The seven wonders of the Ancient world...

[ra187]

1. Pyramids of Giza

Egypt's three Pyramids of Giza, the only ancient wonder still standing today. But they are in a class by themselves in practically every other way as well. The largest and oldest of the three, the Great Pyramid, was built for the pharaoh Khufu (called Cheops by the Greeks) in the 26th century BC. That makes it 2,000 years older than any other wonder on the list. The Great Pyramid climbs more than 450 feet (138 meters) into the sky--high enough to make it the tallest structure on Earth for almost 4,000 years, until European cathedrals started reaching for heaven. It's made up of about 2.3 million massive blocks of stone, weighing perhaps 6 million tons all told. Some have described it as "the most colossal single building ever erected on the planet." Now that's a wonder for any list, old or new.

2.Colossus of Rhodes

On the Greek island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean Sea, workers made wonder out of war. An army had besieged the island's capital. But Rhodes resisted for a year, and the army left. So the Rhodians reforged the army's abandoned bronze and iron weapons and sold its siege equipment to make a colossus: a 110-foot (34-meter) statue of the sun god Helios. By 280 BC, it stood tall on a marble pedestal near the harbor--until an earthquake toppled it just 56 years later.

3.Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria

In the Egyptian port of Alexandria, few would have been overawed by Rhodes's colossus. For in Alexandria's harbor, on a small island named Pharos, stood the original lighthouse. It was made around the same time as Rhodes's statue, but dwarfed it. It stood 384 feet (117 meters) high--some say higher. Fires burned at the top at night, and bronze mirrors reflected sunlight during the day. It stood until the 14th century, when earthquakes ruined it, too.

4. Statue of Zeus at Olympia

By 435 BC, the famed Greek sculptor Phidias was pounding the last plates of gold and ivory into place on a 40-foot (12-meter) statue of Zeus, seated on a cedarwood throne. No one knows what became of the thunder god's likeness, but we have found the workshop Phidias used to make it.

5. Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

South of Ephesus, at Halicarnassus, ruled Mausolus, a Persian satrap who admired the Greek way of life. So, when Mausolus died in 353 BC, his sister-widow-queen, Artemisia, built him the most opulent Greek tomb around. It was 135 feet (40 meters) tall, adorned on every side with sculpture, and capped with a pyramidal roof. An earthquake brought the tomb down in medieval times, and Mausolus's memory now survives mainly in the word mausoleum.

6. Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

The Ephesians erected their great temple for Apollo's twin sister Artemis around 550 BC. They rebuilt it after 356 BC, when a terrorist bent on fame set it ablaze. Located in today's Turkey, across the Aegean Sea from Athens, the temple drew many Greeks bearing gifts. They marveled at its size--imagine a football field surrounded by marble--and at the art inside. Little remains of the temple today, just fragments at the site and in museums.

7. Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Bible readers know Nebuchadnezzar II as the king who, in 587 BC, destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem and forced the Jews into exile in Babylonia. But ancient tourists knew him as the man behind Babylon's Hanging Gardens. Built around 600 BC, the gardens grew on the roof of a terraced structure within his palace walls, irrigated by pumps that drew water up from the Euphrates. Today, Babylon is a ruin near Baghdad, and no definitive trace of the gardens has ever been found.

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[Snow Crash]

Nice one Ra. I always felt there should have been more than seven though. For example, the tomb of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The size of a city, guarded by the Terracotta Army, and rumoured to include a map of China on the floor with water bodies represented with mercury.

[MrPenny]

Unfortunately, that tomb wasn't excavated until late in the 20th century? Kinda' late to the club I think.

[Snow Crash]

Unfortunately, that tomb wasn't excavated until late in the 20th century? Kinda' late to the club I think.

True, but I though ancient should be defined by when it was built, not when European and American historians start to take an interest.

And another thing: why not the Great Wall?

[ra187]

I agree snow...

there are many other things out there that should have been included...Machu pichu comes to mind even though that isnt to ancient.

Also this comes to mind: Puma Punku in Tiahuanaco

They are arguably the oldest, and most baffling ruins on the face of the Earth. It is hard to imagine how they did not come to be known as one of the wonders of the world like the Great Pyramid. Spectacular in its own right, the Great Pyramid is, yet it pales in comparison to the ruins of Puma Punku in Tiahuanaco, in South America.

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[Snow Crash]

I've not heard of Puma Punku before, certainly looks interesting. I'm loving the speculation over the stone cutting techniques and the actual stone used.

[Snow Crash]

Random multiple posting

[Snow Crash]

Random multiple posting 2

[Dr Exile]

The seven wonders were compiled in ancient times before there was much contact with China or the Americas.