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Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

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The SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a commonly known list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antique style architecture. The earliest known version of the list was compiled in the [2nd century BC] by Antipater of Sidon; it appears to be based on the guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim.

[==The Seven Wonders==] Listed in order of their construction, the seven wonders are:

Of these, the only one that has survived to the present day is the Great Pyramid of Giza. (Beind the oldest too.) The Great Pyramid was built by the ancient Egyptians, the Hanging Gardens by the Babylonians, and the Maussollos Mausoleum by the Hellenized Carians; the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Colossus of Rhodes by Hellenistic civilization; the others were built by the ancient Greeks. The existence of the Hanging Gardens has not been verified. The other five wonders were destroyed by the powers of mother nature: the Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus were destroyed by fire; the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Colossus, and Mausoleum of Maussollos, were destroyed by earthquakes.

More recent lists

In the tradition of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, many other lists of wonders have been proposed, including both human feats of engineering and wonders of nature. However, these lists are rather informal, and there is no general consensus in any particular list.

Modern wonders

The following list of the top seven existing wonders was compiled by Hillman Wonders:

The American Society of Civil Engineers compiled another list of wonders of the modern world:

Natural wonders

Similar to the other lists of wonders, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the world, as there has been debate between how large the list should be. One of the many lists was compiled by CNN [1]:

Underwater wonders

This list of underwater wonders is of an unknown origin but has been repeated sufficiently often to gain a degree of notability:[2] [3]

Alternative list

The New 7 Wonders foundation [4] has launched a poll to decide another new list of 7 Wonders, with 21 sites on its shortlist, as follows:

See also

Further reading

  • Cox, Reg, and Neil Morris, "The Seven Wonders of the Modern World". Chelsea House Publications: Library. October, 2000. ISBN 079106048
  • Cox, Reg, Neil Morris, and James Field, "The Seven Wonders of the Medieval World". Chelsea House Publications: Library. October, 2000. ISBN 0791060470
  • D'Epiro, Peter, and Mary Desmond Pinkowish, "What Are the Seven Wonders of the World? and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists". Anchor. December 1, 1998. ISBN 0385490623
  • Morris, Neil, "The Seven Wonders of the Natural World". Chrysalis Books. December 30, 2002. ISBN 184138495X


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