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  • (soft chiming music)

  • - On a small island in Russia stands a 300-year-old

  • multi-domed church that was built entirely without nails.

  • Kizhi Island is home to two wooden churches

  • and an octagonal bell tower that exemplify

  • 18th century Russian architecture.

  • The largest building on Kizhi Island is the

  • Church of the Transfiguration.

  • One hundred and twenty feet tall and covered in 22 domes, the church

  • sparkles like silver when the sun hits it.

  • It was a tradition in Russian carpentry to build

  • using only wooden logs with interlocking corners

  • and no nails or steel reinforcement.

  • The structure was sturdy enough to survive

  • until the 19th century when it underwent restoration

  • to return it to its former glory.

  • In 1990, the island was listed as a

  • UNESCO World Heritage site, and today the island is

  • a national open-air museum.

  • It might just be a legend, but upon completion

  • of the structure, it was said Kizhi's main builder

  • cast his ax into the water and proclaimed

  • there was not, and will not be, another one to match it.

(soft chiming music)

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