biggest things in the world

In 2009, a local farmer brought a group of British explorers to the entrance of a cave he had found years earlier in Vietnam s Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park. They were excited at the prospect of finding a new cave system, but what they found was an underground river running along the floor of the single largest cave passage that has yet been found.Take another look at the above image; in case you missed it, there s a caver standing on the rock near the middle of the frame. Note that you cannot see the cavern s ceiling above him. The cave is in a very remote region previous cave seeking expeditions to the area likely came very close to finding it, but the terrain is exceedingly difficult. At least five kilometers (three miles) long, the cavern boasts natural skylights (where weaker limestone has washed away) and spectacular ceilings nearly 300 meters (1,000 ft) high.

Vacuum chambers are used to recreate the conditions of space: to see, for instance, how matter clumps together in the absence of gravity or to test components of space suits. There are some very large ones out there, but only one so large that it s capable of performing environmental testing on acompletely assembled spacecraft: the Plum Brook chamber in Sandusky, Ohio.

Inga Falls, along the Congo in Kinshasa, Zaire, is certainly not the tallest waterfall in the world. Heck, it s not even close its longest drop is a measly21 meters(70 ft). (There are three waterfalls in the world with drops over 3,000 feet, to put that in perspective.) At four kilometers (2.5 mi) wide, it may not be the widest of falls, either but it moves more water than any other waterfall on the planet. A lot more, as it turns out.

The Salar de Uyuni ( Uyuni Salt Flat ) lies atop an extremely high plateau in southwestern Bolivia at almost 3,600 meters (12,000 ft), the elevation is twice as high as mile high Denver, Colorado. The salt is as thick as the air is thin (several meters thick, in most places), and the sheer surface area is astonishing over10,000 square kilometers(4,000 square miles).

When it comes to naming the world s largest zoo, there s more than one way to skin a...to calculate such a thing: by area, by the number of species on display, or a matrix involving both. The latter actually makes the most sense at 12,000 acres, Red McCombs Wildlife in Texas could be considered the largest zoo by acreage, but only hosts about 20 species.

For almost 20 years, the Chinese government forged ahead with the Three Gorges Dam project, despite concerns both at home and abroad about its potential ramifications. The threats to the surrounding environment and historical areas, to say nothing of the tens of thousands of locals displaced by the project, were all downplayed by officials throughout the dam s construction. Only after its completion, at an estimated cost of $23 billion, did China admit that perhaps there were somevalid environmental concerns.

Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo, Brazil is a big building. Nearing completion at the time of this writing, it seats nearly 50,000 and will be the 11th largest stadium in Brazil, when it plays host to several FIFA World Cup football matches in 2014. It s a sharp, modern structure, but its facade is what landed it on this list the entire front of the building isone giant video screen.

Finally, we go back to China, where the New Century Global Center opened for business in July 2013. In terms of its footprint, it is the largest man made freestanding structure on the planet almost1.8 million square meters(19 million square feet) of space.

The award forlargest published bookgoes to an author and scientist at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Michael Hawley. The 133 pound book is five by seven feet, 112 pages, needs a gallon of ink for printing, and costs $2,000 to produce. Its title? Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Kingdom.

Officially recognized by theGuinness Book of World Records, Gregory Dunham, from California s Stockton, built theworld s largest motorcycle. Greg spent three years in his workshop crafting this 11 feet tall, 20 feet longmonsterbike which is powered by a 8.2 litre (V8 engine and has tyres that are 1.88 m tall. The 6,500 pound motorcycle with a pricetag of $300,000 is totally rideable.