Fountain of the Four Rivers, Piazza Navona, Rome

Gian Lorenzo Bernini finished this fountain in 1651 for Pope Innocent X, piling a carved travertine cliff in the middle of Piazza Navona and planting an ancient obelisk on top of it. Four giant river gods lounge on the rocks, one for each continent then known to Europe: the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges and the Río de la Plata. Guides love to say the Plata figure raises his hand to shield himself from Borromini's church opposite, a fun rivalry story that is only a legend, since the church front came later.