The Seven Wonders of the World are a series of constructions of classical antiquity (between the 8th century BCE and the 5th century CE). The list varied through the years and did not stabilise until the Renaissance, and now includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Six of them – except for the Pyramid of Giza, which still stands relatively intact – have been destroyed, while the Hanging Gardens of Babylon may not have existed at all.

Background

The Greek conquest of much of the known western world in the 4th century BC allowed for Hellenistic travellers to discover the civilizations of the Egyptians, Persians, and Babylonians. Amazed by what they saw, the travellers listed the landmarks and marvels of these lands to remember them.

The first reference to a list of seven such monuments was given by Diodorus Siculus (90-30 BCE), while the epigrammist Antipater of Sidon (second half of the 2nd century BCE) gave a list of seven such monuments, including six of the present list (substituting the Lighthouse of Alexandria with the Walls of Babylon). The mathematician Philo of Byzantium (280-220 BCE), wrote a short account entitled The Seven Sights of the World. However, the incomplete surviving manuscript covered only six of the supposedly seven places, and agreed with Antipater’s list.

The list covered only the sculptural and architectural monuments of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions – the known world for the Greeks – meaning sites beyond these territories were not considered. Because it was Hellenistic travellers that wrote the list, most works were a celebration of Greek accomplishments (only the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are not Greek).

All seven wonders of the world existed at the same time for a period of less than 60 years, from around 280 BCE to 226 BCE.

The Great Pyramid of Giza

Egyptologists believe the pyramid was built as a tomb for the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu – or Cheops – and was finished around 2560 BCE after a 10 or 20 year period. It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid stood at 146.5 metres tall, but with erosion and absence of its pyramidion its present height is 138.8 metres. This pyramid remained the tallest human-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years from its date of completion until 1311 CE.

The Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks, meaning that building it in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day, and 12 blocks would have been put into place each hour, day and night. At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by highly polished white limestone, although all that remains today is the underlying stepped core structure.

The blocks and limestone and other materials used are believed to have been transported from nearby quarries, although some came from more than 800 km away. Many historians disagree on whether the blocks were dragged, lifted, or even rolled into place, while Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern discoveries suggest that it was built instead by tens of thousands of skilled workers.

In 1303 CE, a major earthquake loosened many of the outer limestones, which were then carted away in 1356 to build mosques and fortresses in Cairo, while many more were removed for similar reasons during the 19th century. Nevertheless, a few of the casing stones from the lowest course can be seen to this day around the base of the Great Pyramid.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were a series of ascending tiered gardens containing a wide variety of trees, shrubs and vines, resembling a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks. According to one source, they were built alongside The Marvel of Mankind grand palace by the Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife Amytis because she missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland.

It is unclear whether the Hanging Gardens were an actual construction or not due to the lack of documentation, and neither Nebuchadnezzar II or Amytis mention them in their works. The descriptions of five writers (Berossus, Cleitarchus, Ctesias of Cnidus, Onescicritus and Philo of Byzantium) exist today, and they tell the size of the gardens, their overall design and means of irrigation, and why they were built. However, to date, no archaeological evidence has been found at the ancient city of Babylon (near present-day Hillah, Iraq), where they are said to have been built.

Three theories have been suggested to account for this. One: that they were purely mythical and the descriptions by ancient Greek and Roman writers represent a romantic ideal of an eastern garden. Two: that they existed in Babylon, but were completely destroyed sometime around the first century AD. Three: that the legend refers to a well-documented garden that the Assyrian King Sennacherib built in his capital city of Nineveh on the River Tigris, near the modern city of Mosul. Archaeological excavations have found traces of a vast system of aqueducts attributed to Sennacherib by an inscription on its remains, which historian Dalley proposes were part of a series of canals, dams, and aqueducts used to carry water to the upper levels of the gardens.

The Temple of Artemis

The Temple of Artemis was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient and local form of the goddess Artemis. It was located in Ephesus, in Anatolia, near the modern town of Selçuk in present-day Turkey. Today the site of the temple is marked by a single column constructed of dissociated fragments found on location. It was completely rebuilt three times, and in its final form was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The earliest version of the temple dates to the Bronze Age and is attributed to the mythical Amazons, a brutal and aggressive tribe of women warriors. In the 7th century BCE, it was destroyed by a flood, which deposited over half a meter of sand over the original clay floor. It was reconstructed around 550 BC by Croesus of the Lydia Empire but was destroyed in 356 BC in an act of arson by Herostratus, who set fire to the wooden roof-beams, seeking fame at any cost.

The Ephesians rebuilt a larger temple in 323 BCE with over 127 columns and images and altars of Artemis. In 268 CE, the temple was damaged after a raid by the Goths, but was repaired and later used for worship during the rise of Christianity. The temple was closed during the early to mid-5th-century because of the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire, and the name of Artemis was erased from inscriptions in the city and temple. However, it is unknown how long the building stood after being closed by the Christians. Some stones from the temple were eventually used in the construction of other buildings and columns, while statues and decorative elements were also taken elsewhere.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was commissioned by the Eleans, custodians of the Olympic Games, and designed by the renowned sculptor Phidias, for the recently constructed Temple of Zeus in the town of Olympia, in Greece. The figure was about 13 meters tall and represented a Zeus made of a wooden structure covered by ivory and gold sitting on a throne. The statue was crowned with a wreath of olive branches and wore a robe carved with animals and lilies that covered the lower half of his body. On his right hand was a statue of a crowned Nike, goddess of victory, while he held a tall sceptre supporting an eagle on his left hand. The throne featured dozens of painted pictures, and the whole statue sat on a decorated base.

