The seven wonders of the ancient world were the selections of Greek tourists and travelers of classical antiquity and only include monuments located around the Mediterranean rim. Here is a quick look at each wonder.
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The great pyramid of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza •The only standing wonder of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a tomb around 2560 BC for the Egyptian pharaoh Cheops of the Fourth Dynasty. Built over the course of 20 years, it stands at 146.6 meters (480.97 feet) and was the tallest man-man structure for more than 3,800 years. |
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The hanging gardens of Babylon 16th-century engraving of the Babylonian Gardens by Dutch artist Martin Heemskerck •A token of love, the hanging gardens of Babylon were built by the Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC) on the eastern bank of Euphrates River to please his wife Amytis of Media who yearned for living in the middle of trees and plants that would remind her of her homeland in Persia.
•Arched vaults built on fountains and streams of water from higher levels irrigated the lush garden and kept it evergreen but a series of earthquakes after the second century BC destroyed it completely. |
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The temple of Artemis at Ephesus Imagined depiction of the Temple of Artemis by Martin Heemskerck •A colossal wonder of marble and bronze dating back to the seventh century BC, the temple of Artemis of ancient Ephesus was a place of worship and a market place in one, catering to the everyday spiritual and material needs of faithful shoppers.
•Chersiphron the Greek architect designed the temple under the auspices of the Lydian king Croesus while the most skillful sculptors at the time the likes of heidias, Polycleitus, Kresilas, and Phradmon chiseled bronze statues as decorative pieces.
•On July 21, 356 BC, a man called Herostratus decided to make history by burning down the temple which coincided with the birthday of Alexander the Great, a coincidence Greeks said was the result of a godly oversight as Artemis was too busy overseeing the birth of Alexander to send aid to her temple. |
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The statue of Zeus at Olympia Depiction of the statue of Zeus by Philippe Galle in 1572 •The magnificent statue of Zeus crowned the ancient town of Olympia on the west coast of present day Greece around 150 kilometers west of Athens. The Greek sculptor Phidias chiseled the statue of the king of gods around 432 BC in the temple of Zeus, one of the largest Doric-style temples in Greece and the most important temple in Olympia. A series of landslides, earthquakes, and floods struck Olympia while a fire in 462 AD destroyed the temple and the statue. |
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Mausoleum at Halicarnassus •Located in south west Turkey in the present day city of Bodrum on the Aegean Sea, this mausoleum was meant to be a tomb for King Mausollos, who ruled the kingdom of Caria, then part of the Persian Empire, from 377 to 353 BC. The construction of the mausoleum started during the king's lifetime and was later completed by his wife Artemisia three years after his death.
•The structure stood for 16 centuries until the Knights of St John from Malta invaded Caria and kept taking stones from the mausoleum to fortify their castle until the mausoleum disappeared by 1522. The castle still stands in Bodrum and the mausoleum stones can be spotted in its structure. |
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Colossus of Rhodes Drawing of the Colossus of Rhodes from The Grolier Society 1911 Book of Knowledge •Constructed to celebrate the unification of the Island of Rhodes' three city-states Ialysos, Kamiros, and Lindos, the colossus was a testament of resistance and willpower against the siege of Antigonids of Macedonia on the island. After twelve years of construction, the colossus was finally completed in 282 BC but damaged by an earthquake. Despite plans to restore the structure, Ptolemy III Eurgetes of Egypt, a strong ally of the Rhodians, changed his mind after consulting an oracle. |
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The lighthouse of Alexandria A 1909 drawing of the lighthouse by German archaeologist H. Thiersch •Built by Ptolemy I Sorter, the last Pharaoh standing, the Egyptian city of Alexandria was located in the ancient island of Pharos and was built when the island became linked to the mainland with a dike and the sailing in the area became dangerous. Construction started in 290 BC and was completed after the death of Ptolemy and vanished after two major earthquakes in 1303 and 1323. |
