The Seven Wonders

7 Ancient Wonders of The World

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World had been:

• the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt
• the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece
• the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
• the Colossus of Rhodes
• the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt

The Seven Wonders have been first described as themata 

(Greek for 'matters to be seen’ which, in these days’s not unusual English, we'd phrase as 'need to sees’) with the aid of Philo of Byzantium in 225 BCE, in his paintings On The Seven Wonders. Other writers at the Seven Wonders include Herodotus, Callimachus of Cyrene and Antipater of Sidon. Of the authentic seven, simplest the Great Pyramid exists nowadays.

GREAT PYRAMID AT GIZA

The Great Pyramid at Giza was built among 2584 and 2561 BCE for the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (recognized in Greek as `Cheops') and was the tallest man-made shape within the global for almost 4,000 years. Excavations of the indoors of the pyramid have been most effective initiated in earnest inside the past due to 18th and early 19th centuries CE and so the intricacies of the indoors which so intrigue present-day human beings had been unknown to the ancient writers. It was the structure itself with its best symmetry and imposing height which impressed historic visitors.

HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, if they existed as described, have been built by Nebuchadnezzar II between 605-562 BCE as a gift to his wife. They are defined via the historic creator Diodorus Siculus as being self-watering planes of amazing plants and fauna attaining a height of over 75 feet (23 meters) through a series of hiking terraces. Diodorus wrote that Nebuchadnezzar's wife, Amtis of Media, overlooked the mountains and flora of her hometown and so the king commanded that a mountain is created for her in Babylon. The controversy over whether or not the gardens existed comes from the fact that they're nowhere referred to in Babylonian history and that Herodotus, `the Father of History', makes no mention of them in his descriptions of Babylon. There are many other historical records, figures, and places Herodotus fails to mention, however, or has been shown to be incorrect about. Diodorus, Philo, and the historian Strabo all claim the gardens existed. They have been destroyed by an earthquake someday after the first century CE.

STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia became created by the awesome Greek sculptor Phidias (known as the best sculptor of the ancient global in the fifth century BCE, he additionally worked at the Parthenon and the statue of Athena there in Athens). The statue depicted the god Zeus seated on his throne, his skin of ivory and gowns of hammered gold, and became 40 feet (12 m)  tall, designed to inspire awe inside the worshippers who came to the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.  Not each person turned into awestruck with the aid of the statue, but. Strabo reviews, “Although the temple itself may be very massive, the sculptor is criticized for now not having liked the best proportions. He has shown Zeus seated, however with the top almost touching the ceiling, in order that we have the influence that if Zeus moved to stand up he would unroof the temple” (Seven Wonders). The Temple at Olympia fell into damage after the rise of Christianity and the ban at the Olympic Games as `pagan rites’. The statue became carried off to Constantinople in which it becomes later destroyed, sometimes in both the fifth or 6th centuries CE, by using an earthquake.

TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT EPHESUS

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Ephesos), a Greek colony in Asia Minor, took over one hundred twenty years to build and most effective one night to break. Completed in 550 BCE, the temple turned into 425 toes (about 129 m) excessive, 225 toes (nearly sixty-nine m) huge, supported through 127 60 foot (about 18 m) excessive columns. Sponsored with the aid of the rich King Croesus of Lydia, who spared no price in something he did (in step with Herodotus, amongst others) the temple turned into so superb that each account of it's far written with the identical tone of awe and each has the same opinion with the alternative that this turned into some of the maximum remarkable systems ever raised by using human beings. On July 21, 356 BCE a person named Herostratus set fireplace to the temple in order, as he said, to acquire lasting fame by forever being related to the destruction of something so beautiful. The Ephesians decreed that his name ought to by no means be recorded nor remembered however Strabo set it down as a factor of interest inside the history of the temple. On an identical night, the temple burned, Alexander the Great changed into born and, later, provided to rebuild the ruined temple but the Ephesians refused his generosity. It changed into rebuilt on a much less grand scale after Alexander’s dying however become destroyed by the invasion of the Goths. Rebuilt again, it turned into ultimately destroyed totally by way of a Christian mob lead with the aid of Saint John Chrysostom in 401 CE.

MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus turned into the tomb of the Persian Satrap Mausolus, built in c. 351 BCE. Mausolus selected Halicarnassus as his capital city, and he and his beloved spouse Artemisia went to tremendous lengths to create a city whose beauty might be unmatched in the international. Mausolus died in 353 BCE and Artemisia wished to create a final resting vicinity worth of this type of brilliant king. Artemisia died two years after Mausolus and her ashes have been entombed together with his within the mausoleum (Pliny the Elder records that the craftsmen persisted paintings on the shape after her death, both as a tribute to their patroness and knowing the work could carry them lasting repute). The tomb became a hundred thirty-five toes (forty-one m) tall and ornately adorned with fine sculpture. It turned into destroyed through a series of earthquakes and lay in destroy for loads of years until, in 1494 CE, it turned into absolutely dismantled and used by the Knights of St. John of Malta inside the building of their castle at Bodrum (where the ancient stones can nevertheless be visible today).  It is from the tomb of Mausolus that the English word `mausoleum’ is derived.

COLOSSUS OF RHODES

The Colossus of Rhodes become a statue of the god Helios (the purchaser god of the island of Rhodes) built between 292 and 280 BCE. It stood over a hundred and ten toes (simply over 33 m) high overlooking the harbor of Rhodes and, no matter fanciful depictions to the contrary, stood with its legs collectively on a base (similar to the Statue of Liberty inside the harbor of New York City in the United States of America, that's modeled at the Colossus) and did now not straddle the harbor. The statue turned into commissioned after the defeat of the invading military of Demetrius in 304 BCE. Demetrius left at the back of a good deal of his siege system and weaponry and this turned into bought by the Rhodians for three hundred skills (approximately 360 million U.S. Bucks) which money they used to construct the Colossus. The statue stood for only 56 years before it turned into destroyed by means of an earthquake in 226 BCE. It lay in astounding smash for over 800 years, in line with Strabo, and was nevertheless a vacationer appeal. Pliny the Elder claims that the fingers of the Colossus had been large than maximum statues of his day. According to the historian, Theophanes the bronze ruins were finally sold to “a Jewish service provider of Edessa” round 654 CE who carried them away on 900 camels to be melted down.

LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA

The Lighthouse at Alexandria, constructed at the island of Pharos, stood near 440 ft (134 m) in the top and was commissioned with the aid of Ptolemy I Soter. Construction was finished sometime around 280 BCE. The lighthouse becomes the 1/3 tallest human-made shape within the world (after the pyramids) and its light (a reflect which meditated the solar’s rays via day and a fire by means of the night) might be visible as a way as 35 miles out to sea. The shape rose from a rectangular base to a center octagonal phase up to around top and people who saw it in its glory said that phrases have been insufficient to describe its beauty. The lighthouse turned into badly damaged in an earthquake in 956 CE, once more in 1303 CE and 1323 CE and, by means of the year 1480 CE, it became long past. The Egyptian fortress Quaitbey now stands on the web page of the Pharos, constructed with some of the stones from the ruins of the lighthouse.

OTHER WONDERS

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World have been, by no means, a comprehensive agreed-upon list of the maximum wonderful systems of the day. Rather, the list changed into very just like a current-day traveler pamphlet informing tourists on what to peer on their ride. Those masterpieces indexed above are the traditionally regularly occurring 'wonders’ as the first set down by means of Philo of Byzantium however there were many writers who observed him who disagreed on what changed into a 'surprise’ and what becomes simplest of passing interest. Herodotus, as an example, cites the Egyptian Labyrinth as being some distance more amazing than even the pyramids of Giza, pointing out, 

I visited this constructing and observed it to surpass description; for if all the extraordinary works of the Greeks may be put together in one, they would now not equal this Labyrinth. The Pyramids likewise surpass description, however, the Labyrinth surpasses the Pyramids.

Nor did all agree on which of the 'wonders’ changed into the most brilliant, as this passage from Antipater, praising the Temple of Artemis, attests:

I even have gazed at the partitions of impregnable Babylon along which chariots may also race, and at the Zeus via the banks of the Alpheus, I even have seen the striking gardens, and the Colossus of the Helios, the top-notch man-made mountains of the lofty pyramids, and the big tomb of Mausolus; however when I saw the sacred house of Artemis, that towers to the clouds, the others had been positioned within the color, for the sun himself, has never looked upon its identical, out of doors Olympus.

Antipater also replaced the Lighthouse with Babylon's walls and Callimachus, among others, listed the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. Philo’s listing, but, has long been popular as the 'reputable’ definition of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. What they all did agree on, however, turned into that, once upon a time, human beings raised structures which had been worthy of the work of the gods and, once seen, were in no way to be forgotten.