Welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic and today we’re beginning a three-part series looking at the wonders of the world. We often hear the phrase that there are seven wonders of the world, but these lists have changed throughout time. We’re going to begin with the seven wonders of the ancient world, followed next week by the seven wonders of the middle ages, then leading to the seven wonders of the modern era, which is a much more engineering and innovation-focused list.
But let’s start at the beginning. This list was believed to be created around the 1st century, as the first tourists began to really explore Greece and Egypt and the rest of the Mediterranean, so this list is geographically confined to that area. They also existed in a pretty wide range of time, with only 60 years that all seven of them supposedly existed at the same time, if they all existed at all.
We’ll get to that later. Let’s begin with the only one of these wonders to still exist today, the Great Pyramid of Giza. While there are a few pyramids in Egypt, the largest pyramid belongs to the Pharoah Khufu and this pyramid was singled-out as a sight to see.
It was supposedly built in about 2560 BC, surviving today for a momentous 4,000 year plus lifespan. For almost 3,800 of those years, it was the tallest man-made structure on Earth, until modern engineering allowed skyscrapers to exist. We’re still unsure how this pyramid was built and it’s debated if slave labor was used or if skilled craftsmen were recruited, either way totaling an average workforce of 14,000 people at a time over the course of ten years.
It’s also debated if this pyramid was meant to be a tomb or not, as Khufu’s remains were never found. Some believe an elaborate undiscovered room in the pyramid may still hold his body, but only time and slow meticulous investigations will tell. Our second wonder is also in Egypt, the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
The lighthouse was created under the reign of Ptolemy the first and the second, taking about 12 years to build. This lighthouse had a giant furnace at the top, becoming the first of its kind and the model for all future lighthouses, used to guide ships into a harbor at night. It was destroyed over time by several earthquakes, which slowly caused the lighthouse to crumble into the sea.
A fort was built over the lighthouse’s ruins so it wasn’t able to be studied or examined until only recently, with most of the ruins still underwater. Our next wonder takes us away from Egypt and now to Greece where we have the Colossus of Rhodes. The city of Rhodes is a harbor city and the giant Colossus was built in honor of the Greek god Helios.
They built the statue to celebrate victory of defending their city against an attacking force. The statue was said to be about as tall as the Statue of Liberty and the pose of the statue is hotly debated, with the current belief that it couldn’t have actually straddled the opening of the harbor as it’s shown in pictures, but it likely stood to one side. Building the statue in the center of the harbor would have closed the actual harbor to traffic and that seems unlikely, or so experts believe.
It only stood for about 50 or 60 years before a massive earthquakes caused it to snap at the knees and fall onto the city. For a long time, people still traveled to see its ruins but eventually most of the bronze used to make it was melted down and sold, so there’s no evidence left in Rhodes of the statue. We now move onto the Statue of Zeus, which was located in the city of Olympia in Greece.
This giant statue was made out of wood but then covered in gold and precious metals. Zeus was the highest of the gods, so it was only fitting to build this statue in their largest temple to him. Eventually the Roman emperors that took over control of the temple forbid worship of "pagan gods", so the temple was abandoned and the statue crumbled.
Earthquakes and fires helped to expedite the process. Some theories point to the statue being torn apart and taken to sell, since little to no evidence of the statue remains. Our last Greek site is the Temple of Artemis, located in an area called Ephesus, which now falls into the geography of modern-day Turkey.
This temple was built to worship the goddess of the hunt Artemis and there is a theory that the Greek Amazons had a major role in building the temple to their patron Goddess. This temple was destroyed and rebuilt many times, by floods, fires, and earthquakes. It was rediscovered and excavated in the mid 1800s.
The site is commemorated now by a single column that’s been built by discovered pieces from the wreckage. The next wonder is also in Turkey, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. This wonder stems from the ruler named Mausolus who wanted to build a city beautiful and intricate, so he transformed the city of Halicarnassus into a sight to behold.
He died relatively young, though he had planned for this with an elaborate tomb and surrounding architecture. This tomb looked down over the city and included a stairway flanked by statues. At the time, it looked much more like a temple than a tomb.
Tombs like this today, usually large rooms that hold the coffin, are called mausoleums after him. It was destroyed when Catholic knights took over the city and built Bodrum castle, using the mausoleum’s bricks to fortify it. Following this, the rest of the treasures and even the body of Mausolus and his wife went missing.
You can visit this castle now and likely spot bricks and pieces that are from the old Mausoleum. You can also see the spot where the mausoleum used to sit. Our last Wonder is the only Wonder that there is no physical evidence of, it may not have even existed at all.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The ancient city of Babylon existed in what is now called Iraq and it’s said to have featured a garden, with tiers upon tiers of hanging flowers that poured down into it. What we’re seeing on the screen is either what they believed this garden looked like or gardens that have been inspired by it.
The leading theory of who created these gardens fall to Nebuchadnezzar the second, who likely built them for his wife. There is an opposing theory that these gardens never existed in Babylon but instead were built by an Assyrian king in the city of Nineveh. There are many references in ancient texts that discuss this Assyrian garden that line up with what we imagine.
Thank you for watching our first video on the seven wonders of the world! Next week we've got part two, if it's already been a week, you can check out part two right here. If it hasn't been a week, just be patient.
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