The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Barb and I are throwing ideas around about future travel, and we’ve both been doing research on different areas of the world. One place I want to go to at some point is Ephesus, the Ancient Greek/Roman city in Turkey. I was there more than 40 years ago and would like to revisit to see the newer finds and excavations. I also want Barb to see it. It is unfortunate that it has become “Instagram Famous” and is swarmed with tourists during the peak seasons, but we will try to find the least busy time of the year to visit as it is so worth seeing.

Ephesus was the home of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Of course, that is what we call them today, back then they just called them Theamata, Ancient Greek for “sites to see”.

So what were the Seven Wonders? Good question because the list changed over time and the wonders are distinctly Greek world oriented. Missing are things like The Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat, Chichen Itza and Tikal to name but a few, which makes sense since a lot of our history and literature comes from the Greeks and the Greeks didn’t venture too far from the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.

As to the list itself, numerous authors had lists, however, the list I am writing about is the list that is based on one that survives from Philp of Byzantium and Antipater of Sidon. The more ‘modern’ list that people usually refer to today actually came from the Renaissance.

So onto the list (chronologically).

1. The Great Pyramid of Giza (c 2500 BCE) built by the Pharaoh Khufu (Cairo, Egypt). Well, he didn’t built it himself, he had help from thousands of skilled, paid labourers. The largest of the wonders and the only one still standing it was the tallest man made structure in the world for almost 4000 years until the tower of Lincoln Cathedral was completed in 1311. In 1548 the tower collapsed and the Great Pyramid reclaimed its throne until permanently relinquishing it to the Cologne Cathedral in 1880.

Rabbit Hole

The Great Pyramid was the tallest for nearly 4,000 years at 146 meters, before being bested by the Lincoln Cathedral for 237 years. The Cologne Cathedral had the tallest structure for 4 years (1880-1884), followed by the Washington Monument for 5 years, and then the Eiffel Tower which reigned supreme from 1889 until 1930. The current record holder is the Burj Khalifa in the UAE which is an incredible 828 meters high (2,717 feet), more than 300 meters higher than the previous tallest building Taipei 101 and 5.6 times taller than the Great Pyramid. Geez, that’s a LOT of stairs to climb if the elevator is out.

End Rabbit Hole.

2. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Babylon, Iran?). This one may or may not have existed. Babylon was known for having really tall, thick large walls. This is supported by both the written and archeological evidence. There is no evidence for the hanging gardens. Nineveh did have gardens and there is substantial evidence to support their existence, but Babylon not so much. In fact, the only mentions of the Babylonian gardens comes first from the Jewish/Roman historian Josephus, who heard it from another source who read about it from another source and so on. In all likelihood, the gardens were actually Nineveh’s and the ancient historians simply transposed it to Babylon, around the same time the walls of Babylon dropped out of the historical record.

Ruins of the Temple of Artemis

3. The Temple of Artemis (Ephesus, Turkey). Artemis was the Greek goddess of the hunt and was often portrayed as a mother figure in the local area of Ephesus. The Temple was actually the third religious building built on that spot. The first was built around 1000 BCE and was destroyed in a flood. A second was built around 550 BCE and was destroyed by an arsonist in 356 BCE. The last temple, and the one that is on the list, was built in 323 BCE and was one of the largest temples in the Greek world. Interestingly, the temple burnt down around the same time Alexander the Great was born (July 356 BCE). It was said that Artemis was too busy with the birth of Alexander to save her temple. When the rebuilding began Alexander offered to pay for it but the Ephesians tactfully refused stating “it would be improper for one god to build a temple to another.” Talk about tactfully saying no.

The Temple of Artemis stood until 268 CE when a Goth raid set fire to the building. The extent of its damage is unknown and it may have been derelict until it’s official closure in 407CE. As was usual for the ancient world, what was left was repurposed for other buildings.

The temple site was lost to history until being rediscovered in 1869.

