Every couple of miles, massive concrete pillars hulk over the road.

BBC: On holiday in North Korea

After the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world's worst to date, the Soviet Union encased the plant's damaged reactor in a massive concrete sarcophagus.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Classes were held in the original buildings, several massive concrete units known collectively as the Cellblock, a bike ride or long walk away from the dorms, and the flow of students back and forth in tribal swarms seemed part of the architecture of the place.

NEWYORKER: Midnight in Dostoevsky

With more than a hundred accredited diplomats, Iran's embassy in Managua - a massive compound surrounded by four-meter-high concrete walls lined with razor wire - is one of the largest diplomatic compounds in the world.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Iran's global reach

Following the quake, investigators in Yunlin county discovered that three crumbled structures had been erected by a construction company that had used empty plastic bottles and tin cans as filler to save on concrete and bricks. (The owner was arrested.) In Dali, a massive apartment block suffered major damage: one of the 11-story buildings was uprooted from the ground and fell backward.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Taiwan: The Day the Earth Moved--Page 3