Like most historic buildings in Japan, Daibutsu-den Hall (Hall of the Great Buddha) was once destroyed by fire and rebuilt. In fact, I think it's version 3. Even though it was rebuilt at 2/3 the original scale in 1709, it's still the largest wooden building in the world. It also features what I'm sure is one of the largest bronze buddha statue in the world, standing over 16m high*. Photos fail to do it justice. As we walked in the doors, it was hard not to be dumbfounded by both the scale and age of the building itself - even version 3 is hundreds of years old - and the immense scale of the Buddha. If you try scaling from the people in front of the building, you can imagine the statue inside taking up around half the height. Even after a couple of days shrine-watching you start to get jaded ... but this one had the WOW factor. (*Buddha was also recast in the Edo period. Shame about the original.)
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