Expert: Maria - 12/11/2007

Question
why is the wonders of the ancient world called 7 woenders?

Answer
Hello,

They was called the Seven Wonders of the World simply because they are really seven, according to a list which seems to have been  originally compiled around the second century BC to indicate the greatest monuments at that time, though  the first reference to the idea is found in Herodotus ‘The Histories‘ in the 5th century BC.

So here are the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World:

1)The great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt.
A gigantic stone structure still existing  near the ancient city of Memphis (today part of Greater Cairo), serving as a tomb for the Egyptian Pharaoh Cheops (Khufu) of the 4th Dynasty(around the year 2560 BC).

2)The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (today Iraq).
A palace with legendary gardens built on the banks of the Euphrates river by King Nebuchadnezzar II, who reigned c. 605 BC-562 BC. Today it does not exist anymore.

3)The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece.
An enormous statue of the Greek king of gods, carved by the great sculptor Phidias around 440 BC at the ancient town of Olympia (the site of the Olympic Games in classical times) on the west coast of modern Greece. Today this statue does not exist anymore.

4)The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
A beautiful temple in Asia Minor (today Turkey) erected around 550 BC in honour of the Greek goddess of hunting and wild nature.
Today only a single column remains from the temple itself. It's location was discovered in 1869, and excavations begun then. Several artifacts were excavated, and are housed today at the British Museum in London


5)The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (today Bodrum, Turkey).
A beautiful  tomb dedicated to Mausolus, king of Caria, by his wife Artemisia around 350 BC.
By 1404 AD only the very base of the Mausoleum was still recognizable.

6)The Colossus of Rhodes, Greece.
A huge statue of the Greek god Helios, the sun-god, erected by the Greeks at the entrance of the harbour of the Mediterranean island of Rhodes around 282 BC. The statue stood for about fifty years until Rhodes was hit by an earthquake in 226 BC.

7)The Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt.
A lighthouse initiated by Ptolemy Soter around 290 BC and  completed after his death, during the reign of his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, on the island of Pharos off the coast of their capital city (Pharos is now a promontory within the city of Alexandria in Egypt ). Some remains of the lighthouse were found on the floor of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour in 1994

Best,
Maria