Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage
The king of 14th-century Marley Mansa Musa was and remains to this day the wealthiest man’s have ever lived. His net worth is estimated to be 400 billion dollars.
Being a Muslim Russo had to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his life and he did in 1320. He took 80 camels with him each carrying 300 pounds of gold.
As he traveled he generously gave the gold to the poor apparently throwing so many coins on the floor when he traveled to Cairo that the street sparkled gold.
This nearly destroyed the economy of Egypt as such wide availability made gold nearly worthless and caused sudden inflation.
Even 12 years later the market hadn’t fully recovered, in the end, Musa literally had to take some of the money back just to help the ailing economy.
The Great Wall of China
The famed 13,000 miles Great Wall of China was constructed by the 14th century Ming Dynasty to keep the Mongol hordes out the stone wall took hundreds of years to build and cost 400,000 lives of slave labor.
The wall used over 110 million tons of stone. There’s no way to know the project’s exact cost of the project but modern estimates put the bill at 350 billion dollars, excluding the cost of the soldiers needed to man the 25,000 watch towers that ran along the perimeter walls.
Worst of all, the wall is particularly useless at keeping out the Mongols. Even after such a massive project there were filled gaps where construction would have been impossible. Unsurprisingly but simply Mongols slipped through these gaps and carried on raiding.
Naypyidaw’s 20-Lane Highway
Naypyidaw’s 20-Lane Highway stretches as far as you can see. It led to the parliament building of Myanmar was not designed for pedestrian movement.
It was constructed when Myanmar moved its capital to Naypyidaw. Despite the government claims one million inhabitants, the streets remain empty and only a Few can be seen driving along the empty streets. So, was a 20-lane highway even necessary?
Previously Yangon used to be the capital city and the move became necessary because the city was too populated and there was no space for governmental expansion. The capital city was moved to Naypyidaw, back in 2006. The whole city is super-sized.
