Seven Wonders of the World: History, Descriptions, Images | Early European History And Religion

SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

Hanging Gardens of Babyon

The Seven Wonders of the World were first mentioned in the 3rd century B.C.. They are: 1) the Pyramids of Giza (Egypt); 2) Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Iraq); 3) the Tomb of King Mausolus (Turkey); 4) Temple of Diana (Turkey); 5) Colossus of Rhodes (Greece); 6) Statue of Olympia (Greece); 7) The Pharos of Alexandria (Egypt). Several observers, including the writer Antipater of Sidon and the mathematician Philo of Byzantium have been credited with conceiving the Seven Wonders.

J. L. Montero Fenollós wrote in National Geographic History: Around 225 B.C. a Greek engineer, Philo, produced a list of seven temata — “things to be seen” — that are better known today as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Many revisions of Philo’s list followed, and other sites were added and removed according to the tastes of the times. But the Philo seven have become canonical, a snapshot of the monuments whose size and engineering prowess awed the classical mind. Although five have disappeared, or are in ruins, enough documentary and archaeological evidence is available to confirm that they once stood proud, and are not the product of hearsay or legend. [Source: J. L. Montero Fenollós, National Geographic History, July 16, 2020]

Eva Tobalina wrote in National Geographic History: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World served a variety of purposes: Some were decorative, like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Others, like the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, were spiritual. While both beautiful and functional, the Lighthouse of Alexandria also served a practical purpose: Its shining light safely guided ships into the Egyptian harbor for centuries.[Source Eva Tobalina, National Geographic History, December 28, 2021]

Why seven? Even in ancient times, the number seven was believed to have had mystical significance and bring good. That is also why there were seven seas, seven deadly sins and seven early churches of Christendom. In ancient times, there were different lists of seven wonders and people visited the “wonders” like modern-day tourists.

The pyramids are the only one of the seven wonders still standing. Part of the Temple of Diana remains. The others vanished after they were toppled by earthquakes and/or scavenged for building material. The images that we have of the seven wonders today are primarily paintings and drawing made by medieval and Renaissance artists over a thousand years after the wonders were gone.

The “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World” by Paul Jordan

1) Pyramids of Giza

The Pyramids of Giza are the only one of Seven Wonders of the World that survive today. They are huge mausoleums built for three pharaohs in the Old Kingdom — Khufu (Cheops, father), Khafre (Chephren, son) and Menkaure (Mycerinus, grandson) — and they once contained the pharaohs mummies. Of the three pyramids The Great Pyramid of Giza (Khufu) is the largest, Khafre is the second largest, and Menkaure is considerably smaller than the other two. There are also some small pyramids and some tombs around the main pyramids.

Pyramids of Giza

The pyramids are believed to be monuments to the pharaohs’ life force as well as memorials to their lives. Their construction coincided with the development of sun worship in Egypt and its no surprise then that the sun strikes the tops of the pyramids long before it illuminates the dwellings below it. The pyramids may have represented the rays of the sun that the pharaohs used to climb into the heavens.

The Pyramids of Giza are man-made mountains of hewn stone. They are steeper than the pyramids built before them in Saqqara and Danshur because, wrote the scholar Daniel Boorstin, "the pyramid builders had now learned to increase stability by laying the stones of the inner limestone base at a slope...The exact quality of hewn stones inside remains one of the many mysteries. [The] outer structure of huge limestone blocks rests on an inner core of rocks."

Each pyramid was the focal point of a complex of subsidiary tombs and temples. A high boundary wall surrounded each complex. Only ritually clean priests and officials were allowed to enter. Access from the Nile was provided by a valley temple constructed at the edge of the river plain. During the funeral of a pharaoh buried in Giza, the funeral boat arrived via the river and was carried up a walled causeway to the mortuary temple at the base of the Pyramids, where the body was entombed.

The Pyramids are awe-inspiring for the size and shape and in imagining the labor involved in building them. Some of the best views of the Pyramids and the Sphinx are from barren hills around the plateau. It easy to reach these hills by foot or on the back of a camel or horse. All kinds of organisms live in the Pyramids. They include some foxes living near the top.

2) Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are said to have been built in 600 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar for one of his wives who had tired of the barren plains around Babylon and wanted a reminder of her lush mountainous homeland. But it turns out that is probably not true. The gardens were reportedly destroyed by several earthquakes after the 2nd century B.C. Some wondered whether the really existed. They were not even mentioned by Herodotus who visited Babylon when they are said to have existed.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon may have inspired the story of the Garden of Eden. Scholars still debate what the term “hanging” might have meant, what the gardens might have looked like, how they were watered — and whether they even existed at all. Based on descriptions that were written long after the gardens were said to have existed, the gardens were composed of gardens built on masonry terraces. They were called hanging gardens not because they were really hanging but because they seemed to hang.

The idea behind the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was to create a man-made mountain of lush vegetation. The result was believed to be a square building, 400 feet high, containing five terraces supported by arches that ascended upwards and were planted with grasses, plants, flowers and fruit trees, irrigated by canals and pumps worked by slaves and oxen. There was an avenue of palms. Water came from the Euphrates The queen set up her court inside surrounded by dense vegetation and artificial rain. There was said to be a terrace where she and Nebuchadnezzar sat, admiring their city.

Lighthouse of Alexandria

3) Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria (sometimes called the Pharos of of Alexandria) may located on the site occupied by the Fortress of Qait Bay in modern Alexandria. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, it was originally named after the maritime god Pharos and was built on a small island off the coast of Alexandria in 280 B.C., about 40 years after Alexander the Great's death by Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II.

Towering over the port city founded by Alexander the Great, the Lighthouse of Alexandria stood taller than 107 meters (350 feet) and was adorned with giant pink granite statues, representing the Ptolemaic pharaohs and their queens. The corners of the upper floors were adorned with six figures of Tritons forged in metal. [Source Eva Tobalina, National Geographic History, December 28, 2021]

The Lighthouse of Alexandria was the forerunner to modern lighthouses. Guiding Mediterranean ships into Alexandria’s harbor from the third century B.C. until the Middle Ages. it lit the entrance to Alexandria harbor with a massive flame at its crest and was almost as high as the pyramids and had three stories and maybe as many as 300 rooms.No one is sure what it looked like. There are etching, a few representations in mosaics, paintings and glass but most of them were made long after it collapsed.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, according to some descriptions, was made of white marble and massive blocks of white limestone,which would have shined brightly in the Egyptian sun. Th building was constructed of alternating circular and square tiers, each of which had a balcony. At the top was a small octagonal section and a cylindrical section with a seven-meter (22-foot) tall bronze statue of the god Poseidon or Zeus. The light was reportedly provided by a great brazier surrounded by mirrors that reportedly could amplify the light from the fire so that it could seen 480 kilometers (300 miles) away at sea. This is no doubt a great exaggeration. The light warned ships of reefs and sand near Alexandria and showed the best way to approach the harbor.

4) Colossus of Rhodes

Colossus of Rhodes was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Erected between 292 and 280 B.C. to celebrate the ending of a Macedonian the siege, it was a nude statue of Apollo that stood 120 feet and had a shoulder girth of 60 feet. It was built of stone blocks and iron and was covered with bronze plates. Contrary to famous depictions of the statue, the Colossus, as big as it was, did not straddle harbor and ships did not pass between its legs.

Some depictions of the Colossus of Rhodes show it straddling Mandriki harbor but it actually stood on one side. It stood for only 56 years before it broke off at the knees was toppled by an earthquake about 225 B.C. Unfortunately there is nothing left of it today. According to some accounts it lay in ruins for another 900 years until A.D. 667 when 720,900 pounds of statue and scrap was sold by Arabs, who controlled the island, to a Jewish merchant, who reportedly needed 900 ships to carry the load back to Alexandria. Using coin inscriptions as his guide, American sculpture Felix de Weldon, plans to recreate the 105 foot Colossus of Rhodes.

Colossus of Rhodes

5) Temple of Diana

The Temple of Diana (in Ephesus) was ordered by King Croesus and completed around 550 B.C. after 120 years of labor. Described by Phion as the greatest of the seven wonders, the Temple of Diana was 225-feet-wide and 525-feet-long, with 127 sixty-foot-high marble columns. The largest and most complex temple in ancient times, it was made out of marble, wood and tile, and built on marshy soil so it would be immune to earthquakes. Even so the temple had to be rebuilt three times before Goths destroyed it in 262 A.D.

The Temple of Diana was built around 550 B.C. near the sea and destroyed by invading Goths around A.D. 262. Ertastratus ordered the Temple of Diana to be burned down he did so to ensure that it was remembered, English archeologist J. T. Wood rediscovered the temple in 1874 after 11 years of digging. Today the ruins are located a mile or so away from Ephesus, and unfortunately all that remains is a foundation.

