The Original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

There were many lists of great monuments known to the ancient Greeks. Although many agreed on six of the seven items, the Walls of the City of Babylon and the Palace of Cyrus, king of Persia vied for the seventh position. Finally, in the 6th century A.D., the final item became the Lighthouse at Alexandria. However on all lists and the greatest stone building in the world is the great Pyramid at Giza, the only one of the seven wonders that remains. Today a new list has been voted on, but at this stage I hold to the ancient list. Select popularity for decision making has never been a convincing argument to me.

The Great Pyramid of Giza

 The largest pyramid, ( far right of the three above) built for Khufu (Cheops), second king of the fourth dynasty, by the pharaoh's cousin, the master builder Hemon. It had an original estimated height of 482 ft. (now approximately 450 ft.). The base has sides 755 ft. long. It contains 2,300,000 blocks; the average weight of each is 2.5 tons. Estimated date of completion is 2680 B.C. Napoleon estimated that there are enough blocks in the three pyramids to build a 3 m  high, 0.3 m  thick wall around France. According to Herodotus it took ten years to build the causeway from the valley temple to the mortuary temple and twenty years to build the Pyramid, and cost 1600 silver talents (approximately $7.5 Million US). The area covered by the Great pyramid can accommodate St Peter's in Rome, the cathedrals of Florence and Milan, and Westminster and St Paul's in London combined. This wonder pre-dated the others by 2000 years and still exists over 500 years after the last of the others disappeared. Khufu (Protected by( Khnum)) was the son of Snefru (He of Beauty). It remained the tallest structure in the world for 4500 years until the Eiffel Tower was constructed a little over a hundred years ago.

 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC) is credited for building the legendary Hanging Gardens on the east bank of the Euphrates, about 50 km south of Baghdad, Iraq to please his wife Amuhia, the mythical Assyrian queen Semiramis, or a concubine. It is believed that the gardens were built on a vaulted building, and water was raised mechanically to nurture the gardens. The terraces were said to rise from 75 to 300 ft. While accounts of the Gardens come from Greek historians ( including Herodotus) who never saw them, Babylonian records say nothing. It is argued that when Alexander's troops returned home, they had stories of amazing gardens and palm trees, the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, the Tower of Babel and the ziggurats and the imagination of poets and ancient historians combined these elements to produce one of the World Wonders. Alexander is said to have tried to introduce Greek plants into the gardens but only the ivies took hold.

From Quintus Curtius Rufus in his History of Alexander written in the 1st century AD:- '' The Babylonians also have a citadel twenty stades ( 200m or the length of a short race at Olympia) in circumference. The foundations of its turrets are sunk thirty feet into the ground and the fortifications rise eighty feet above it at the highest point. On its summit are the hanging gardens, a wonder celebrated by the fables of the Greeks. They are as high as the top of the walls and own their charm to the shade of many tall trees. The columns supporting the whole edifice are built of rock and on top of them is a flat surface of squared stones strong enough to bear the deep layer of earth placed upon it and the water used for irrigating it. So stout are the trees the structure supports that their trunks are eight cubits thick and their height as much as fifty feet; they bear fruit as abundantly as if they were growing in their natural environment. And although time with its gradual decaying process is as destructive to nature's creation as to man's, even so this edifice survives undamaged, despite being subjected to the pressure of so many tree roots and the strain of bearing the weight of such a huge forest. It has a substructure of walls twenty feet thick at eleven foot intervals, so that from a distance one has the impression of woods overhanging their native mountains."

Archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Babylon have uncovered a Vaulted Building with thick walls and an irrigation well near the southern palace. The search continues.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Olympic games are believed to have started in the eighth century B C and the magnificent temple of Zeus, designed by Libon was built at Olympia about 450 BC. The Athenian sculptor Pheidias was assigned for the "sacred" task of constructing a grand statue of the king of the gods. Pheidias began working on the statue around 440 BC. erecting a wooden frame on which sheets of gold and ivory were placed for the outer covering. He sculpted the pieces of the statue in his workshop and they were assembled in the temple. The base of the statue was about 6.5 m  wide and 1.0 meter high. The height of the statue itself was 13 m equivalent to a 4-story building. Zeus was seated, with the head almost touching the ceiling, so that it gave the impression that if he stood up he would unroof the temple. The head had a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand a figure of Victory made from ivory and gold. In his left hand, a sceptre inlaid with every kind of metal, with an eagle perched on the sceptre. His sandals were of gold, as was the robe. His garments were carved with animals and lilies. The throne was decorated with sphinxes, gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory. The temple attracted visitors and worshippers from all over the world. In the second century BC repairs were made to the aging statue. Caligula attempted to transport the statue to Rome but his attempt failed when the scaffolding collapsed. The Olympic games were banned in AD 391 by the emperor Theodosius and the temple closed. Olympia suffered earthquakes, landslides and floods, and the temple was damaged by fire in the fifth century AD. Earlier, the statue had been transported by wealthy Greeks to a palace in Constantinople. There, it survived until it was destroyed by fire in AD 462. The only images are on coins.

