Gods Ark in Corcovado

Only took about 15 minutes from Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, I arrived at the entrance to the area of Jesus Christ the Redeemer statue in the Tijuca Forest National Park Corcovado Mountain, Brazil.


Actually, small cars can go straight to the top near the statue with the smooth road high steep enough. As for the group who rode the bus provided two tram cars that will lead to the top. Red tram that runs up splitting the dense forest into a unique experience that is difficult to find elsewhere.

Not far away, I walked toward the ticket booth at the same time in the tram for a ride 36 real Brazil, or about 16 U.S. dollars per person round trip. Quite expensive, but it becomes less expensive when compared with the price of beauty that we can witnessed.

I then wait in line with the other visitors who come looking overseas for up tram with departures at 9:30 am. Not long tram arrived, ordered the passengers to fill the seats of two cars each with 40 person capacity, which was soon to be moving slowly toward the top of the hill.

Climbing trip travel time about 20 minutes, but the green of tropical trees such as jackfruit and the cool weather began to soothe the eyes and mind of this. Arriving at the last station, visitors are offered to ride 'lift' but should be long enough to queue or walk through the steps that have stairs approximately 200 steps.

At this location there is a solid crowd for visitors who want to queue up on using the existing three elevators, visitors are met with a new tram line down and down. A number of volunteer officers properly manage the crowd that the two lines running smoothly.

Reached the top there's one segment of the ladder again to go. Fortunately there are enough steps to walk tall, which ease the visitors to arrive at the statue of Jesus the Redeemer. From this place, the statue of Jesus as high as 38 meters have been to the eye silhouetted against a bright beautiful sunshine cover.

The statue is to protect

Arriving at the top of the hill with a height of 710 meters above sea level, the visitors seemed to be in the shade of the Supreme Court. Statue of Jesus stretched hands as if giving a blessing. Face and hands of Christ Redeemer statue overlooking the city of Rio and Copacabana beach below as if receiving all errors and sins of the people to ditebusnya. Being on the spot, which last year entered as one of the seven wonders of the world's new7wonder.com version, visitors seemed to be taken to see the greatness of the owner of the universe.



Standing beneath a statue in the style of Art Deco architecture that was completed in 1931, the visitors from many nations, tribes and religions as if all are united by an awareness of the beauty of the universe favors God-given.



All visitors who are under the statue of Jesus, was trying to capture the historic moment in their lives is to take pictures or make videotapes. I was no less busy photographing beautiful images and photos in style with his hands stretched to the background the statue of Jesus.

Once satisfied spending capacity memory cards in digital cameras, I went to the foot of the statue where a chapel was built to serve the people of Catholic and Christian wanted to pray, as always in places where other Catholic pilgrimage.

Long history

From several sites on the Internet mentioned that the idea of building a statue of Jesus appeared in the mid 1850s. At that time Catholic priest Pedro Maria Boss requested financing from Princess Isabel (Queen of the royal one in Brazil) to build a large religious monument.

But Princess Isabel was not interested. The idea of building the statue was forgotten until 1889 when Brazil became a republic and state laws mandating the separation of church and state.

The second idea hatched in 1921 by the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro. Archdiocese of organizing the event Sunday Monument to attract donations, which came mostly from Brazilian Catholics.


Christ Redeemer, or in Portuguese Cristi Redentor designed by Heitor da Silva Costa and sculpted by Paul Landowski French origin. It took five years to build this sculpture of concrete and stone. The railway was built to carry large pieces of sculpture to the top of the mountain.

The statue is completed and inaugurated on October 12, 1931, various improvements continue to be done such as building elevators and escalators to facilitate the visitors.

Similar statue was built on top of Mount Fatucama, Dili, East Timor in 1996, his statue of Christ the King. This statue is a symbol of integration of East Timor warning to Indonesia. Height 27 meters to 27 provinces representing Indonesia at the time.

However, according to some friends who join the group to Rio, the statue of Jesus in Dili later was no longer well maintained. Political background of the establishment of the statue was made of Dili residents are reluctant to take care of it.

This condition is very much different from the statue of Jesus on Corcovado hill, the management of a neat and clean to make the visitors not only stunned the statue's beauty but also feel great comfort in that area.

There is no garbage strewn, no marks on the walls and everything going on with the order without a fuss because of all maintained and managed well.

Thousands of visitors from all over the country come every year to this place, and the tourists were not only Catholic religious pilgrims and Christians but also from other religions who want to enjoy the beauty of the location of the statue.

Author: MBK
Photo: Getty Images
Source: Antara