Transcript Document

The Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World
The Map of Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Wonder
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
Babylon
• The Temple of Artemis at
Ephesus
• The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
• The Mausoleum of Mausolus
at Halicarnassus
• The Colossus of Rhodes
• The Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Great Pyramid of Giza
The 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 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 Hanging Gardens of Babylon
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.
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.
[nebju‫׃‬kəd´nezə(r)]- Nebuchadnezzar
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
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 Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
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 was gigantic. In fact, it was one of the largest
temples the Greeks ever built.
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 Statue of Zeus was the most
famous statue of ancient times.
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 Mausoleum of Mausolus
at Halicarnassus
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 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.
The Colossus of Rhodes
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 Lighthouse of Alexandria
The 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 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 word pharos is still used in some
modern languages to mean «lamp» or
«lighthouse».
Remember please the places where
the Seven Wonders were built