The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (part 1)

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the first known list of the most remarkable man-made creations of classical antiquity, and was based on guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim. The number seven was chosen because the Greeks believed it to be the representation of perfection and plenty

Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid at Giza is an awesome sight, thirty times larger than the Empire State Building(in mass), the Pyramid's features are so large they can be seen from the Moon. The oldest structure in existence, having been started 4,617 years ago, it is the sole remnant of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The Great Pyramid did not always look as "rough" as it does today. Originally it was encased with a layer of tight-fitting, highly polished 20-ton stone slabs.W.M. Flinders Petrie determined the exact dimensions of the sides of the Pyramids and he found that they were almost exactly the same length to a accuracy of 0.1 +/- inch.

The Great Pyramid is the most comprehensively studied building in the world. It sited at the northern edge of the Giza plateau. It was estimated that 2,300,000 blocks of stone, weighing between 2-70 tons each, were used in its construction, but recent computer calculations estimated the total number of slabs to be 590,712. The mortar used is of an unknown origin. It has been analyzed and it's chemical composition is known but even using today techniques it can't be reproduced.

The Pyramid contains two interior chambers and a number of interior shafts.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The gardens that Nebuchadnezzar made for his wife have been accounted in many lists as one of the seven wonders of the world. The other part of ancient Babylon that made it on the list were its incredible walls.

The ancient ruins of this famous city lie about 50 miles to the south west of Bagdad in Iraq.

The hanging gardens of Babylon were a present to Nebuchadnezzar's wife that contained exotic plants and animals which were imported from all over the world.

Babylon during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar had conquered and controlled virtually all of the then known world and he made use of these conquests in furnishing his garden with decor which made it become one of the seven wonders of the world.

Ancient Greek historians, Strabo and Philo, gave us these description of the hanging gardens of Babylon:

"The Garden is quadrangular, and each side is four plethra long. It consists of arched vaults which are located on checkered cube-like foundations.. The ascent of the uppermost terrace-roofs is made by a stairway..."

"The Hanging Garden has plants cultivated above ground level, and the roots of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth. The whole mass is supported on stone columns... Streams of water emerging from elevated sources flow down sloping channels... These waters irrigate the whole garden saturating the roots of plants and keeping the whole area moist. Hence the grass is permanently green and the leaves of trees grow firmly attached to supple branches... This is a work of art of royal luxury and its most striking feature is that the labour of cultivation is suspended above the heads of the spectators."

Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia is one of the classical Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was carved by the famed Classical sculptor Phidias (5th century BC) circa 435 BC in Olympia, Greece.

The seated statue occupied the whole width of the aisle of the temple that was built to house it. According to the 1989 World Book, it was 40 feet (12 meters) tall. "It seems that if Zeus were to stand up," the geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC, "he would unroof the temple."

Zeus was carved from ivory (technically the ivory was soaked in a liquid that made it softer, so it was probably both carved and shaped as necessary) then covered with gold plating (thus chryselephantine) and was seated on a magnificent throne of cedarwood, inlaid with ivory, gold, ebony, and precious stones.

In Zeus' right hand there was a small statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, and in his left hand, a shining sceptre on which an eagle perched. Visitors like the Roman general Aemilius Paulus, the victor over Macedon, were moved to awe by the godlike majesty and splendour that Phidias had captured.

The circumstances of its eventual destruction are a source of debate: some scholars argue that it perished with the temple in the 5th century AD, others argue that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Lauseion (Schobel 1965).

According to Lucian of Samosata in the later second century, "they have laid hands on your person at Olympia, my lord High-Thunderer, and you had not the energy to wake the dogs or call in the neighbours; surely they might have come to the rescue and caught the fellows before they had finished packing up the swag".

Perhaps the greatest discovery in terms of finding out about this wonder came in 1958 with the excavation of the workshop used to create the statue. This has led archaeologists to be able to re-create the technique used to make the great work.

Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

The Greeks built a temple in honour of Artemis and placed a statue of her inside the roofless colonnaded interior. The temple was made of white marble and glittered with gold. It was so grand it was said to have "rose to the clouds."

The temple was destroyed by fire in the rebellion of 356 BC. The people loved Artemis so much they built an even more exquisite temple on the same site. In 550BC King Croesus of Lydia conquered Ephesus and the temple was destroyed again. Later it was rebuilt but this time, the temple was giving a higher base and decorated by Scopas and Apelles.

In 333BC when Alexander The Great came to Ephesus the temple was still under construction. Over the next few hundred years pilgrims continued to journey to Ephesus to view the wonder of the marvellous temple. In 57 AD St. Paul came to the city spreading the good news of a new religion called Christianity.

Many years passed and in 262AD the Goths burned down the Temple of Artemis. After that, the Greeks did not rebuild it. Roman Emperor Constantine rebuilt much of Ephesus a century later but he rejected the idea of restoring the temple. By this time most of the people had lost interest in the religion of Artemis and Constantine had accepted Christianity.

Today, it is known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Even though it is long gone you can still read about the temple in many books, including the Bible. The British Museum holds the remains of some sculptured fragments dug from the swampy field where once a grand temple stood. Today in the country of Turkey at Ephesus you can still see the ruins of the Temple of Artemis.

The last three coming