4. The Statue of Zeus (Olympia, Greece). Built around 453 BCE the statue stood 12m tall. Given how Zeus was pretty much controlled by his libido I hope you appreciate that I didn’t say it was erected in 453.

Anyway, descriptions say the statue was seated on a throne with the statue and throne being adorned with sliver, gold, precious jewels, ebony, and ivory. (Great, I now have Ebony and Ivory stuck in my head, the one by Paul McCartney and Michael (yes he was a pedophile) Jackson.) Not a really necessary comment???

The statue lasted until at least the late second century CE but may have been around as late as 475 CE, the sources are uncertain. It was either destroyed in a fire in the late second century, destroyed by a fire in 425 CE or destroyed in a fire in 475CE after having been moved to Constantinople. Regardless, it was probably destroyed in a fire. Maybe.

5. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (Bodrum,Turkey). It was built as a tomb for King Mausolos (from which we get the word mausoleum). Mausolosruled with his sister/wife Artemisia for 24 years and upon his death, the plans for his tomb it had not been started so in 353BCE, Artemisia began its construction. However, it was not yet completed when she died two years later. The mausoleum endured until sometime between 12th century when it was described “as a wonder”, but 1402 it was recorded as being in ruins. It was probably destroyed closer to the 12th century as the Knights of St. John (also known as the Knights Hospitaller) recorded it was a ruin d in 1402 and they also recorded that the local residents had no name or knowledge regarding the tomb.

The rediscovery of the mausoleum is kind of interesting. In 1852 the British Museum commissioned archaeologist Charles Newton to search for remains (the British Museum already had a couple of statues attributed to the tomb). Newton couldn’t afford to buy up all the plots of land the mausoleum may have stood on so he read the writings of ancient historians and made a guess as to its likely location. He then excavated down, and dug tunnels into surrounding plots he did not own, eventually finding walls, foundations and a staircase. He then bought that plot of land and began his excavations. Clever chap that he was!

6. Colossus of Rhodes (Rhodes, Greece). Built of Bronze in 280 BCE the statue stood about 33 meters (108 feet) high, making it the largest statue in the ancient world. It collapsed in 226BCE during an earthquake and the residents took this as a sign from the gods and did not rebuild, although people still made the journey to see the remnants. The colossus was so well known that the residents of Rhodes were known as Colossaeans. Over time the bronze was melted down, although the remains were described by Roman historian Pliny as late as the end of the first century CE.

Rabbit Hole

Roman empowered Nero wanted to build a statue of himself that was larger than the Colossus of Rhodes. Nero’s statue was called the Colossus but was 30m tall, so slightly shorter. This Colossus stood near the entrance of his Golden Palace and after Nero committed suicide, the Emperor Vespasian added a radiate crown to the statue’s head and renamed it the Colossus Solis (after the sun god Sol). In 128CE the Emperor Hadrian had it moved to near the Flavian amphitheater, which historysays adopted the name Colosseum from this statue.

End Rabbit Hole

7. The Lighthouse of Alexandria (Alexandria (Pharos), Egypt). Built between 284 and 246 BCE, the lighthouse stood between 103 and 108 meters high (338 - 387 feet). At the top was a furnace and the light from it was reflected by a large mirror. Writers from the time stated the light could be seen 47km away.

The lighthouse was damaged by earthquakes at least four times (796CE, 951CE, 956CE and 1303CE). The 1303 quake caused it to collapse and the building stones were robbed to be used for other purposes.

Over time the remains of the lighthouse and the port of Alexandria were submerged by the sea. The submerged ruins were discovered in 1968.

And the upshot of this post? Still don’t know where we are going, but if a person was alive and able to travel between 280BCE and 226BCE it would have been possible to see all six of the wonders we know existed as well as the gardens of Nineveh and the walls of Babylon. That would have be an interesting period to time travel back to…assuming the wars, disease, famine, and general mayhem didn’t kill you.

Also, I think I should be congratulated on not making one British Museum joke, totally ignoring that the British Museum has relics from nearly every one of these locations. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have some pressed flowers from Nineveh.

Cheers for now.