Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The Seven Wonders of the World (from left to right, top to bottom): Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Temple of Artemis, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Mausoleum of Maussollos, Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

The Seven Wonders of the World (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a widely known list of seven popular sites of classical antiquity. The list was largely a tourist guide for travelers of the ancient world who wanted to see the most famous and well known sight-seeing destinations.

History

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 where sight-seers could typically travel safely. The Seven Wonders were wonders because they were among the most popular destinations; even as early as 1600 BC, tourist graffiti was scrawled on monuments in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings (by which time the Great Sphinx of Giza was already a thousand years old). It is notable that the Seven Wonders sites were all man-made; no natural features were included since they were not popular destinations. With the industrial revolution's impact on the environment and the resulting naturalism of the Romanticism movement, natural features have become tourist destinations in and of themselves and as such new "Seven Wonders" lists have been created that incorporate natural features.

The Seven Wonders

Listed in order of their construction, the seven wonders are:

Wonder	Date	Builder	Destroyed	Cause
Great Pyramid of Giza	2550 BC	Egyptians	n/a	n/a
Hanging Gardens of Babylon	600 BC	Babylonians	after 1st century BC	earthquake
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus	550 BC	Lydians, Greeks	356 BC	fire
Statue of Zeus at Olympia	435 BC	Greeks	5th-6th centuries AD	fire
Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus	351 BC	Carians, Greeks	by 1494 AD	earthquake
Colossus of Rhodes	292-280 BC	Hellenistic Greece	224 BC	earthquake
Lighthouse of Alexandria	3rd century BC	Hellenistic Egypt	1303-1480 AD	earthquake

Antipater's original list replaced the Lighthouse of Alexandria with the Walls of Babylon. It wasn't until the 6th century AD that the list above was used. Of these wonders, the only one that has survived to the present day is the Great Pyramid of Giza. The existence of the Hanging Gardens has not been definitively proven. Records show that the other five wonders were destroyed by natural disasters. The Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus were destroyed by fire, while 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 consensus on any particular list.

Modern wonders

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

Tourist travel wonders

The following list of the top seven tourist travel wonders was compiled by Hillman Wonders:^[1]

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 over how large the list should be. One of the many lists was compiled by CNN ^[2]:

Underwater wonders

This list of underwater wonders is of unknown origin but has been repeated sufficiently often to acquire a degree of notability:^[3] ^[4]

Notes

External links and references

Seven Ancient Wonders
- The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — an in-depth look from a professor of civil engineering at the University of South Florida
- Image of the Seven Wonder locations
- Parkin, Tim, Researching Ancient Wonders: A Research Guide, from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. - a collection of books and Internet resources with in-depth information on seven ancient wonders.
- Google Maps 7 Ancient Wonders of the World
Other Wonders
- Official web site for voting new wonders of the World
- The World's Top 100 Wonders - a list of architectural, engineering and natural wonders by Howard Hillman, a renowned travel writer.
- WonderClub.com - a "list of lists", with information about most wonders.
- Seven Wonders of the Modern World - a list of modern wonders compiled by the American Society of Civil Engineers
- Seven Wonders of Chicago - A list compiled by the Chicago Tribune and voted on by residents of the Chicagoland area.