Diana of Ephesus, also known as the virgin huntress of the moon, was worshipped throughout most of Europe and the Mediterranean during ancient times and she still has followers today. The Greeks knew her as Artemis, and her origins can be traced as far back as Babylon. She may even have evolved from Stone Age earth mothers goddesses that dominated primitive cultures before the Greeks popularized male gods.

Despite the fact she was a permanent virgin, she was the goddess of fertility, and the famous statue of her now in the Selçuk Museum has endowed her with 18 breasts. None of the breasts have nipples, however, which led one classical scholar to venture they were actually bull's testes or the ova on scared bees. Whatever they were Diana's image has fascinated artists for centuries. Other statues have placed bees on her knees and lions over her shoulders. A Raphael painting of her graces the Vatican. And recently a Brooklyn artist gave her four buttocks as well as a chestful of breasts.

What got St. Paul into trouble was his statement: "Diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed" The Temple that honored her was a popular tourist attraction and silver souvenirs of Diana and her temple were sold on the streets of Ephesus like miniature Eiffel towers and Statues of Liberty are sold today. During the festival of Artemis images of Diana were placed on the steps of her temple for worshipers to kiss. [Source: Vicky Goldberg, New York Times, August 21, 1994].

Model of the Temple of Diana

6) Statue of Zeus at Olympia

Reputed to be 12.2 meters (40 feet) high and placed in the great temple of Zeus in 457 B.C., the Statue of Zeus at Olympia depicted Zeus seated on a throne. His body was carved from ivory and his robe and ornaments were made of gold. It was sculpted by Phidias (who created a similar statue of Athena in the Parthenon in Athens) sometime after 432 B.C. The statue was so large that, according to the geographer Strabo, if Zeus stood up, his head would go through the roof. The craftsmanship was incredibly detailed, with intricate carvings and embellishments, including precious gemstones for his eyes. The gargantuan statue awed the ancient world for eight centuries and then disappeared — what happened to it is still not known. [Source: Mireia Movellán Luis, National Geographic History, December 15, 2023]

The statue of Zeus was made of gold and ivory plates placed over a wood structure (making it from bronze and gold would have been too heavy for a statue of this size). A system of pipes was devised to bring oil to the wood to prevent it from rotting, The oil also helped preserve the ivory. Zeus sat on the golden throne with jewels for eyes, with his feet resting on a foot stool of gold. Worshippers used to pray at the statue’s feet. Chroniclers said the statue was still there in the 2nd century B.C. After that it disappeared, most likely it was stripped and looted.

The original Temple of Zeus was destroyed in A.D. 426. The new temple one that housed the statue was 32 meters wide, 75 meters long and and 12 meters high, It was made of the finest marble and topped by a gilded statue of Nike. Sculpted lion heads with their mouths open served as drain spouts for the Temple of Zeus roof.

Zeus Statue at Olympia Zeus Temple

7) Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (in Bodrum, Turkey) is the source of the word "mausoleum," this 12-story-high rectangular marble tomb was erected in the 4th century B.C. for the Persian lord Mausolus by his wife. Some say the wife was also his sister, and after his funeral she allegedly drank some of his cremated ashes in a goblet of wine. Mausoleum at Halicarnassus awed onlookers for more than 1,600 years. It was decorated from top to bottom with as many as 444 sculptures and reliefs. The upper pyramid was topped with a sculpture of Mausolus at the reins of a chariot. [Source: Chris Scarre, Archeology magazine, September-October 1993]

No pictures were ever drawn of the tomb when it stood. The illustrations from the Middle Ages and the 18th century, similar to ones here, were based on the following description by the Roman historian Pliny: "The north and south side of it extends for 63 feet the total circumference being 440 feet...the building rises to a height of 25 cubits [40 feet], and is surrounded by 36 columns...Above the colonnade there is pyramid equal in height to the lower part and tapered in 24 stages to the top of its peak. At the summit there is a four horse chariot of marble...the height of the whole structure [is] 140 feet."

Based on this description, drawings depicted the mausoleum with a colossal roof. Some showed a platform with 36 golden Ionic columns and a pyramid topped by a bronze chariot and statues of the Mausolus and his wife. Danish archaeologists who excavated the site early this century didn't find any golden columns, but they did find 50 slabs from the actual roof which it turns out was only 24 feet high.

