Almost 600ft tall - India’s first Prime Minister

AS a proud Dundonian, I’ve been delighted to see the Oor Wullie Bucket Trail statues all over the City of Discovery.

So far, my kids and I have spotted 23 of them, and hope to see the rest over the next few days.

Riding our bikes between Wullies, my daughter asked what the biggest statue in the world would be.

I blustered something about the statue of Jesus overlooking Rio, or some statues of Saddam Hussein before the war, even Lenin in Russia in the days of communism. Was I even remotely correct? – B. I presume you mean the tallest statue in the world, and that record is currently held by the Spring Temple Buddha in Zhaocun township in Henan, China.

Standing 420ft tall, it includes a 66ft lotus throne and stands on a pedestal/building 82ft tall.

To put that in perspective, it’s more than twice the height of the Scott Monument in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens. The world’s tallest monument to a writer, it’s 200ft, 6ins high.

The statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro is “only” 98ft tall, but stands on a pedestal giving it a total height of 130ft. It is also officially known as Christ The Redeemer.

However, the world record height for a statue will be broken in a couple of years when the Statue Of Unity, honouring India’s first Prime Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, is completed in Gujurat.

It will be an astonishing 597ft tall.