The Seven Wonders of the World

Most people know about the Seven Wonders of the World and can name a few, the Great Pyramid and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon being the two most often remembered. Though the current list is the best known, it actually took centuries to compile. The Greek writers, Antipater of Sidon and Philon of Byzantium, drew up two of the lists. Some lists contain such ancient wonders as the Walls of the City of Babylon and the Palace of Cyrus, King of Persia, though the Great Wall of China or Stonehenge would probably have made it had they been known. 
The first reference to the idea of a list is mentioned by Herodotus in his work The History by Herodotus as long ago as the 5th century BC. Callimachus of Cyrene (305BC-240BC), Chief Librarian of the Alexandria Mouseion, wrote "A Collection of Wonders around the World". Unfortunately, this list was destroyed with the Alexandria Library. The oldest reference to the current list comes from the engravings by the Dutch artist Maerten van Heemskerck (1498-1574) and Johann Fischer von Erlach's "History of Architecture." Not all the Seven Wonders existed at the same time, a good reason for the variations in some of the lists.
All but one of the Seven Wonders are gone, the Pyramids at Giza being the sole survivor on the list and the only one that we have specific knowledge of relating to appearance. The Colossus of Rhodes only stood for 56 years before an earthquake brought it down. There are descriptions and these are included in the individual sections, where available.



The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens were located on the east bank of the River Euphrates, south of Baghdad, Iraq. Nebuchadnezzar II is credited for building the legendary Hanging Gardens to please his wife who had been "brought up in Media and had a passion for mountain surroundings", but they are also associated with the Assyrian Queen Semiramis. There are no drawings but there are brief descriptions from the writings of Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Philo of Byzantium:
"The approach to the Garden sloped like a hillside and the several parts of the structure rose from one another tier on tier... On all this, the earth had been piled... and was thickly planted with trees of every kind that, by their great size and other charm, gave pleasure to the beholder... The water machines [raised] the water in great abundance from the river, although no one outside could see it."
"The Garden is quadrangular, and each side is four plethra long. It consists of arched vaults which are located on checkered cube-like foundations.. The ascent of the uppermost terrace-roofs is made by a stairway..." 
"The Hanging Garden has plants cultivated above ground level, and the roots of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth. The whole mass is supported on stone columns... Streams of water emerging from elevated sources flow down sloping channels... These waters irrigate the whole garden saturating the roots of plants and keeping the whole area moist. Hence the grass is permanently green and the leaves of trees grow firmly attached to supple branches... This is a work of art of royal luxury and its most striking feature is that the labor of cultivation is suspended above the heads of the spectators". 
According to the writings of a Babylonian priest, they were approximately 400 feet square and 75 feet above the ground. His account says slaves working in shifts turned screws to lift water from the nearby Euphrates River.



Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The statue was located in the ancient town of Olympia, on the west coast of modern Greece, west of Athens. The first Olympic Games were held there in 776 BC and a temple was built by Libon of Elis to honor the god Zeus. The temple, completed in 456 BC, was not considered lavish enough so the Athenian sculptor Pheidias was commissioned to create a statue for the inside around 440 BC. The base of the statue was about 20 ft and the height of the statue itself was 40 ft, equivalent to a modern 4-story building. 
Strabo wrote: ".. although the temple itself is very large, the sculptor is criticized for not having appreciated the correct proportions. He has shown Zeus seated, but with the head almost touching the ceiling, so that we have the impression that if Zeus moved to stand up he would unroof the temple." 
The Greek Pausanias wrote: "On his head is a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand he holds a figure of Victory made from ivory and gold... In his left hand, he holds a sceptre inlaid with every kind of metal, with an eagle perched on the sceptre. His sandals are made of gold, as is his robe. His garments are carved with animals and with lilies. The throne is decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory. "
The statue was transported by the Greeks to a palace in Constantinople, present-day Istanbul, Turkey, where, it survived until it was destroyed by a severe fire in AD 462. All that remains in Olympia are the temple's fallen columns and the foundation of the building.



Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus

The temple was located in the great Ionian city of Ephesus near the modern town of Selcuk, about south of Izmir (Smyrna) in Turkey. It was built around 550 BC, by the Lydian king Croesus and designed by the Greek architect Chersiphron and his son, Metagenes to honor the Greek goddess of hunting, wild nature, and fertility. It was one of the largest and most complex temples built in ancient times and required over a century to complete. The temple served as both a marketplace and a religious institution. For years, merchants, tourists, artisans, and royalty who paid homage to the goddess, from as far as Persia and India, visited the sanctuary. 
The temple was rectangular and constructed of Parian marble with a decorated facade overlooking a spacious courtyard. Marble steps surrounding the building platform led to the high terrace, 260 feet by 430 feet. There were 127 columns, 60 feet high, with Ionic capitals, and carved circular sides, and the structure was capped with a tile-covered, wooden roof. It also contained four bronze statues sculpted by Pheidias, Polycleitus, Kresilas, and Phradmon. The temple housed works of art by the finest artists at the time. When the Apostle Paul visited the city, the temple was adorned with golden pillars and silver statuettes, and was decorated with paintings. 
In 356 BC, a man named Herostratus burned the temple. Alexander the Great was born the same night the temple was destroyed and he actually helped rebuild the temple when he conquered Asia Minor. The Goths again destroyed the temple in AD 262. The Apostle Paul visited Ephesus to preach Christianity in the first century AD and was confronted by the Artemis' cult who had no plans to abandon their goddess. The final destruction came when, in AD 401, St John Chrysostom razed the temple and Ephesus was eventually deserted. Although excavation was begun in the late 1880s and some attempts to rebuild the temple have been made, only the foundation and few columns remain.
Antipater of Sidon wrote: "But when I saw the sacred house of Artemis that towers to the clouds, the [other Wonders] were placed in the shade, for the Sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus."



Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The Mausoleum was located in the city of Bodrum, formerly, Halicarnassus the capital of Caria , on the Aegean Sea, in south-west Turkey. From 377 to 353 BC, King Mausollos was a provincial king in the Persian Empire who moved his capital to Halicarnassus. His wife and sister Artemisia conceived the project, and the construction probably started during the king's lifetime. It was designed by the Greek architects Satyrus and Pythius and completed in 350 BC, three years after the king's death. 
The Mausoleum remained in good condition for over 1500 years until an earthquake damaged it. In the early fifteenth century, the Knights of St John of Malta invaded the region and built a massive castle using the stones of the Mausoleum. By 1522, almost every block of the Mausoleum had been used for construction on the castle, which still stands in Bodrum. The polished stone and marble blocks of the Mausoleum can still be found in the walls of the castle.
The Mausoleum was rectangular, 120 feet by 100 feet and the total height was140 feet. Overlying the foundation was a stepped podium with sides adorned with statues. The burial chamber and the sarcophagus were of white alabaster decorated with gold located on a podium and surrounded by Ionic columns. The colonnade supported a pyramid roof, which was also decorated with statues. A statue of a chariot pulled by four horses capped the top of the tomb. The decorations and statues that adorned the outside at different levels on the podium and the roof were images of people, lions, horses, and other animals rather than Greek gods. This adds to the unique nature of the structure. The statues were carved by four Greek sculptors: Bryaxis, Leochares, Scopas, and Timotheus, each responsible for one side. The name Maussollos is of course the origin of the word mausoleum
“I have lying, over me in Halicarnassus, a gigantic monument such as no other dead person has, adorned in the finest way with statues of horses and men carved most realistically from the best quality marble.”
King Maussollos, from Lucian's "Dialogues of the Dead"



The Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus was located at the entrance of the harbor of the Mediterranean island of Rhodes, in Greece. It was actually built with funds obtained from the sale of weapons left behind by a failed attempt to conquer the island by the Antigonids of Macedonia in 305 BC. It was built to honor the sun god, Helios in 282 BC and stood at the harbor entrance until an earthquake brought it down in 226 BC. The city was badly damaged and the Colossus was broken at its weakest point, the knee. For almost a millennium, the statue lay broken in ruins. In AD 654 the Arabs invaded Rhodes. They disassembled the remains of the broken Colossus and sold them to a Jew from Syria. It is said that the fragments had to be transported to Syria on the backs of 900 camels. 
The project was commissioned by the Rhodian sculptor Chares of Lindos and required 12 years of construction. To build the statue, his workers cast the outer bronze skin parts. The base was made of white marble, and the feet and ankle of the statue were first fixed. The structure was gradually erected as the bronze form was fortified with an iron and stone framework. When the colossus was finished, it stood 120 feet high, on a 50-foot pedestal. The structure was the inspiration for the French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi who built The Statue of Liberty. Though the bodies are the same size, the Statue stands higher because of the taller pedestal and upraised torch. 
"To you, O Sun, the people of Dorian Rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus when they had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city with the spoils taken from the enemy. Not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of freedom." Dedicatory inscription of the Colossus 
"From its building to its destruction lies a time span of merely 56 years. Yet the colossus earned a place in the famous list of Wonders. The Colossus of Rhodes was not only a gigantic statue. It was rather a symbol of unity of the people who inhabited that beautiful Mediterranean island" Rhodes. 
"Even as it lies, it excites our wonder and admiration. Few men can clasp the thumb in their arms, and its fingers are larger than most statues. Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast caverns are seen yawning in the interior. Within it, too, are to be seen large masses of rock, by the weight of which the artist steadied it while erecting it." Pliny the Elder.