This doesn't mean the mausoleum was some sort of mundane everyday temple. It was adorned with "a battle scene between 88 life-size Greeks and Persians near ground level," says Cambridge scholar Chris Scarre, who has written about all the seven wonders, "72 larger than life-sized statues higher up on the middle step, more warriors and huntsmen on the upper step of the podium, 36 colossal statues of Mausolus' ancestors between the columns of the colonnade, and finally at least 56 lions around the lower edge of the roof."

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

Halicarnassus in Ancient Times

Eva Tobalina Oráa wrote in National Geographic History: Visitors approaching ancient Halicarnassus, capital of Caria (in modern Turkey’s southwest corner) would encounter a number of exciting sights on a morning journey to market in the fourth century B.C. From the crest of the final hill, the whole city would be laid out before them, nestled at the base of the Carian mountains. They would see the harbor and a large continuous wall that surrounded the entire city. Numerous large buildings would be visible, such as the king and queen’s palace, theaters, temples and other public sites, as well the agora. [Source: Eva Tobalina Oráa, National Geographic History, December 9, 2022]

Outshining them all would be the monument standing next to the marketplace, in the city center. Set off from the city by a high wall, it was the recently completed tomb of King Mausolus and his sister-queen, Artemisia II. Compared to everything else around it, the tomb was immense. Ancient sources say it stood more than 140 feet tall (nearly 10 modern stories high). The outer walls tapered as they rose, giving the tomb the impression of having been thrust organically from the earth. Most striking, however, the foundation, surrounding terrace, walls, and roof had been covered with brilliant white marble, causing them to gleam in the full sunshine of a Mediterranean morning.

The tomb was adorned with more than 400 freestanding marble sculptures on four different levels and decorative friezes running along its sides. Many of the sculptures featured bronze accents — on weapons, armor, crowns, robes, and other features — that shone in the sun. But the sweep of the building drew the eye upward, to the quadriga, the statue of a four-horse chariot carrying the larger-than-life statues of Mausolus and Artemisia, crowning what would become one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

King Mausolus and the Carians

King Mausolus, builder of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the ruler of Carnia, was thick necked, broad shouldered man with long hair and beard, as depicted in the statues now at the British museum. Eva Tobalina Oráa wrote in National Geographic History: Located in southwestern Anatolia, the district of Caria played a prominent role in ancient times. The Carians spoke their own language and had unique religious rites. Famous for their war-like nature, they were greatly influenced by the Greeks, who had established colonies along the coast. Carian territory was conquered by the Persians in the sixth century B.C. and became a satrapy, or province, of the Achaemenid Empire in the early fourth century B.C. Despite this, the satraps who ruled it were local nobles who often flirted with independence and were not always loyal to Persian power. [Source: Eva Tobalina Oráa, National Geographic History, December 9, 2022]

a more surreal take on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

Mausolus, satrap of Caria between 377 and 353 B.C., did just that. After taking over from his father, Hecatomnus, Mausolus ruled as a semi-independent sovereign, to the point that many sources grant him the title of king. He signed alliances, founded cities, and even seized the island of Rhodes. Although at the start of his rule he showed loyalty to the Persians, he soon joined the so-called Revolt of the Satraps, a series of uprisings against the Achaemenids promoted by Egypt. However, when it became clear that the revolt was doomed to failure, Mausolus played it safe and once again aligned himself with the Persian monarchy.

Mausolus’ father, Hecatomnus, came from the sacred city of Mylasa (present-day Milas, Turkey). But Mausolus moved his capital to the bustling coastal colony of Halicarnassus. He calculated that this strategic Greek port, opening toward the Dodecanese archipelago in the Aegean, might serve his ambitions better than provincial Mylasa. Mausolus built walls around Halicarnassus strong enough to withstand attacks from the newly invented catapult. He set his palace on a promontory. Below it, he built a secret port, where he could surreptitiously amass ships and soldiers. But all of this construction paled before the building that would come to immortalize his name.

Building the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The Tomb of Mausolus was begun in 353 B.C. Eva Tobalina Oráa wrote in National Geographic History: King Mausolus began work on his tomb while he was still alive. The location of the tomb, right in the center of the city, already made it exceptional. Across the ancient world, burials almost always took place outside the city walls. But among the Greek, there were some exceptions to this rule. Indeed, the tomb of Hecatomnus stood at the heart of Mylasa. His son’s tomb’s location in the very center of the city and its grandeur sent a clear message: Mausolus was a mighty Carian king. [Source: Eva Tobalina Oráa, National Geographic History, December 9, 2022]

Mausolus died, shortly after work began on his tomb. He was succeeded by Queen Artemisia who invited artisans throughout the Mediterranean to finish the project, ensuring that the magnificent tomb would attest to the mnema (memory) of her husband. She entrusted the design to two architects: Satyros of Paros and Pythius of Priene. Satyros was a craftsman who had worked all his life for Mausolus’ family. Pythius was an influential architect, famous not only for his designs but also for his architectural treatises.

