Many people have heard of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and some might even be able to list a few, but when my mother and I sat down and tried to compile the entire list, we failed miserably. The ancient world had many incredible places and structures, but the 7 wonders focus on the area around the Mediterranean area. This is because the list was compiled by the Greeks, with the earliest lists written about at around 305-240 BC. They were like an early version of “places you must see before you die.” Unfortunately, 6 of the 7 wonders were destroyed by the 15th century (and earlier) by either fire or earthquakes.
Yet references to the list remain with us, and though there’s not much left of most of these places, they are still worth visiting, or at least knowing about.
The only structure still standing – and probably the most famous of the 7 wonders – is the Great Pyramid of Giza. Built by the Egyptians at around 2650-2500 BC, the pyramid served as a magnificent tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu. The structure is 756 feet long on each side and 450 feet high, earning it the status of the tallest building in the world until the 19th century.
The outer walls of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were described by the Greek historian Herodotus to be 56 miles long, 80 feet thick, and 320 feet high. Modern archeological data suggests that this was an exaggeration on his part (the walls, for example, were probably more like 10 feet thick). Nevertheless, the Hanging Gardens were an impressive sight to behold, with larger than life features. Inside the outer walls stood temples and structures made of solid gold. In the center stood the Tower of Babel, a temple that rose into the sky in honor of the god Marduk. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were most likely built during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, at around 600 BC. Unfortunately, an earthquake destroyed most of this magnificent display sometime after the 1st century BC.
The Temple of Artemis once rose over the land of Ephesus. It was a shrine to the Ephesus goddess, who was not the same as the Artemis (or Diana) of Greece. The Greek Artemis was goddess of the hunt; Ephesus worshipped her instead as goddess of fertility. The first temple was probably built in 800 BC, and rebuilt a number of times each one taller and mightier than the last. Finally, in 356 BC, an Ephesian by the name of Herostratus determined to have his name go down in history. To do this, he burned the temple down. The Temple of Artemis was rebuilt one last time. The new temple became the first to be made completely of marble. However, in 262 AD, the temple was destroyed in a raid by the Goths. By this time, Christianity was growing, and followers of Artemis and the other Greek gods were few. Today, all that remains of the great temple is a column rising out of the marshy land.
The first Olympic games were held in 776 BC, in a shrine to Zeus in the Greek region of Peloponnesus. The games were held every 4 years to honor the king of the gods. As the games became more popular and important, a bigger and more impressive temple was built for Zeus. Yet even this was not enough. In 435, in order to truly make the temple worthy of the king of gods, a statue was built – The Statue of Zeus. The statue was 22 feet wide and about 40 feet tall. It stood at the western end of the temple and depicted an ivory skinned Zeus with gold hair, beard, and robe, seated atop a throne. The statue was so large that the god’s head nearly touched the temple ceiling. When the Olympics were banned by Roman Emperor Theodisius I, the statue was moved by the Greeks to Constantinople, where it perished in a fire in 462.
When Mausolus, the brother and husband of Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus died in 353 BC, Artemisia decided to build him a magnificent, one of a kind tomb. She named it in his honor – the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, from which our modern word originated. The tomb stood on top of a hill overlooking the city, and sat enclosed in a courtyard. It stood about 135 feet tall, with statues and columns adorning each side. The queen herself died only 2 years after her husband had, but the Mausoleum was finished regardless. Husband and wife were buried in it. The tomb stood untouched until a series of devastating earthquakes destroyed most of it by the 15th century.
If you’ve ever seen the Statue of Liberty that stands in the New York City harbor, then you can imagine what the Colossus of Rhodes looked like. In fact, the modern statue is an echo of the old Colossus, which stood in the harbor of the Island of Rhodes from 292 BC until 224 BC. After Alexander the Great’s death in 332 BC, his generals fought a long and bitter battle over the kingdom, resulting in the split of the land between three generals: Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigous. Throughout the battle, Rhodes supported Ptolemy, which angered Antigous. He sent his son Demetrius with an army of 40,000 men, to take over Rhodes. In order to get through the strong tall wall that protected the land of Rhodes, Demetrius had a giant mobile tower built, equipped with weapons and catapults. His war machine was stopped by the Rhodians, and Demetrius withdrew from the battle. To celebrate their victory, the people of Rhodes melted the bronze that Demetrius’ tower (and the ones before) had been made of, and erected a magnificent statue of their patron god, Helios. The statue probably stood in a typical Greek pose: naked except for a spiked crown on his head, with the right hand shielding his eyes from the sun, and the other holding a cloak at his side. The statue was 110 feet high and stood on top of a 50 foot pedestal. An earthquake destroyed the statue in 224 BC, and the Rhodians refused the Egyptian’s offer to rebuild it, thinking that the statue had somehow offended the god. The remains of the statue were sold as scrap metal by the Arabs which conquered Rhodes in the 7th century.
In the 3rd century BC, one of the tallest and most technologically advanced structures in the world was the Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as Pharos. Alexander the Great chose the site for Alexandria in Egypt carefully, wanting it to be a port city free of the silt and mud that the Nile carried. After Alexander died, the city needed both a symbol and a mechanism to guide the many ships that entered and left the harbor every day. The lighthouse was built on the island of Pharos, earning it the name. Doing both its job as a ship guide, and tourist attraction, it was the world’s first lighthouse. The structure was also destroyed by earthquakes by the 14th or 15th century AD.
Now there is a quest to select the 7 Wonders of the New World. Register at http://www.new7wonders.com/ and you can vote for what you think should be the seven new wonders. Among the choices are the Easter Island Statues at Chile, the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, and a number other fantastic sites. The selections will be announced on 07, 07, 07 in an official ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal, so hurry and vote, and take part in history!