The statue was constructed around 435 BCE and used for worship until 391 CE, when the Roman Empire banned participation in pagan cults and closed temples, meaning that the sanctuary at Olympia fell into disuse. The circumstances of the statue’s eventual destruction are unknown. It is believed that it was either carried off to Constantinople – where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Palace of Lausus, in 475 AD – or that it was destroyed along with the temple by fire in 425 AD. However, before its destruction, the statue had also suffered a degree of loss or damage. No copy in marble or bronze has ever been found, and details of the figure are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins and gems.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was an above-ground tomb built between 353 and 350 BC on a hill overlooking the city of Halicarnassus, in present-day Bodrum, Turkey. It was designed by the Greek architects Satyros and Pythius of Priene and had a height of 45 meters. The tomb, which sat on a tall stone platform, could be accessed by a stairway flanked by stone lions. The bottom half of the tomb was a stone block covered in reliefs showing action scenes. Above, 36 columns and 35 statues surrounded a smaller block that carried the weight of the tomb’s massive pyramidal roof, which had a quadriga at the top – a sculpture of four horses pulling a chariot that carried Mausolus and Artemisia. The tomb became so famous that Mausolus’s name is now the eponym for all stately tombs, in the word mausoleum.

In the 4th century BCE, Mausolus and Artemisia ruled the small regional kingdom of Caria, in western Anatolia, as satraps (provincial governors) of the Achaemenid Empire. The rulers decided to make Halicarnassus the capital of this territory and built statues and temples there. The tomb was planned by Mausolus and built around his death in 350 BCE, although it is unknown whether construction started before or after his death. When Artemisia died only two years later, their ashes were placed in the yet unfinished tomb. The Mausoleum survived the city’s fall to Alexander the Great and later attacks by pirates, standing for sixteen centuries. However, a series of earthquakes between the 12th and 15th century ended up destroying it. By 1404 CE only the very base of the Mausoleum was standing, and many of the stones were later used in nearby constructions.

The Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek god of the Sun Helios, built in the city of Rhodes, on the island of the same name. It was constructed to celebrate Rhodes’ victory over the ruler of Cyprus, Antigonus I Monophthalmus. In 305 BCE, Antigonus’ son Demetrius Poliorcetes besieged Rhodes in an effort for it to end its close relationship with Ptolemy I of Egypt, but the next year Ptolemy sent a contingent of ships to Rhodes which forced Demetrius and his army off the island.

The statue began construction in 292 BCE under the direction of sculptor Chares of Lindos and was completed twelve years later. It was poised upon a white marble pedestal and stood at 33 metres high, making it the tallest statue of the ancient world. The interior structure was made of iron and stone blocks, while it was covered in brass plates to form the skin. The Colossus stood for 54 years until Rhodes was hit by an earthquake in 226 BCE, which made the statue snap at its knees and fall. The remains laid on the ground, where they were a public attraction, until 653 CE, when Muslim caliph Muawiyah I captured Rhodes and melted down the statue to sell it to a Jewish merchant.

It is believed that the statue was located near the Mandraki harbour entrance or on a breakwater. However, it could not have stood above the entrance with its feet apart, as studies indicate it would have collapsed under its own weight. Also, the harbour would have had to close while it was being built, and the fallen statue would have blocked the harbour entrance. There is also no evidence that it held a torch, while Helios might have stood with one hand shielding his eyes.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, or Pharos of Alexandria, was a lighthouse built on the island of Pharos, opposite the city of Alexandria (later connected through an isthmus), which was founded by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. After Alexander’s death, Ptolemy I Soter announced himself ruler of Egypt and founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, turning Egypt into a Hellenistic kingdom, and commissioned the construction of the lighthouse shortly after. The building took twelve years to complete and was finished somewhere between 284 and 246 BCE, during Ptomely II Philadelphus’s rule (son of Ptolemy I Soter).

Built mostly with solid blocks of limestone, the lighthouse is estimated to have been somewhere between 103 and 118 meters tall and was built on a wide base. Its tower had three distinct sections: a lower square section with a central core, a middle octagonal section, and an upper circular section. Above the tower was a mirror which reflected sunlight during the day and a furnace which held a fire during the night. A statue of Triton was positioned on each of the building’s four corners, while a statue of Poseidon or Zeus stood atop the lighthouse. It is believed Sostratus was the architect, but this claim is disputed.

The lighthouse was badly damaged in the earthquakes of 956 CE, and then again in 1303 and 1323 CE when it became an abandoned ruin and was deactivated. The stubby remnant disappeared in 1480, when the then-Sultan of Egypt, Qaitbay, used some of the fallen stones to build a medieval fort on the site of the lighthouse. For many centuries, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world, and Pharos became the etymological origin of the word “lighthouse” in Greek and many Romance languages.