one of the main focuses of the game in the "city building setting" sense centers on the construction of monuments, namely a gothic cathedral and an arabic mosque. the construction phases of these monuments are dependent on certain preconditions which have to be met in order to continue building. the player also needs to stockpile building material in order to commence such a project. the process of the construction of the cathedral resembles very closely the castle/palace (and asian dragon temple) feature that was displayed in "1404"s predecessor, "anno 1701".