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    The Seven Wonders of the World… in 30 minutes
    The Seven Wonders of the World… in 30 minutes
    The Seven Wonders of the World… in 30 minutes
    Ebook73 pages51 minutes

    The Seven Wonders of the World… in 30 minutes

    By Marco Crespiatico

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    About this ebook

    Which were the famous "Seven Wonders of the World"? Who built them, how, and what happened to them? This slender volume, illustrated with reproductions and photographs, will answer these questions in a simple but detailed way.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPublisher s10191
    Release dateJan 26, 2015
    ISBN9786050351972
    The Seven Wonders of the World… in 30 minutes

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      Book preview

      The Seven Wonders of the World… in 30 minutes - Marco Crespiatico

      Chapter 1

      Introduction

      We have often heard about the Seven Wonders of the World, but it’s not always easy to understand of what Wonders we are talking about. This is due to the fact that there is certainly no absolute standard on wonders: everyone is free to create his or her own ranking.

      However, in the centuries since the Greeks, a group of wonders has drawn the attention and amazement of writers and common people more than others, since being recognized and identified as The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

      The Wonders of the Ancient World

      At the time of the great civilizations of the ancient world, Greeks and Persians have often written about one-of-a-kind monuments. To them, the world is a well-defined place, going from the great civilization of the Fertile Crescent to Europe, nearest Asia and Africa. Therefore, the Wonders are located in this region.

      A priori, this does not exclude the possibility that contemporary civilizations, such as India and China, also produced fabulous monuments, but we have no evidence in the literature of any reference to these.

      Today’s Seven Wonders list took final shape during the Renaissance period, but the origins come from long ago, from about two millennia earlier. In fact, it was around 450 BC that the Greek writer Herodotus, in his History, glorified some works of his epoch or recent past as admirable examples of the level of human civilisation. In particular, he is amazed by the pyramids of Egypt as well as by the city of Babylon, in which were located two key wonders: the Walls and the Hanging Gardens.

      In the following decades, other great monuments were built, capturing the imagination of Greek writers: (in order of time) the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (called Temple of Diana by the Romans), the Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the tomb of the Persian satrap Mausolus at Halicarnassus. All these monuments were impressive and above all unique, absolute points of reference, each in its own field.

      Two monuments built some time later are still missing from the list. They have been the first ones to collapse too, but this has permitted us to date the period when all the wonders still existed. The Statue of the God Sun Helios, built around 250 BC, will become famous under the name of Colossus of Rhodes. The building of the great Lighthouse of Alexandria began some decades later and ended just a few years before the Colossus of Rhodes had collapsed because of a tremendous earthquake and never reconstructed. Therefore, in those few years, when all Seven Wonders existed together, the myth was created and reached the following centuries.

      The list is created

      The list of Wonders started to spread in the following years, as witnessed by the reports of various Greek authors such as Callimachus of Cyrene and Antipater of Sidon. The things worth seeing (theamata in Greek) were renamed The Wonders (thaumata) and the number 7 began to spread, symbolizing perfection as a

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