the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and what legends say about them

the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and what legends say about them

The astounding works of art and architecture known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are seen as evidence of the creativity, imagination, and pure hard work that human beings were capable of. 

Yet it is a reminder of the human capacity for difference and destruction. Once ancient writers compiled a list of the "seven wonders of the world," it became a factor for discussion about achievements worth including. Eventually, human hands joined forces with nature to destroy all but one of the Wonders.

Temple of Artemis

There was, in fact, more than one temple of Artemis. A series of temples were destroyed and then restored at the same site in Ephesus, a Greek port city located on the western coast of modern-day Turkey. The most remarkable of these structures were marble temples built around 550 BC. The building burned down in 356 BC and according to legend the same night Alexander the Great was born. 

About six years later construction of a new temple began to replace it. The new building was surrounded by marble steps that led to a terrace more than 400 feet long. Inside are 127 columns of marble 60 feet high. Archaeologists disagree about whether the building had an open-air roof or was topped with wood tiles. The temple was greatly destroyed by the Ostrogoths in 262 BC.

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus is located in what is now southeastern Turkey. It is a mausoleum built by Artemisia for her husband, Moses, King of Karnia in Asia Minor, after his death in 353 BC. 

According to legend, she was so saddened at his passing that she mixed his ashes with water and drank it, in addition to ordering the construction of this shrine. The mausoleum is huge, made entirely of white marble, and is believed to have been about 135 feet high. The design of the building consists of three rectangular layers, the first layer was a 60-foot base, followed by a middle layer consisting of 36 columns and a pyramidal-shaped roof. 

At the top of the roof is the tomb, which is decorated with the work of four sculptors, and a 20-foot-wide marble piece in the form of a horse-drawn chariot. The shrine was largely destroyed in an earthquake in the thirteenth century, and in 1846 some pieces were excavated from the site of Halicarnassus and are now in the British Museum in London.

Rhodes statue

This giant statue is a huge bronze statue of the sun god Helios that was built by the Rhodium people over a period of 12 years in the third century BC. 

The city was the target of a Macedonian siege in the early fourth century BC. According to legend, the Rhodians sold the tools and equipment left over by the Macedonians to pay for the construction costs of the statue. 

The statue, designed by sculptor Charis, was 100 feet high and was the tallest in the ancient world. Its construction was completed in 280 BC. It remained for sixty years until it was destroyed in an earthquake. It has not been rebuilt. Archaeologists don't know much about the statue's exact location or shape, and most believe it is a standing nude depiction of the sun god, holding a torch in one hand and holding a spear in the other. 

It was once thought that the statue stood with one leg on each side of the harbor, but most scholars now agree that the statue's legs were likely built close together to support the statue's massive weight.

Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria is located on a small island called Pharos near the city of Alexandria. It was designed by the Greek architect Sostratos and completed around 270 BC. During the reign of Ptolemy II, the lighthouse helped guide Nile River ships in and out of the city's busy port. Archaeologists found ancient coins on which the lighthouse was depicted and concluded that the structure had three layers: a square level at the bottom, an octagonal level in the middle, and a cylindrical dome.

Above that is a 16-foot statue, probably belonging to Ptolemy II or Alexander the Great, after whom the city is named. Although estimates of the lighthouse's height have ranged between 200 and 600 feet, most modern scholars believe it to be about 380 feet high.

The lighthouse was gradually destroyed during a series of earthquakes between 956 to 1323. Some of its remains have been discovered at the bottom of the Nile River.

Giza Pyramids

The Great Pyramids, located at Giza on the west bank of the Nile north of Cairo, are the only wonder of the ancient world that has survived to this day. The three pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure were built between 2700 BC and 2500 BC as royal tombs. The largest and most impressive of these is Khufu which covers an area of ​​13 acres and is believed to contain more than 2 million stone blocks weighing from two to 30 tons each. For more than 4,000 years, Khufu remained the tallest building in the world. In fact, it took man until the 19th century to build a structure taller than Khufu.

Amazingly, the pyramids are almost symmetrical and were built without the aid of modern tools or surveying equipment. Scientists believe that the Egyptians used cylinders and bottles to move the stones into place. The interior of the pyramids included narrow passages and hidden chambers in an unsuccessful attempt to thwart grave robbers. Although modern archaeologists have found some great treasures among the ruins, they believe that most of what the pyramids contained was looted within 250 years after they were completed.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

According to ancient Greek poets, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built near the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC. These gardens were said to be planted up to 75 feet in the air on a massive square brick terrace and set on steps like a theatre. Modern scholars have concluded that in order for the gardens to survive in that distant era, they must be irrigated using a system consisting of a pump, a water wheel, and tanks to transport water from the Euphrates River to long distances, although there are many accounts of gardens in Greek and Roman literature. However, none of them have been found before and no mention of the garden has been found in Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions. As a result, most modern scholars believe that the gardens' existence was part of a mythological but still fanciful story.

Statue of Zeus in Olympia

The famous Statue of Zeus was designed by the Athenian sculptor Phidias and placed in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic Games, around the middle of the fifth century BC. This statue depicts the god of thunder sitting on a wooden throne. 

The statue of Zeus was decorated with gold and ivory. It rises to 40 feet and was so tall that its head almost touched the top of the temple. According to legend, the sculptor Phidias asked Zeus for a sign of his approval after completing the statue. The statue of Zeus remained in the Temple of Olympia for more than eight centuries before Christian priests persuaded the Roman emperor to close the temple in the fourth century AD. At that time, the statue was moved to a temple in Constantinople, where it is believed to have been destroyed in a fire in 462 AD.