Culture Critic
@Culture_CritJan 23 • 14 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
Reminder that Cleopatra lived closer in time to today than to the construction of the pyramids.
Of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyramid is by far the oldest - yet the only one still standing.
So what happened to the others...? 🧵
1. Colossus of Rhodes:
A war memorial built in 282 BC on the Greek island of Rhodes, marking victory over a great siege on the city.
Rhodians melted down the enemy's bronze and iron weaponry and erected a colossus of the sun god Helios - about the size of the Statue of Liberty.
After just 50 years it was toppled by an earthquake. It lay in ruin for centuries (we don't know precisely where) until the pieces were sold off.
It was so great that people still came to visit the fragments - Pliny the Elder said few could wrap their arms around its thumbs.
2. Lighthouse of Alexandria
The youngest of the ancient wonders, built in the 3rd century BC. Alexandria was then a crucial trade port - the gateway to the Mediterranean.
It was around 400 feet tall, the world's second tallest structure for centuries behind the Great Pyramid.
The lighthouse survived for over 1,400 years. It was gradually destroyed by earthquakes during the medieval period and fell into the sea.
A major discovery occurred in 1994 - some of its remains were found on the harbour seafloor, as well as several statues (pictured).
3. Temple of Artemis
Initially a Bronze Age shrine at Ephesus (in modern-day Turkey). It was destroyed by flooding, rebuilt, then destroyed again by arson.
The third temple was the greatest, and it stood for around 600 years. It was huge - twice the size of the Parthenon.
Paganism was threatened as Christianity swept through the Roman Empire, and in 391 AD, the temple was closed by the Emperor Theodosius.
It was finally torn down by a mob in 401 AD. Only a single column remains today, but some fragments are kept at the British Museum.
4. Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
An enormous tomb built in 350 BC for Mausolus, a ruler of Caria (then part of the Persian Empire).
Crowned by a mighty four-horse marble chariot, it was so great that Mausolus's name stuck as the generic word for funeral monument buildings.
A series of earthquakes destroyed it in the 13th century and some fragments were used to build Bodrum Castle.
You can still visit its foundations in Bodrum (modern-day Turkey) and many of its original statues and reliefs - some of which are now kept in the British Museum.
5. Statue of Zeus
A 41-foot statue of Zeus, the greatest of the Greek gods, erected inside the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
It was made in 435 BC from gold and ivory, decorated with precious stones, polished bone and ebony. Zeus's head was crowned with golden olive shoots.
By the end of the 6th century AD it was lost.
We don't know for sure what happened, but the temple was closed in the 4th century when Theodosius banned pagan worship. Some say the statue was taken to Constantinople and destroyed in the fire of the Palace of Lausus.
6. Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The gardens are said to date to c.600 BC, built by Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife.
Babylonian priest Berossus described them as a series of terraces supported by stone columns and irrigated by pumps from the Euphrates river.
It's the only ancient wonder that we haven't been able to locate. Whether or not the gardens existed at all has been debated for centuries.
No archaeological evidence has yet been found, but they were said to lie in the ancient city of Babylon - near present-day Hillah, Iraq.
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