The Lighthouse of Alexandria

Located on the island of Pharos at the Alexandria Harbor in Egypt, the beacon of this lighthouse could be seen for up to 100 miles and guided sailors into the city harbor for 1,500 years. The project was started shortly after the death of Alexander the Great, by his commander Ptolemy Soter around 290 BC, and was completed after Ptolemy's death, during the reign of his son Ptolemy Philadelphus. 
The lowest square of the structure was 180 feet high with a cylindrical core, the middle octagonal had a side length of 60 feet and a height of 90 feet and the top circular stage was 24 feet high. The total height of the building, including the foundation base, was almost 400 feet. Due to a possible misinterpretation of the measurements, it may have been as tall as 600 feet, making it the tallest structure built in the world, until the 20th century. The internal core was used as a shaft to lift the fuel needed for the fire. At the top stage, the mirror reflected sunlight during the day, while fire was used during the night. A statue of Poseidon adorned the summit of the building. 
Sostratus, a contemporary of Euclid, was the architect and it was dedicated to the Savior Gods, Ptolemy Soter, (literally savior), and his wife Berenice. For centuries, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, also called the Pharos Lighthouse, was used to mark the harbor, and was even shown on Roman coins, as famous monuments are depicted on currency today. There are stories that the reflective mirror could be used as a weapon to concentrate the sun and set enemy ships ablaze as they approached. Another tale says that it was possible to use the mirror to magnify the image of the city of Constantinople from far across the sea to observe what was going on there. 
The lighthouse was apparently a tourist attraction. Food was sold to visitors at the observation platform at the top of the first level. A smaller balcony provided a view from the top of the eight-sided tower. There were few places in the ancient world where a person could ascend a man-made tower to get such a perspective. 
In 1303 and in 1323 two strong earthquakes brought the lighthouse down. Reports indicate the final collapse came in 1326. When the Arab traveler Ibn Battuta visited Alexandria in 1349, he could not enter the ruined monument. In 1480 the Egyptian Mamelouk Sultan, Qaitbay, built a fortress on the same spot where the Lighthouse stood, using the fallen stone and marble. The structure inspired the word "pharos" which means lighthouse in French, Italian, and Spanish. In November 1996, a team of divers searching the Mediterranean Sea claimed to have found the ruins of the fabled lighthouse of Pharos. 
The lighthouse's designer, Sostrates of Knidos, being proud of his work, desired to have his name carved into the foundation. Ptolemy II, the son who ruled Egypt after his father, refused this request wanting his own name to be the only one on the building. A clever man, Sostrates had the inscription, "Sostratus, the son of Dexiphanes, the Cnidian, dedicated this to the Saviour Gods, on behalf of those who sail the seas.", chiseled into the foundation, then covered it with plaster. Into the plaster was chiseled Ptolemy's name. As the years went by the plaster aged and chipped away revealing Sostrates' declaration.



Pyramids of Egypt

Located at Giza, 10 miles across the Nile River from Cairo, the Great Pyramids appear more like a mountain range than a group of buildings. The Great Pyramid and its nearest neighbor, The Pyramid of Khafre, are the largest and second largest structures on the planet, respectively. There are 8 other pyramids on the Giza Plateau but these two dwarf them. 
The Great Pyramid is the crown jewel of the Giza Complex. It is 481 feet high and the base covers an area of more than 13 acres. It was constructed of 2.5 million stone blocks, none weighing less than a ton, with some exceeding 70 tons. Despite many theories about the origin of this structure, very little is known. It was said to have been built by the Pharaoh Khufu around 2700 BC as a mausoleum. There is no indication that Khufu was ever involved in it's construction and evidence exists that the Great Pyramid is perhaps thousands of years older than the accepted age. There is also no evidence that it was ever used as a tomb. Research has also shown that, in fact, it is hard to believe the structure was even built by humans. 
What we do know makes this not only the last of the Seven Wonders remaining, but, no doubt, the greatest structure ever built. It is the largest solid structure on earth and the largest and most complicated construction project ever undertaken, modern times included. It was built to withstand massive earthquakes and has survived many major events. Despite natural forces, it is still the most level and square megalithic structure ever built and the most accurately aligned structure on earth. It’s design reflects the exact curvature of the earth, it was built to the exact mean height of the earth’s land mass, and it is located at the geographical center of the earth’s land mass. 
Like the Lighthouse of Pharos, the reflection from the jewel-smooth surface could be seen for over a hundred miles. The mathematical and engineering wonders of The Great Pyramid would take hundreds of pages to detail but, perhaps, no better thing can be said than this: Man fears time but time fears the pyramids.