I read a story about a famous ancient Chinese architect (or maybe engineer) which is apparently true, but I cannot remember what the building in the story was. I do know that it still exists today.
The story is as follows:
Brilliant architect is commissioned to design this building. He (being so brilliant) calculates the exact number of bricks required to build it, and writes the number down for a messenger to take to the brick-making guy. The messenger suggests that perhaps he should order a few extra, in case he mis-calculated. As a joke, the architect adds one brick to the order.
Apparently, this building still stands, with the one extra brick precariously sitting on the middle of a ledge.
Anyone know what the heck I’m talking about here? Anyone know of any websites with pictures of this building?
I remember hearing that story on a ‘Discover in the Classroom’ episode on China that I watched while stalling going to work because of it’s lack of commercials. I remember that it was a fort, on one of the spice trails at the western end of the country I believe. I want to say the ‘Jade Gate’ but I have a suspision that it was part of a segment that came just before it in the program.