Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

I. The Egyptian Pyramids, the largest of which is 756 feet square, 480 feet high, and covers with its base more than 13 acres of ground. Pliny says it was twenty years in building, and that 366,000 men were employed. Josephus says the Israelites helped to build the Pyramids of Egypt. They are situated on the Nile, opposite the city of Cairo.

II. The Walls and Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Herodotus visited Babylon after the conquest by Cyrus and is the chief source for the description of its many wonders, especially the walls as 60 miles in circuit, 87 feet in breadth, and 350 feet in height. On each edge of the top of the wall, like a parapet, was a line of one story dwellings, fronting each other, the road between being of sufficient width to allow the turning of a chariot with four horses. In the walls were 100 gates, 25 on each side, all of brass. Besides this outer wall, which was the city's chief defence, a second ran round within, not much inferior in strength, but narrower. Strabo describes the Hanging Gardens as among the Seven Wonders of the World, the shape of which was a square of 400 feet on each side, rising terrace above terrace to the height of 350 feet, and ascended by stairs 10 feet wide. The terraces were supported by large vaultings filled with earth and resting upon cube-shaped pillars, which were hollow. Trees of the largest size were planted, the entire structure being strengthened and bound together by a wall 22 feet in thickness. The level of each terrace was covered with large stones, over which beds of rushes were planted. Earth being heaped on the platform and terraces, and large trees planted, the whole had the appearance, from a distance, of "woods overhanging mountains." These gardens were watered by means of engines for raising water from the Euphrates, which flowed at their base. It is affirmed that Nebuchadnezzar raised the Gardens to gratify his wife, Amytis, daughter of Astyages, who longed for the hills and groves of her Median home. Many writers have doubted "the Hanging Gardens," but Assyrian sculptures, now in the British Museum, throw important light upon the subject. The uncovered ruins of Nineveh reveal gardens and groves resembling those of Babylon.

III. The Temple of Diana at Ephesus. It was 423 feet in length and 220 feet in breadth, built of marble in the reign of Servius, sixth King of Rome. The roof, of cedar and cypress, was supported by 127 marble Ionic columns, 60 feet high. It was 120 years in building. The altar was the work of the great Praxiteles, and the famous sculptor Scopas chiseled some of the columns.

IV. The Chryselephantine Statue of Jupiter Olympus, by Phidias, at Olympia. The statue, covered with gold and ivory, was celebrated for its beauty rather than its size, nearly 70 feet. The Greeks considered it a misfortune not to have seen this statue.

V. The Mausoleum erected to Mausolus, King of Caria, by his widow Artemisia. It was 113 feet square and 140 feet high. His widow died within two years from excessive grief.

VI. The Pharos of Ptolemy Philadelphus, a lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt, on the island of Pharos, 500 feet high. A fire of wood was kept burning on its summit during the night to guide ships into the harbor.

VII. The Colossus of Rhodes, a brazen statue of Apollo, god of the sun, 125 feet high, standing across the mouth of the harbor of Rhodes. The architect Chares, assisted by Laches, was engaged on this work for twelve years. It was hollow, having winding stairways leading to the top. It was erected in 300 B. C., and after standing for sixty years was thrown down by an earthquake. It remained in ruins for 894 years; was then sold as old brass. Total weight, 729,000 pounds.