1. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the ancient wonders, which had been constructed in Babylonia’s capital city, Babylon, situated in the Persian Gulf of the present-day Iraq. King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled Babylon for over 43 years, built the gardens for his wife, Amyitis in seventh century B.C. . The gardens were 400 feet in length and width, with a height of over 80 feet. The gardens consist of arched terraces placed one above another, which rest upon huge cube-shaped pillars. The terraces are not only hollow, but filled with earth to facilitate the plantation of large-sized trees. One could climb to the highest story of the building by stairs. The sides of the gardens contain water engines through which persons employed exclusively for the purpose continually raise water from river Euphrates into the gardens . The plentiful water outlets at each level keep the grass permanently green and firmly attached to the ground.
Since Babylon hardly received any rainfall, lifting water into the air and irrigating the plants at every level was a difficult task at the contemporary period, which lacked pressure pumps and modern engines . This makes it one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was difficult to gather stone on the Mesopotamian plain due to which the architecture mostly utilized baked bricks composed with clay and chopped straw, which were joined with bitumen as a substitute for mortar. To protect the foundation of the building from dissolving, the gardens made use of stone covered with layers of tiles, asphalt and reed. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are considered to be one of the wonders due to their grandeur sight and lush greenery cascading from the sky . Archaeologists who recovered the ruins of the gardens believe that they might have devastated in an earthquake that occurred in second century B.C or eroded away over time.
2. Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus is another ancient wonder, known for its splendid carvings and statuary, which makes it one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In fourth century B.C., Mausolus ruled Halicarnassus, a Mediterranean kingdom, with his Queen Artemisia . After his death in 353 B.C., Queen Artemisia built the tomb as a tribute to Mausolus by hiring the most talented architects of the contemporary period. The tomb was established on a hill that overlooks the city. The structure of the tomb sits on a stone platform in the center of a courtyard. A staircase with lion stones leads to the top of the courtyard. The outer wall consists of several statues representing ancient gods and goddesses. Warriors fitted to horseback guard the tomb at every corner stone. A majority of the structure is built with marble and the structure rises as a square, narrowing down to over one-third of the total height of the Mausoleum . The mid-section consists of relief sculptures that depict action scenes from ancient Greek mythology.
The top section of the tomb consists of 36 slim columns rising at one-third height of the overall tomb. Statues stand between each column, while the backside of the columns contains solid blocks, which carry the weight of the tomb’s roof. The roof consists of stepped pyramid standing at 24 levels with carvings that represent four gigantic horses towing a chariot with Mausolus and Artemisia’s images . Artemisia survived for only two years after her husband’s death and the tomb was unfinished by the time of her death. Mausolus and Artemisia’s dead bodies were buried in the tomb. While the Mausoleum was untouched until Alexander the Great conquered the kingdom in 334 B.C., it was in ruins for over seventeen centuries . By fifteenth century A.D., the base of the tomb was visible and Turkish crusaders recycled a major part of the building into their constructions. A present polished marble from the tomb is visible at the site. Archaeologists were able to recover some walls, staircase, broken chariot wheels and three corners of the tomb.
3. Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus of Rhodes is a giant statue of God Helios, which was built on the island of Rhodes to celebrate victory and freedom of the people of Rhodes. It is located in the modern Greece at the southwestern tip of the country. The construction of the statue began in 292 B.C., and took over 12 years to complete. The statue stands at a height of 110 feet upon a pedestal of 50 feet, which is located on a breakwater at the entrance of the harbor . According to some historians, the statue was semi-nude with a cape on its left shoulder. Some others believe that the statue had a torch in its hand in a similar manner to the Statue of Liberty. The statue was constructed with bronze plates sitting on an iron framework, which used 15 and 9 tons of bronze and iron respectively.
Numerous stone columns act as a primary support to the statue, while iron beams driving into stone and connect the outer skin of the statue with bronze. Bronze plates were hammered and hoisted into the right position to rivet the adjacent plates into the iron frame. The Colossus stood erect for over fifty-six years and collapsed in an earthquake, which occurred in 226 B.C., Massive pieces of the statue lay on the harbor for centuries . While Ptolemy III, an Egyptian King decided to reconstruct the statue, the people of Rhodes denied the offer as they considered it an offense to God Helios. When the Arabs invaded Rhodes in seventh century A.D., they broke the remains and sold as scrap . History suggests that over 900 camels were required to transport the broken pieces.
4. Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Lighthouse of Alexandria, located in Alexandria, Egypt, is one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. In 332 B.C., when Alexander the Great decided to build his new city twenty miles west of the Nile delta in Egypt, a mechanism was necessary to distinguish the two harbors built at a canal between Lake Mareotis and Nile . After Alexander’s death in 323 B.C., Ptolemy Soter took the responsibility of constructing the city with a lighthouse that traded ships into the harbor. When Plotemy authorized the construction of Pharos in 290 B.C., it became the first lighthouse across the world and the tallest building next to the Great Pyramid . According to historians, the lighthouse was around 450 to 600 feet high. The design of the lighthouse was similar to a skyscraper with three stages built on the top of one another. The building material used for the construction was white marble slabs cemented with lead mortar on a stone. The first level sat on a platform of 20 foot with a height of 240 feet and a width of 100 feet, while the door section parted up way at a length of 600 feet with arches . The internal structure had spiral ramps, which enabled the transport of materials to the top in carts drawn by animals.
Staircases enabled visitors to climb to the chamber, while a shaft consisting of a dumbwaiter transported fuel. Large curved bronze mirrors project the light transmitted by the fire into a beam through which ships detected the light from a distance of one-hundred miles. The mirror was also used as a weapon that ablaze enemy ships as they approached the kingdom. The structure had beautiful decorations of statuary, which include four replicas of the god Triton at all the corners of the lowest level of the roof . The lighthouse consists of a smaller balcony, which allows visitors to climb to the top of the tower. The top view was over 300 feet above the sea level, which makes it an ancient wonder of the world. The lighthouse became victim to the earthquake that occurred over 1500 years ago. Although ruins were available on the site until 1480, they had been used to build a fortress, which stands today . Today, the site is an underwater park, which allows tourists to swim across the remains of the Pharos lighthouse.
Works Cited
Clayton, Peter A. and Martin J. Price. Seven Wonders Ancient World. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2013.
Laliberte, Michelle. What Are the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World? Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2013.
Woods, Michael and Mary B. Woods. Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books, 2008.
