1). GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA
The Great Pyramid of Giza as
built as a tomb for Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu over a 20-year period concluding
around 2560 BC. It consists of an estimated 2.3 million limestone blocks
transported from nearby quarries. The limestone blocks used for the casing was
quarried across the river Nile. The gigantic granite stones found in the King’s
chamber weigh 25 to 80 tons and were transported from Aswan, more than 500 miles
away. At 146.5 meters (480.6 ft), the pyramid was the tallest man-made structure
in the world for over 3,800 years. The Great Pyramid at Giza is the oldest of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to have survived the
wrath of time. Or, as an Arab proverb goes: “Man fears time, but time fears the
Pyramids.”
2). COLOSSUS OF RHODES
Built between 292 and 280 BC, the
Colossus of Rhodes was a giant statue of the Greek god Helios, ruled in the
city of Rhodes. The Colossus was made of bronze and iron and stood over 30
meters (107 ft) high, making it one of the tallest statues of the ancient world.
It was the last of the seven wonders to be completed but the first to be
destroyed, by an earthquake in 226 BC. The statue snapped at the knees and fell
over on to the land. The pharaoh of Egypt offered to pay for the reconstruction
of the statue, but the oracle of Delphi made the Rhodians afraid that they had
offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild it.
3). HANGING GARDENS
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are
the most mysteries of the seven wonders. Some historians even question whether
the Hanging Gardens were an actual creation or a poetic creation due to the lack
of documentation of them in the chronicles of Babylonian history. Supposedly ,
the gardens were built by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC.
He is reported to have constructed the gardens to please his homesick wife who
longed for the trees and plants of her homeland Persia. Diodorus Siculus
described multi-leveled gardens reaching 22 meters (75 feet) high, complete with
machinery for circulating water. The gardens were destroyed by several
earthquakes after the second century BC.
4). TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was a Greek temple dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of hunt, wild animals and a lot of other things. It took 120 years to built and was finally finished around 550 BC. Built of marble, it was the favorite wonder of Antipater of Sidon. A young man called Herostratus burned the temple down on July 21, 356 BC to achieve lasting fame. The outraged Ephesians sentenced Herostratus to death and forbade anyone from mentioning his name, which apparently didn’t work out very well. That very same night, Alexander the Great was supposedly born. The temple was restored, destroyed by the Goths, and restored again. In 401, the temple was finally destroyed by a mob led by the Archbishop of Constantinople.
5). LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA
The Lighthouse of Alexandria was
built between 280 and 247 BC on an island at Alexandria to guide sailors into
the harbor at night. Constructed from large blocks of light-colored stone, the
lighthouse was made up of three stages: a lower square section with a central
core, a middle octagonal section, and, at the top, a circular section. With a
height estimated between 120 and 140 meters (390–460 ft), it was among the
tallest structures on Earth for many centuries. The lighthouse was badly damaged
by several earthquakes and disappeared completely in 1480, when the Sultan of
Egypt built a fort on the site of the lighthouse, using some of the fallen
stones. The name of the island that it was built on, Pharos, eventually became
the Latin word for lighthouse.
6). STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was
made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 432 BC. The seated statue, some 12
meters (43 feet) tall, was so large that “if Zeus were to stand up he would hit
the roof of the temple it was housed in”. The sculpture seated on a magnificent
throne of cedarwood, inlaid with ivory, gold, ebony and precious stones. In
Zeus’ right hand there was a small statue of a crowned Nike, goddess of victory,
and in his left hand, a golden scepter on which an eagle perched. The
circumstances of its eventual destruction are a source of debate: it was either
carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in a fire in 475 or the
statue perished with the temple when it burned in 425.
7). MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was
built between 353 and 350 BC for Mausolus, a governor in the Persian Empire.
After Mausolus died Artemisia, his wife and sister, (a custom in the region to
keep the power and the wealth in the family) decided to build him the most
splendid tomb, a structure so famous that the word Mausolus’s name is now the
eponym for all grand tombs, in the word mausoleum. The construction was also so
beautiful and unique that Antipater of Sidon put it on his original wonders of
the world list. Artemisia lived for only two years after the death of her
husband. The urns with their ashes were placed in the yet unfinished tomb. The
mausoleum was destroyed by a series of earthquakes in the 15th century. The
remaining stones were used to built the massive Bodrum
Castle.