Next, the task of decorating the tomb was entrusted to four, perhaps five, sculptors, each deemed equally skilled, and each of whom took charge of one face of the Mausoleum. First-century A.D. Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, names four artists — Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus, and Leochares — and mysteriously alluded to an unnamed fifth. Vitruvius, a Roman architect working in the first century B.C., writes that the renowned Praxiteles rather than Timotheus was one of the four. Others have stated that Praxiteles took charge of the sculptures on the roof, in particular the quadriga and the statues of Mausolus and Artemisia.

Whatever its exact composition, this group was a dream team. Praxiteles and Scopas were judged among the greatest sculptors of their time. Hundreds of other artisans and craftsmen were employed on various portions of the tomb. It was the combination of Artemisia’s determination (including her willingness to open her coffers, even bequeathing a legacy from her estate after her death) and the talent of the workforce she assembled that created one of the most magnificent collections of stone sculpture. Artemisia II lived just two more years after her husband’s death. When she died, the Mausoleum was still unfinished. The artisans stayed on, and their work continued.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus Endured for 1600 Years

The mausoleum was probably destroyed by an earthquake between the 11th and 15th centuries. All that remains of the mausoleum in Bodrum is an unimpressive collection of column pieces and sculptured stones placed in a sunken garden. In the small museum there are models of the tomb, some sculptures and casts of the more impressive sculptures and reliefs — with Lapisths battlin centaurs, Greeks fighting Amazons, and chariot races — now in the British Museum. If you want to see what the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus may have looked like check out the Scottish Rite Supreme Council Building in Washington D.C., which was modeled after it. [Source: Chris Scarre, Archeology magazine, September-October 1993]

Eva Tobalina Oráa wrote in National Geographic History: Once finished, Mausolus’s and Artemisia’s ashes were placed in an underground chamber, accessed by a hidden entrance in one of the walls. A stone block, fixed into the rock with metal bolts, concealed the entrance. Behind the block there was a small corridor, an antechamber, and a square space, decorated with columns and statues, which housed funereal urns. The building housing Mausolus’ remains soon became famous. All the assembled talent that had gone into creating the Mausoleum had burst forth with a new, explosively energetic style. It made such an impression that renowned poet Antipater of Sidon included it among his Seven Wonders of the World in an ode in the second century B.C. The monumental tomb served as inspiration for similar memorials for the great and mighty, and “mausoleum” would come to refer to similarly grand tombs. [Source: Eva Tobalina Oráa, National Geographic History, December 9, 2022]

The Mausoleum stood firm on its foundation for about 17 centuries. Some 16 years after completion, the tomb largely survived Alexander the Great’s conquest of Halicarnassus in 334 B.C. In the Middle Ages a series of earthquakes damaged it. But at the beginning of the 15th century, its imposing bulk still dominated Bodrum, the Byzantine port city that then stood on the site of ancient Halicarnassus.

Mausolus's coffin, according to legend, was discovered by the Knights Hospitaller when they burned the mausoleum's marble to make mortar for their castle. But looters got to it before the they could open it and all the knights found was a few gold roundels and gold cloth fragments. These knights — former crusaders — settled in the Dodecanese Islands, headquartered at Rhodes , after being expelled from the Holy Land. In the early 1400s, shortly after occupying Bodrum, they erected the Petronium, a vast and imposing castle fortress dedicated to St. Peter that still stands on a promontory overlooking the city harbor. Unfortunately, the builders used the damaged Mausoleum as a quarry, from which they salvaged high-quality square-cut stone blocks (ashlars) for their fortress. When Bodrum fell to the Turks in 1522, the Mausoleum was almost completely dismantled. Soon, even the memory of its location was gone. It wasn’t until 1856 that the English archaeologist Charles Thomas Newton, while exploring Bodrum’s center, discovered the buried remains of this most splendid memorial.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Canadian Museum of History historymuseum.ca ; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT, Online Library of Liberty, oll.libertyfund.org ; Gutenberg.org gutenberg.org Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" [∞] and "The Creators" [μ]" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum.Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated September 2024