While staying here near Atlanta we went into the city and visited the ‘Cyclorama’, which is a great local attraction.  It consists of the steam engine named “The Texas” which chased the train called “The General” during the Civil War “Great Train Chase”, and the Cyclorama, which is the largest oil painting in the world and is the scene of the Battle of Atlanta fought in July of 1864.

The painting, if laid out on the ground, would cover a football field!!  It’s mounted on the wall in a circular building made specially to hold this painting.  There is a small theater in the center of the building and the theater rotates to give a 360-degree view of the painting.  There is a diarama in front of the painting to give a 3-dimensional effect to the entire visual picture.  Special lighting and a narration during the approx. 30 minute rotation tells the story of the battle.

Two very interesting facts – the oil painting was done in 1867-1868!  Just a couple of years after the battle itself.  It’s been very carefully preserved all these years and is regularly cleaned.  The whole building is designed to help preserve it.  The second interesting fact is that the human figures in the diarama appear to be life-size but they’re just 12-42 inches high!  It’s impossible to tell – we could have sworn they were life-size!

We couldn’t take photos of the painting, but I took a couple from their website (http://atlantacyclorama.org/index.php) to include here.