7 Wonders of The World

The Great Pyramids were built between 2650-2500. It is said that they were a tomb of Khufu. They are located in Giza, Egypt. The largest pyramid is 756 feet long on each side and 450 feet high. It is made up of 2,300,000 blocks, that each weigh two and a half tons. It took 20 years for 100,000 slaves to build it. It required 112 men to lift each separate block.
Men that were great thieves wanted to get the hidden treasure that was hidden in the tomb.They found a small square room called the Queen's Chamber. It is a passageway. The Grand Gallery is another passageway to the King's Chamber. It is 34 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 19 feet tall. After not finding the treasure, the men got angry and tried to destroy the tomb but stopped after taking out 30 feet of stone.
No one knows what happened to King Khufu and his treasure.
Some people think that it was just an observatory, but we can't be quite sure because when people stated that, it was already over 2,000 years old. An astronomer observed a descending passageway above the Grand Gallery that could have been used for mapping the sky. 

In some stories, people say that the Hanging Gardens went hundreds of feet into the air, but through archaeological explorations people now think were probably weren't that big. The ancient city of Babylon, which was under King Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to a travelers. In 450 B.C., a historian named Herodotus wrote, "In addition to it's size, Babylon surpasses any city in the known world." Herodotus said the outer walls were 80 feet thick, 320 feet high, and 56 miles in length. He said that it was wide enough for a four-horse chariot to turn.Above the city was the famous tower of Babel, which was a temple to the God Marduk. It looked like it reached the heavens. Archaeological examination has found that some of Herodotus's claims (the outer walls seem to be only 10 miles long, and not nearly as high) might not be true. But his story does tell us how cool the features of the city appeared to those who visited it. 

The Olympic Games were made in honor of the God Zeus. They were held in the shrine to Zeus located near the west edge of Greece in a city called Peloponnesus. The Temple of Zeus was simple at first, but as the games became more popular everyone could tell that they would need a new, larger temple that was worthy to the king of the Gods. Between 470 B.C. and 460 B.C. a new temple was started. The maker was Libon of Elis and the masterpiece he created, The Temple of Zeus, was finished in 456 B.C. It was built on a raised rectangular platform. The sides were supported by 13 large columns and six on each end. 
So with everything that I have talked about, the magnificence of the temple was so great it became a landmark, therefore making it so magnificent that it became what it is known to us as one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.  

 It is sometimes called "Modern Colossus," but more often called the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is somewhat like Colossus. Both were built as a celebration of freedom.
Originally, Colossus stood over 2,000 years ago at the Islands of Rhodes. It is located off of the southwestern tip is Asia Minor, where the Agean Sea meets the Mediterranean Sea. The capitol city, Rhodes, was built in 408 B.C.
In 357 B.C the island which was conquered by Mausolus of Halicarnassus (one of the other seven wonders) fell to the Persians in 340 B.C. and was finally captured by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.
The Statue of Liberty, which is the same size as Colossus, weighs 225 tons! Colossus weighed a little more. Inside the statue were several stone columns, which acted as the main supports.


Alexander the Great had seventeen cities named after him. Most of them are no longer around except for Alexandria, Egypt. This city is where the Lighthouse of Alexandria stood. Alexander died in 323 B. C. The city was completed by Ptolemy Soter, the new ruler of Egypt. The city soon became rich. The city needed a symbol and a mechanism to guide the trade ships into its harbor. Ptolemy started building the lighthouse in 290 B.C. It was completed 20 years later and was the first lighthouse of the world. It was also the tallest building with the exception of the Great Pyramid.
A man named Sostrates of Knidos designed the lighthouse. He thought it needed to have his name carved in the foundation. But Ptollemy II, who ruled after his father, refused and wanted his own name carved in. Sostrates, being a clever man, had this inscription put on the lighthouse: SOSTRATES SON OF DEXIPHANES OF KNIDOS ON BEHALF OF ALL MARINERS TO THE SAVIOR GODS. Then he covered it with plaster. Then they put Ptolemy's name into the plaster. As years passed, the plaster chipped away, leaving Sostrates declaration.

The Temple of Artemis was one of Seven of the Wonders of the ancient world. It was so big that it took 120 years to make the temple. It's hard to believe but it was one of the largest temples built in the ancient times.
The temple was built in 550 B.C. It's foundation measured at 377 by 40 feet. It stood in the Greek city of Aphasias, on the west coast which we all know as Turkey. The whole temple was entirely marble except for its tile covered wooden roof. It was built as a dedication to the Greek Goddess Artemis.  

In 377 B.C the city of Halicarnassus was the capitol of a small kingdom along the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor. It was that year that Hecatomnus of Mylasa, died and left control of his kingdom to his son Mausolus. Mausolus in his life extended the territory even further so that it finally included most of Asia Minor. Mausolus, with his queen Artimisia, ruled over Halicarnassus and the surrounding territory for 24 years. Mausolus, though he was descending from the local people, spoke Greek and admired the Greek government and their ways of life. He founded many cities of Greek design along the coast and encouraged Greek democratic traditions.
Then in 353 B.C, Mausolus died, leaving Artimisia brokenhearted. As a tribute to him, she decided to build him a splendid tomb. It became a structure so famous that Mausolus's name is now associated with all tombs throughout our modern world - "mausoleum." The building was so beautiful and unique it became one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the world!