The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: an Overview

Hello and welcome to Ancient History Encyclopedia. My name is Kelly and today we're going to be taking a look at the seven wonders of the ancient world. Now these seven wonders were the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia in Greece, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse at Alexandria in Egypt. These seven sites were known in Greek as the Makter, or things to be seen, which is now known as must-see sites. It was in 225 BCE when Philo of Byzantium listed these seven wonders and they were further written about by Herodotus and Callimachus of Cyrene and Antipater of Sidon. Of these seven ancient wonders, only the Great Pyramid of Giza remains. First let's start with the only surviving wonder, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. This pyramid was built for the pharaoh Khufu between the years 2584 and 2561 BCE. For almost 4,000 years this pyramid was the tallest man-made structure. For ancient Egyptians it was the height and amazing symmetry that drew their interest, but interest did increase when the excavations began in the late 18th and early 19th centuries CE. No one at the time could understand how the ancient Egyptians built the Great Pyramid, and this question continues to be debated in the present day. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, gardens which have yet to be confirmed as a reality, are said to have been built by Nebuchadnezzar II between 605 and 562 BCE for his wife. The ancient writer Diodorus Siculus described the Hanging Gardens as extending over a height of 23 meters or 75 feet, which comprised of exotic flora and fauna. They were self-watering and climbed through a series of terraces. Diodorus claims that Amtis of Media, Nebuchadnezzar's wife, missed her homeland's mountains and flowers, and so he decreed that an artificial mountain with all of her favorite flowers be constructed in Babylon. Herodotus, in his description of Babylon, does not mention the gardens, although it is thought that he may never have actually visited the city. He is also known to have gotten things wrong and left things out of his description. The gardens are not only mentioned by Diodorus, but by Philo and the historian Strabo. They are believed to have been destroyed sometime after the 1st century CE by an earthquake. Modern scholars have suggested that the gardens were actually located in the city of Nineveh, constructed during the reign of Sennacherib, and ancient historians confused the descriptions of Babylon and Nineveh. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was created by an artist known as the finest sculptor of the ancient world in the 5th century BCE, Phidias, who also worked on the Parthenon and the statue of Athena in Athens. The statue of the god Zeus was 12 meters or 40 feet tall, made out of ivory and his robes created by hammered gold. He was crafted as sitting on his throne as the king of the gods to inspire awe in his worshippers. Strabo has criticized the sculptor in his proportions of Zeus, noting that if the statue stood up, Zeus's head would go through the roof. After the ban of the Olympic Games due to the rise of Christianity, which labeled them as pagan rites, the temple was neglected and fell into ruin. The statue was carried off to Constantinople and was destroyed in either the 5th or the 6th century CE due to an earthquake. Ephesus was a Greek colony in Asia Minor where the temple of Artemis stood. The temple, 129 meters long by 69 meters wide, that's 425 feet by 225 feet, took over 120 years to build and yet only a single night to be destroyed. The temple was supported by 18 meter high columns and was sponsored by the king Croesus of Lydia, who was a very wealthy man and never spared an expense on anything he did, according to Herodotus and others. Every ancient writer references this temple with awe and amazement. A man named Herostratus, looking for fame by destroying something so beautiful, set fire to the temple on July 21st, 356 BCE. Although the Ephesians decree that his name never be recorded or remembered, Strabo recorded his name in his own history of the temple as he believed it was an important point. On the day that the temple was burnt, Alexander the Great was born and later he offered to rebuild the temple, which was gracefully declined by the Ephesians as they did not wish to owe the conqueror anything. The temple was built again on a lesser scale after the death of Alexander the Great but it was destroyed by invasion of the Goths. It was rebuilt and destroyed again by a Christian mob in 401 CE. The mausoleum of Halicarnassus was the tomb of the Persian satrap Mausolus, built in 351 BCE. Mausolus chose Halicarnassus to be his capital city and went to great lengths to make it the most beautiful city for his wife Artemisia. When Mausolus died in 353 BCE, Artemisia wanted his final resting place to be fit for the greatest of kings and when she died two years later her ashes were placed in the mausoleum with his. The tomb was 41 meters tall and was beautifully decorated in sculptures. After a series of earthquakes it was destroyed and lay in ruins for hundreds of years. It was completely dismantled in 1494 CE and was used in the building of a castle in Bodrum by the knights of Saint John of Malta and some of these ancient stones can still be seen in the castle today. From this tomb of Mausolus derives the English word mausoleum. Next is the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue of the island's patron god Helios which stood over 33 meters high. It was built between 292 and 280 BCE and much like the Statue of Liberty stood overlooking the Harbour of Rhodes with its feet together on a base. It only stood for around 56 years before it was destroyed by an earthquake in 226 BCE. Even as a ruin it was a tourist attraction for around 800 years. According to the historian Theophanes, the ruins were sold in around 654 CE to a Jewish merchant from Edessa who took the pieces away on 900 camels to be melted down. Last but certainly not least is the Lighthouse of Alexandria commissioned by Ptolemy I Soter. It was completed around 480 BCE and stood at nearly 134 meters tall on the island of Pharos off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt. It was the third tallest man-made structure after the pyramids of its day and used the sun's reflections during the day and fire by night to cast almost 35 miles of light out to sea. It was badly damaged in 956 CE by an earthquake again in 1303 and then once more in 1323 CE. By 1480 CE it was completely gone. There is now an Egyptian fort on the site built with some of the stones from the lighthouse ruins. If you are interested in exploring the ancient wonders of the world then I would recommend the Seven Wonders AR or Augmented Reality app. It allows you to explore the seven ancient wonders in miniature and gives you information on the wonders in app. It also allows you to explore the hanging gardens of Babylon in a larger size and hopefully one day they'll have all seven options available. I was using it in my backyard walking through what might have been a fantastic site. This video was brought to you by Ancient History Encyclopedia. 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