THE 7 WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
THE GREAT PYRAMID OF KHUFU near Cairo is the only one of the original seven wonders of the world that is still standing. Built about 2600 B.C., this tomb of a pharaoh is the largest of the 70 or so pyramids in Egypt. Each side of the 13-acre square base originally measured about 756 feet. Blocks of stone quarried nearby rise in steps to a 481-foot peak. Some of the more than two million blocks of limestone weigh 30 tons, but the average is about 2½ tons. It took 30 years and the labor of 100,000 men to haul the stones up long ramps. Fine stones to line the inner passages and burial chambers were quarried in the south of Egypt and shipped by raft 700 miles down the Nile to the site of the pyramid. On the exterior was placed a facing of white limestone blocks that made the tomb glisten in the sunlight. Many of these finely cut slabs have since been removed and used to adorn public buildings.
Nearby on the plains of Giza is the Sphinx, a temple-monument carved after a second pyramid had been built in the area. The Sphinx was cut from a natural bluff of rock, formed as a result of stone quarrying for the pyramids. Its shape is that of a lion with a human head.
MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS. Shortly after the death of King Mausolus ín 353 B.C., his widow, Queen Artemisia, had an elaborate tomb, 140 feet high, erected in his memory. On the top a chariot drawn by prancing horses carried figures of Mausolus and his queen. The tomb still existed in Asia Minor on the Aegean Sea when Columbus discovered America. Later destroyed by an earthquake, remnants of the statues can be seen today in the British Museum.
HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON. These are known today only from description in ancient writings. The bride of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was a princess from a mountainous region. In order to make her feel at home in the plains country, Nebuchadnezzar surrounded his palace with landscaped terraces. Flowers, trees and shrubs topped the towering walls that surrounded the magnificent gardens. The gardens, one of the original seven wonders, were built about 2,500 years ago.
STATUE OF ZEUS. The Romans called him Jupiter. The Greeks called him Zeus. To both he was the king of the gods. About 2,400 years ago the Greek sculptor Phidias carved a 40-foot statue of Zeus for the site of the original
Olympic games. Thin sheets of gold and ivory covered the body of the statue; the eyes were jewels. Considered one of the handsomest statues ever made, this was.one of the original wonders of the world. Removed to Constantinople by Theodosius I, the statue was destroyed by fire in A.D. 476. No trace remains.
Phidias is also famed for the frieze of the Parthenon and a number of other existing statues, which he did for temples in Athens.
COLOSSUS OF RHODES. One of the largest statues of ancient Greece was of the god Helios, later known as Apollo. Built of bronze in 280 B.C., it was 100 feet tall-about two-thirds the height of the Statue of Liberty. Since it stood at the harbor entrance of Rhodes, an island city in the Aegean Sea, it was called the Colossus of Rhodes. The word colossal comes from its name. Although the statue was destroyed by an earthquake only 56 years after completion, it had already been listed as one of the seven wonders of the world. Over a thousand years later, scraps of the statue that remained on the site were hauled away and probably converted into the tools of war. A reverse situation—statues from cannons—occurs.
THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS was one of a series of temples built on the same site to honor the Greek goddess of the moon. All were located in the city of Ephesus on the coast of what is now Turkey. The temple, erected during the reign of Alexander the Great, became known as a wonder of the ancient world. It was almost 400 feet long, covered nearly two acres, and had more than 100 pillars, each 60 feet high. Inside
the shrine was a statue of the goddess Artemis (Diana). Worshipers brought so many gifts, that the temple soon became filled with treasure. Barbarians looted and damaged the temple in A.D. 262. Later it was torn down. Eight of its dark-green marble columns can be seen in the Mosque of St. Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.
PHAROS OF ALEXANDRIA, a lighthouse, was one of the original seven wonders of the world. Located on the island of Pharos near Alexandria, Egypt, it was built about 240 B.C., during the reign of the Greek king, Ptolemy Philadelphus. Estimates of its height range to 600 feet, but it was probably not over 400 feet. An earthquake destroyed the lighthouse in the 14th century, and mud has changed Pharos into a península. Yet the fame of this lighthouse lives on in the word pharos, used to refer to any lighthouse.
