The Seven The Seven WondersWonders

of the Ancient of the Ancient WorldWorld

The Seven The Seven WondersWonders

of the Ancient of the Ancient WorldWorld

The Map of Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

 

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient WorldWonder Date Builder Destroyed Cause

The Great Pyramid of Giza

2650-2500 BC

Egyptians still standing ______

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

600 BC Babylonians

after 1st century BC

earthquake

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

550 BC Lydians, Persians, Greeks

356 BC fire

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

435 BC Greeks 5th-6th centuries AD

fire

The Mausoleum of Mausolus at Helicarnassus

351 BC Persians, Greeks

by 1494 AD earthquake

The Colossus of Rhodes 292-280 BC Hellenistic Greece

224 BC earthquake

The Lighthouse of Alexandria

3rd century BC

Hellenistic Egypt

1303-1480 AD earthquake

•The Great Pyramid of Giza •The Hanging Gardens of Ba

bylon•The Temple of Artemis at E

phesus•The Statue of Zeus at Olym

pia•The Mausoleum of Mausolus at Halicarnassus

•The Colossus of Rhodes•The Lighthouse of Alexandria

The tradition of building the pyramids started in ancient Egypt. The Pyramids are one of the oldest structures that are still on the earth. Each block weighs as much as 5 elephants. And most of the Pyramids are 450 feet high! The Pyramids of Giza are made for the dead because ancient people thought that the people that died would go to another life and if they gave them all of their important things the dead would help them and save them.

The Pyramids are very big triangular shaped structures that have four flat sides that come together at the tip of the Pyramid. The Pyramids were used for the Kings tombs (Pharaons are the same things as kings).

The Great Pyramid of GizaThe Pyramids belong to the seven wonders because of the way they were made. The Great Pyramid of Giza was built around 2,560 BC as a tomb for the

Egyptian pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were once located in the part of the world known as Iraq. They were actually terraced gardens, probably built by the king Nebuchadnezzar II in the sixth century BC. According to the legend he built them to please his wife Semiarid who was homesick for the mountain climate of her native land.

[[nebjunebju׃׃kkəəd´nezə(r)d´nezə(r)]- ]- Nebuchadnezzar

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The gardens weren’t the easiest thing to sustain in that part of the world. Babylon was in a desert where there was very little rainfall. Engineers had to come up with a way to lift water up from the local Euphrates River so it could reach every level of the terrace.

Archeologists think that they may have used some device called a chain pump. The chain was cranked in circles, sending the buckets down to a pull to pick up water, and then up to the terraces to irrigate the gardens. Since there is no archeological evidence for the Hanging Gardens, some historians believe that they never really existed.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Temple of Artemis was gigantic. In fact, it was one of the largest temples the Greeks ever built.

In what’s now known as Turkey, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was finished around 550 BC. An early historian described The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus as the greatest of the Seven Wonders. The remains of the building – a few stones near modern Efes – suggest that the writer was exaggerating. The 20 temple was large, rich and beautifully decorated, but there were many temples in the ancient world which were much more beautiful. Its power was due to the fact that Artemis was a goddess worshipped all over Asia. In Rome she was called Diana. The first temples on that site go back to the eighth century BC and the many visitors to the temple were important for trade.

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

The Temple of Zeus was finished around 456 BC in Olympia, Greece. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was built by the famous Greek sculptor Pheidias in 435 BC who made some of the finest statues on the Parthenon.The statue was built in honor of Greek god Zeus for the Olympic games. This amazing structure was mostly made of ivory and gold, along with other valuable stones, such as ebony. The statue was 40 feet tall! Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a fire and little remains are available to see today.

The Statue of Zeus was the most famous statue of

ancient times.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia has left no remains. We know what it looked like because it was shown on coins and travellers said that it was made of gold and ivory.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was located on the Aegean sea in the city of Bodrum. The mausoleum was made in 350 BC. The height of the mausoleum was 45 m (140 ft).The structure of the mausoleum wasn't really beautiful but the decorations were what brought the beauaty. It had statues of people, lions, horses, and other animals. On the top of the roof was a statue of a chariot pulled by four horses.The mausoleum is special because it isn't dedicated to the Greek Gods.

The mausoleum is a tomb for a king. For 16 centuries it stayed in perfect condition until an earthquake damaged the roof and colonnades.

The Mausoleum of Mausolus

at Halicarnassus

There was a ruler, Hecatomnus, who was the father of a son and a daughter. Mausolus, the son, and Artemisia, the daughter became husband and wife. Hecatomnus died, leaving Mausolus and Artemisia as the next rulers. In 353 BC Mausolus died. Queen Artemisia built a great tomb to show her love. The tomb was so great because of its size and decorations that future tombs where named Mausoleums after King Mausolus. Today, only a few fragments of the Mausoleum remain.

The legend says:In 377 BC, the city of Halicarnassus was off the coast of Asia Minor (southwestern Turkey).

The Mausoleum of Mausolus

at Halicarnassus

The Colossus of Rhodes

According to the tradition, The Colossus of Rhodes stood – legs apart – over the harbour at Rhodes and the ships passed in and out between its legs. The Colossus attracted ships to Rhodes because, like the Pharos at Alexandria, it was a giant advertisement for the city. It could be seen from miles away. The statue was built between 294 and 282 BC, to celebrate the defeat of the Macedonians, who had failed to conquer the city. When the statue was pulled down in 654 AD, 900 camels were used to take away the pieces.

This was not just any statue, it was the statue of Helios, the sun god of Rhodes. The Colossus was 120 feet tall (that’s almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty). It took 12 years to build the Colossus. The statue of Helios was made of bronze and had iron bars inside, to support it and was hollow on the inside. The Colossus looked just like a bronze man, and he stood over the entrance of the harbor in Rhodes. The Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed by an earthquake in 224 BC.

The Colossus of Rhodes

The Lighthouse of Alexandria was 384 feet tall, was made of marble, and contained a mirror, which reflected the sun and could be viewed up to 35 miles away. At night a beacon of fire was used to light the tower instead. Upon the very top of this tower, there was a statue of Poseidon. Sadly, the lighthouse was destroyed after a series of disastrous earthquakes. It was the last wonder to disappear. The remains of the Pharos were found quite recently.

The Lighthouse of AlexandriaThe Pharos of Alexandria crumbled into the sea about

600 years ago but before that it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is not known who built the Pharos, but we do know that it was the last Wonder to be built, in 280 BC. In ancient times it was a great help to ships trying to get through the rocky harbour entrance. Yet it was not a lighthouse in the modern sense, but rather a giant advertisement for Alexandria.

The word pharos is still used in some modern languages to mean «lamp» or «lighthouse».

Remember please the places where the Seven Wonders were built