![]() He decided it was time for a new list of Seven Wonders so, through an entity called New7Wonders he organized an international poll that he has since continued on an ongoing basis. It was crippled by earthquakes in the 14th century and was rubble by the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic.Ī few years ago, a Swiss traveler named Bernard Weber noted the limited scope of those early Greek historians whose experience included little more than the Mediterranean basin. At a height that may have reached 450 feet, it was one of the tallest man-made structures on earth (behind only the pyramids of Khufu and Khafra) for 1,000 years or more. to serve as that port’s landmark and lighthouse. But he referred elsewhere to the Lighthouse of Alexandria, a tower built in the 3rd century B.C. With a thickness of 32 feet, four chariots abreast could race atop it. In his poem, Antipater included the formidable wall that encircled Babylon. There seem to have been two number sevens. At 455 feet, it remained the tallest man-made structure for more than 3,800 years (until barely surpassed in 1235 by the Gothic spire of the Lincoln Cathedral). The estimated number of workers varies from 40,000 to 350,000 (working for 20 years). Completed circa 2570 B.C., it’s built of 2.3 million granite, limestone, and basalt blocks. Great Pyramid at Giza (Egypt): This brilliantly engineered pyramid near the Nile and Cairo is thought to have been built as the tomb of the pharaoh Khufu. It was built on a breakwater and, contrary to myth, never straddled the entire harbor. To avoid offending Helios, the remains were left where they had fallen until sold as scrap in the 7th century. After only 54 years, it collapsed during an earthquake. Today only a single column remains of the breathtakingly beautiful temple.Ĭolossus of Rhodes (Greece): A 110-foot-tall statue (at that time the tallest in the world) of the Greek god Helios was erected on Rhodes in the 3rd century B.C. It was created to worship the Greek virgin huntress, Artemis, goddess of the moon. It was first destroyed by arson, rebuilt, destroyed again by marauding Goths, rebuilt, and destroyed by a mob in 401. Temple of Artemis at Ephesus: The greatest of the wonders to Antipater’s eye was the Temple of Artemis with a floor plan of 377 by 180 feet and 127 Ionic marble columns, built around 550 B.C. Now you know why a large tomb came to be known as a “mausoleum.” Finished in about 350 B.C., it stood stoutly until Crusaders tore it down at the end of the 15th century. ![]() The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (Turkey): As Wonders go, King Mausollos’ tomb was a small structure with a base of 120 by 100 feet and a height of 140 feet. ![]() Some historians say they perished in an earthquake in the 1st century B.C. They consisted of a series of ascending terraces, vaults, arches, and galleries built in tiers that crested at 75 feet. The gardens, nurtured by water from the Euphrates River, were a quadrangle about 400 feet on a side. Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Iraq): Around 600 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar built the gardens to please his wife who longed for lush surroundings in the harsh landscape. Statue of Zeus at Olympia (Greece): Around 432 B.C., Phidias, paying homage to Zeus, constructed this 40-foot-high seated figure on a wooden frame, using ivory for the flesh and gold leaf for garments and armor. The “old” wonders have been discarded now, but let’s pause for a moment and honor them by at least understanding what they were. One of them, Antipater of Sidon, immortalized the list in a poem that’s lasted for two millennia: “I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, ‘Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught (anything) so grand.” That old list was devised by a handful of wandering Greeks, mostly historians, over a period of four centuries. They soon drifted out of my mind because I had no idea where or what they were. ![]() Since she was my fourth grade geography teacher, I was immediately required to memorize the name of every one of them. ![]() Laningham had never been out of Texas but she could recite the Seven Wonders of the World. The pagodas of Bagan, Myanmar make the author's list of world wonders. Seven Wonders of the World: Lots to Wonder About ![]()
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