one need to earn to make it to the very top echelon of income?
Ranking U.S. States By Income to Be in the Top 1%
At the top of the list, a household in Connecticut needs to earn nearly $953,000 annually to be part of the one-percenters. This is the highest minimum threshold across the country.
In the same region, Massachusetts requires a minimum annual earnings of $903,401 from its top 1% residents.
Here’s the list of all 50 U.S. states along with the annual income needed to be in the 1%.
Rank | State | Top 1% Income Threshold | Top 1% Tax Rate (% of annual income) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Connecticut | $952,902 | 28.40% |
2 | Massachusetts | $903,401 | 27.15% |
3 | California | $844,266 | 26.95% |
4 | New Jersey | $817,346 | 28.01% |
5 | Washington | $804,853 | 25.99% |
6 | New York | $776,662 | 28.29% |
7 | Colorado | $709,092 | 25.86% |
8 | Florida | $694,987 | 25.82% |
9 | Illinois | $660,810 | 26.35% |
10 | New Hampshire | $659,037 | 26.25% |
11 | Wyoming | $656,118 | 24.79% |
12 | Virginia | $643,848 | 26.11% |
N/A | National Average | $652,657 | N/A |
13 | Maryland | $633,333 | 25.94% |
14 | Texas | $631,849 | 25.83% |
15 | Utah | $630,544 | 23.77% |
16 | Minnesota | $626,451 | 25.53% |
17 | Nevada | $603,751 | 25.19% |
18 | South Dakota | $590,373 | 22.99% |
19 | Pennsylvania | $588,702 | 24.95% |
20 | North Dakota | $585,556 | 24.76% |
21 | Georgia | $585,397 | 25.06% |
22 | Oregon | $571,813 | 24.66% |
23 | Arizona | $564,031 | 25.22% |
24 | Idaho | $560,040 | 23.17% |
25 | North Carolina | $559,762 | 25.31% |
26 | Montana | $559,656 | 24.46% |
27 | Kansas | $554,912 | 25.03% |
28 | Rhode Island | $548,531 | 25.26% |
29 | Tennessee | $548,329 | 25.12% |
30 | Alaska | $542,824 | 25.38% |
31 | Nebraska | $535,651 | 24.10% |
32 | Delaware | $529,928 | 25.37% |
33 | Vermont | $518,039 | 23.63% |
34 | Wisconsin | $517,321 | 24.90% |
35 | South Carolina | $508,427 | 24.40% |
36 | Michigan | $504,671 | 25.01% |
37 | Maine | $502,605 | 24.04% |
38 | Missouri | $500,626 | 24.93% |
39 | Ohio | $500,253 | 25.09% |
40 | Hawaii | $495,263 | 24.12% |
41 | Iowa | $483,985 | 24.09% |
42 | Indiana | $473,685 | 24.55% |
43 | Alabama | $470,341 | 23.82% |
44 | Oklahoma | $460,172 | 23.68% |
45 | Louisiana | $458,269 | 24.80% |
46 | Arkansas | $450,700 | 21.11% |
47 | Kentucky | $445,294 | 24.14% |
48 | New Mexico | $411,395 | 23.35% |
49 | Mississippi | $381,919 | 23.04% |
50 | West Virginia | $367,582 | 23.26% |
N/A | National Median Household Income | $75,000 | N/A |
California ($844,266), New Jersey ($817,346), and Washington ($804,853) round out the top five states with the highest minimum thresholds to make it to their exclusive rich club.
On the other end of the spectrum, the top one-percenters in West Virginia make a minimum of $367,582 a year, the lowest of all the states, and about one-third of the threshold in Connecticut. And just down southwest of the Mountain State, Mississippi’s one-percenters need to make at least $381,919 a year to qualify for the 1%.
A quick glance at the map above also reveals some regional insights.
The Northeast and West Coast, with their large urban and economic hubs, have higher income entry requirements for the top 1% than states in the American South.
This also correlates to the median income by state, a measure showing Massachusetts households make nearly $90,000 a year, compared to Mississippians who take home $49,000 annually.
How Much Do the Top 1% Pay in Taxes?
Meanwhile, if one does make it to the top 1% in states like Connecticut and Massachusetts, expect to pay more in taxes than other states, according to SmartAsset’s analysis.
The one-percenters in the top five states pay, on average, between 26–28% of their income in tax, compared to those in the bottom five who pay between 21–23%.
And this pattern exists through the dataset, with higher top 1% income thresholds correlating with higher average tax rates for the wealthy.
State Ranks | Median Tax Rate |
---|---|
Top 10 | 26.65% |
20-30 | 25.09% |
30-40 | 24.65% |
10-20 | 25.07% |
40-50 | 23.75% |
These higher tax rates point to attempts to reign in the increasing wealth disparity in the nation where the top 1% hold more than one-third of the country’s wealth, up from 27% in 1989.
Where Does This Data Come From?
Source: SmartAsset’s America’s Top 1% Is Different in Each State uses data from 2020 individual tax filings from the IRS, adjusted to 2023 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.
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