Notre Dame de Paris Took 182 Years to Build. Here Is What the World Looked Like When They Started.
Notre Dame de Paris took 182 years to build, spanning at least seven master builders, none of whom saw it finished. When the first stone was laid in 1163, Saladin had not yet been born, the Magna Carta was 52 years away, and the Aztec Empire would not exist for another 265 years. The flying buttress was invented during construction to solve a problem nobody anticipated.
