In Gerard Durrell’s The Whispering Land I ran into the sentence below:
At that precise moment we were heading towards the massive building that looked like a cross between the Parthenon and the Reichstag in whose interior lurked the most formidable enemy of sanity and liberty in Argentina: the Aduana, or Customs.
May I ask what “cross between Parthenon and the Reichstag” means here? I guess there might be some cultural implication behind this but I cannot find anything after searching extensively.
Answer
The Parthenon is a Greek Temple that is distinguished by its thick pillars which surround the perimeter to support the structure.
The Reichstag is a German political building that is well known for its iconic glass dome constructed on the top and its parliamentarian style.
When the author said cross between Parthenon and the Reichstag, he might have implied that the building was a parliamentarian type building supported by pillars, since cross between means a mixture of.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Xinting WANG , Answer Author : Viswalahiri