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

In Ephesus, Turkey was the most beautiful structure on earth, built in honour of the Greek goddess of hunting and wild nature, the Temple of Artemis (Diana). The foundation of the temple dates back to the seventh century BC . but the famous temple was built around 550 BC. Referred to as the great marble temple, it was sponsored by the Lydian king Croesus and was designed by the Greek architect Chersiphron. It was decorated with bronze statues sculpted by the most skilled artists of their time: Pheidias, Polycleitus, Kresilas, and Phradmon. The building was made of marble, with a decorated façade overlooking a spacious courtyard. Marble steps surrounding the building platform led to the high terrace, which was approximately 80 m by 130 m. The columns were 20 m high with Ionic capitals and carved circular sides. There were 127 columns in total. The temple was about 4 times the size of the Parthenon in Athens. On the night of 21 July 356 BC, the date when Alexander the Great was born, a man named Herostratus burned the temple to the ground. Over the next two decades, the temple was restored and Alexander the Great also helped in the rebuilding. St Paul saw Ephesus and the Artemis cult in the first century AD. When the temple was again destroyed by the Goths in AD 262, the Ephesians vowed to rebuild it yet again. By the fourth century AD Christianity took hold and in AD 401 the Temple of Artemis was torn down by St John Chrysostom. Today all that remains are a few broken columns unearthed from the swamp into which it has sunk.

The Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus was built as a result of the turmoil that followed the Death of Alexander the Great. The city-states of Ialysos, Kamiros, and Lindos united in 408 BC, to form one territory, with a unified capital, Rhodes. The city had strong economic ties with Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt. In 305 BC, the Antigonids of Macedonia besieged Rhodes hoping to break the Rhodo-Egyptian alliance. Unable to penetrate the city a peace agreement was reached in 304 BC and to celebrate, the Rhodians sold the abandoned arms and erected an enormous statue of their sun god, Helios. Chares of Lindos built the statue at the harbour entrance and it took 12 years and was finished in 282 BC. An earthquake hit Rhodes about 226 BC and the Colossus was broken at the knee and toppled. The Rhodians received an immediate offer from Ptolemy III to restore the monument, but an oracle forbade the re-erection. The statue lay broken in ruins until AD 654, when the Arabs invaded Rhodes and disassembled the remains and sold them to a Jew from Syria who transported the pieces to Syria on the backs of 900 camels.  The base was made of white marble, and the feet and ankle of the statue were fixed and then it was gradually erected as the bronze skin was added to an iron and stone framework. A dirt ramp was built around the statue and was later removed. It is said to have stood about 33- 60 m high.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The kingdom of Caria in  what is now Turkey was far from the Persian Empire capital. The tomb of King Mausollos at Halicarnassus was conceived by his wife and sister Queen Artemisia, and building may have started during the king's lifetime. The Mausoleum was completed around 350 BC, three years after Maussollos death, and one year after Artemisia's. The structure was rectangular, with a base 40 m by 30 m. and 45 m high. It consisted of a stepped podium with sides decorated with statues. The burial chamber and the sarcophagus of white alabaster decorated with gold were located on the 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 sat on top of the tomb. The fame and beauty of the Mausoleum was in the design and the dozens of life-size as well as under and over life-size free-standing statues of people, lions, horses, and other animals, carved by four Greek sculptors: Bryaxis, Leochares, Scopas, and Timotheus. After 16 centuries, the Mausoleum was damaged by an earthquake and in the fifteenth century, the Knights of St John of Malta invaded the region and built a massive crusader castle using the stones of the Mausoleum. All large tombs today are called mausoleums. Some remains of the structure are in the British Museum.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria

After the death of Alexander the Great, his commander Ptolemy Soter assumed power in Egypt in the city founded by Alexander. He began the lighthouse around 290 BC, but it was completed after his death, by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus. The monument was dedicated to the Savior Gods: Ptolemy Soter and his wife Berenice. It may have had a statue of Zues on its summit. The Pharos (lighthouse) of Alexandria was built by Sostratus of Cnidus. The structure was so famous that the word "pharos" came to mean lighthouse in French, Italian and Spanish. In November 1996, a diver claimed to have found the ruins of the lighthouse of Pharos. It now appears that there were many statues decorating the tower. Rocked by earthquakes it soon tumbled into the sea and after the Arab invasion much of the material was reused in the construction of a fort on the island.

 Updated August 06, 2007