On Monuments

Here is the famous poem "Ozymandias" by Shelley (1818), which seems to relate to this question we discussed today about designing monuments that will last (and warn future peoples) for tens of thousands of years:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.<sup>[1]


More:</sup>


(from the DOE site)


(from an online exhibit)


^{Yucca mountain monument contest winning entry: blue genetically engineered cacti by ashok sukumaran)}




(concept by Michael Brill and art by Safdar Abidi, from WIPP exhibit on messages for 12000AD)