Aside from the Pyramids, what is the tallest man-made structure still standing in Europe & the Near East from ancient times?

Question

In the Americas, there is La Danta Temple (built c300 BC, 230 ft / 70.10m) in modern-day Guatemala. In Asia (Far East and South Asia), there is the Ruwanwelisaya (built c300 BC, 300 ft / 91.44m) in Sri Lanka. What is there in Europe?

The Wikipedia page History of the world's tallest buildings makes no mention of anything between the Great Pyramids and Lincoln Cathedral (1300). The List of Greek and Roman architectural records doesn't come up with anything more than the Pont du Gard at 160 ft / 48.77m (or 155 ft / 47.24m, depending on which Wiki article you believe). The Colosseum is another possible candidate at 157 ft / 47.85m (or 159 ft / 48.46m according to The Colosseum.net)

The Pont du Gard and the Colosseum.

To clarify, by 'ancient times' I mean any time up to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. However, I'd also be interested in anything taller than the examples above which was built before 1000 AD i.e. Early Medieval.

I'm only interested in man-made structures which are still standing, even if not in their entirety.

Answer 1

I'll put in the Hagia Sophia, which reached the height of 182ft (55.6 meters) in the year 562:

...The emperor ordered an immediate restoration. He entrusted it to Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus, who used lighter materials and elevated the dome by "30 feet"[18] (about 6.25 meters or 20.5 feet)[clarification needed] – giving the building its current interior height of 55.6 meters (182 ft).[22] Moreover, Isidorus changed the dome type, erecting a ribbed dome with pendentives, whose diameter lay between 32.7 and 33.5 m.[18] Under Justinian's orders, eight Corinthian columns were disassembled from Baalbek, Lebanon, and shipped to Constantinople around 560.[23] This reconstruction, giving the church its present 6th-century form, was completed in 562.

Not before the fall of the western Roman Empire, but (as per comments) early medieval.

• Some more technical info on the engineering involved can be read here {Thanks @RomaH !}

Answer 2

I suppose that the Neolithic Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, built about 2470 - 2350 BC, is probably a contender for any list of the tallest European structures from ancient times.

At 39.3 metres (129 ft) high, I'm pretty sure it is the tallest prehistoric structure in Europe.

^{Photo by Greg O'Beirne, CC BY-SA 3.0, unchanged}

Answer 3

Possible currently existing candidates after the Colosseum and the Nimes Aqueduct.

at 91 feet, the aqueduct of Ferreres, tarragona, Ic B.C.

at 89 feet, the aqueduct of Segovia.

The Hercules lighttower, Galicia. 118 feet of roman building, 72 more feet added in the 1600's during a rebuild process.

a "detailed" plan of the roman stone structure ( no details added, no ornaments, no wood, only the stone plans as discovered):

The Alcántara bridge, 90 A.D. , 147ft height , thanks to @njuffa

Answer 4

Borsippa was a city that was closely connected to Babylon. It had a Ziggurat built by Nebbuchadnezzar II, on the site of an older building. It belonged to the god Nabu. Originally standing at 70 meters, the remains of the ziggurat are now 52 meters tall. Medieval people thought that it was the tower of Babel. Its known as the "the tongue tower" because of its distinct shape.

Dur Kurigalzu was a city during the Old Kassite period. It was named after King Kurigalzu, c. 1375 B.C., who made it the capitol of Babylon. Bricks on the ziggurat bear the inscription of Kurgalzu II, c. 1332 B.C. The remains of the ziggurat are about 52 meters tall. The surrounding platform was rebuilt in the 90's, and its a popular destination for people in Baghdad.

I'm not sure if the OP was asking about Mesopotamia, but it is technically a part of the Near East. There was nothing in Europe close to this size until the Roman Empire.

Answer 5

What about the Pantheon in Rome, finished circa 126 AD?

It is 142 feet to the inside of its oculus, and the dome adds another 1.2 metres (3.9 ft).

(shared from engineeringrome.com via CC 3.0, attibuted to Lancaster, 2005).

Not only that, it is still is the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome, and the only one surviving from the time of the Empire.

Answer 6

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem

From http://www.jerusalem-insiders-guide.com/temple-of-jerusalem.html

The dimensions for the Temple of Jerusalem were staggering: 460 meters to the east, 315 m to the north, 280 m to the south, and the western wall was 485 meters long.

The walls above ground rose 30 meters (ten stories tall), and their foundations were as deep as 20 meters in some places in order to reach bedrock. Each layer of the wall was recessed about 3 centimeters from the layer beneath it. This was to avoid the optical illusion created whenever you look up a tall, straight object, that it is about to fall over you.

Some of the quarried stones used in the Western Wall are so large that, to this day, archaeologists have trouble understanding how they could possibly have been transported. The smallest stones weight between 2 to 5 tons and the largest stone of them all – possibly the largest building stone in antiquity – is 13.6 meters long, 4.6 meters thick and 3.3 meters high, and is estimated to weigh 570 tons. The builders used dry construction – there is no cement between the stones. In fact, there’s nothing holding the stones together except their own weight.

Today, the highest point in the exposed section reaches a height of 40 meters above the bedrock

Answer 7

The Jetavanaramaya in Sri Lanka, a Buddhist Stupa, is 400 feet tall. It was built between 270 and 301 AD. As the exact height of the Lighthouse of Alexandria is unknown, the Jetavanaramaya may have been taller.

Answer 8

Perhaps the Lighthouse of Alexandria at an estimated height of 120 meters (423 ft).

Answer 9

Newgrange - Neolithic burial grounds at Newgrange are older than the Egyptian Pyramids, pre-dating Stonehenge by 1,000 years. One of Europe’s most important prehistoric clusters.