Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which one is your favorite Veeky Forums?

I'll go ahead and post all seven along with a brief description of them.

First up, pic related:

THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS - FIRST BUILT: 800 BC

The Temple of Artemis was a Greek temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis. It was located in Ephesus (near the modern town of Selçuk in present-day Turkey). It was destroyed and rebuilt three times.

Antipater of Sidon, who wrote about 6 of the 7 Wonders, described the Temple of Artemis as the greatest.

>I have gazed on the walls of impregnable Babylon along which chariots may race, and on the Zeus by the banks of the Alpheus, I have seen the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Helios, the great man-made mountains of the lofty pyramids, and the gigantic tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the sacred house of Artemis that towers to the clouds, the others were placed in the shade, for the sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus.

Other urls found in this thread:

theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/27/greece-colossus-rhodes-new-project
ancient.eu/parthenon/
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES - BUILT 280 BC

The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes. It was constructed to celebrate Rhodes' victory over the ruler of Cyprus, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, whose son unsuccessfully besieged Rhodes in 305 BC.

Much of the bronze that made up the statue was reforged from weapons left behind by Demetrius, who had unsuccessfully attempted to siege Rhodes.

The Colossus of Rhodes was the last of the Seven Wonders to be built, and was also the first one to be destroyed. It stood for 54 years until Rhodes was hit by an earthquake in 226 BC, which destroyed the statue and much of the city.

The 54 years that the statue stood are the only years in which all Seven Wonders existed at the same time.

I think I would like to see the hanging gardens of Babylon most.

Apparently its existence is still debatable

LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA - BUILT 280 BC

The Lighthouse of Alexandria was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 280 BC. It was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world for many centuries. It took twelve years to complete, at a total cost of 800 talents, and served as a prototype for all later lighthouses in the world. The light was produced by a furnace at the top, and the tower was said to have been built mostly with solid blocks of limestone. It had a range of around 30 miles.

The Lighthouse was badly damaged by three earthquakes between AD 956 and 1323, after which it then became an abandoned ruin. Around 1480, the last of its remnant stones were used to build the Citadel of Qaitbay on the site.

It was the third longest surviving ancient wonder (after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the extant Great Pyramid of Giza.)

This.

They're all magnificent but of them all I'd probably like to see the Hanging Gardens the most.

STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA - BUILT 435 BC

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure of Zeus, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. A sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels over a wooden framework, it represented the god Zeus sitting on an elaborate cedar wood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold and precious stones.

>"It seems that if Zeus were to stand up," the geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC, "he would unroof the temple."

The fate of the statue is unknown. No remnants of it have ever been found, nor were any scale copies of it made. We only know what it looks like from descriptions by ancient Greeks as well as depictions on ancient Greek coins.

>The 11th-century Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos records a tradition that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Palace of Lausus, in AD 475. Alternatively, it perished along with the temple, which burned down in AD 425.

Lucian of Samosata stated the following:

>They have laid hands on your person at Olympia, my lord High-Thunderer, and you had not the energy to wake the dogs or call in the neighbours; surely they might have come to the rescue and caught the fellows before they had finished packing up the loot.

Does anyone know what is the current leading theory as to how the pyramids have been built?

Apparently, the "water-dam-pressure" mechanism has been seen as unrealistic.

How much of their loss can be blamed on Christianity and other sandnigger religions?

MAUSOLEUM AT HALICANASSUS - BUILT 351 BC

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus(or Tomb of Mausolus) was a tomb built for Mausolus, a satrap in the Persian Empire(similar to a King.)

The four sides of the Mausoleum were adorned with sculptural reliefs, each created by one of four Greek sculptors—Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas of Paros and Timotheus.

Artemisia(Mausolus' wife) spared no expense in building the tomb. She sent messengers to Greece to find the most talented artists of the time.The tomb was erected on a hill overlooking the city. The whole structure sat in an enclosed courtyard. At the center of the courtyard was a stone platform on which the tomb sat. A stairway flanked by stone lions led to the top of the platform, which bore along its outer walls many statues of gods and goddesses. At each corner, stone warriors mounted on horseback guarded the tomb. Thirty-six columns decorated the interior of the tomb, with statues located between each pair of columns. Perched atop the tomb was a statue of four massive horses pulling a chariot in which rode images of Mausolus and Artemisia.

(This building was how the word "Mausoleum" came to be used generically for an above-ground tomb.)

The Mausoleum overlooked the city of Halicarnassus for many years. It was untouched when the city fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BC and still undamaged after attacks by pirates in 62 and 58 BC. It stood above the city's ruins for sixteen centuries. Then a series of earthquakes shattered the columns and sent the bronze chariot crashing to the ground. By 1404 AD only the very base of the Mausoleum was still recognizable.

The Knights of St John of Rhodes would later use the stone from the Mausoleum to help build Bodrum Castle. However, they did save many of the best sculptures they could find and mounted them in the castle.

>800 bc

I highly doubt that

I forgot to mention:

The Mausoleum of Halicanassus was the second-longest lasting of the Seven Wonders. It was the last one to be destroyed, of the six that were destroyed.

The first temple was the smallest of the three. After it was destroyed, the second temple was built four time larger than the first. The third temple was then built even larger.

Yes but it didn't look anything like the later wonder, also I doubt it's 800 bc, most likely 700, being the earliest typical greek temple ever

Most of the loss can be blamed on faggots like you not looking after them properly more than anything.

HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON - BUILT 605 BC (Supposedly)

The Hanging Gardens were described as a remarkable feat of engineering: an ascending series of tiered gardens containing all manner of trees, shrubs, and vines. The gardens were said to have looked like a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks.

According to legend, Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens for his Median wife, Queen Amytis, because she missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland.

However, out of all of the Seven Wonders, the Hanging Gardens is the only wonder which does not have a definitive established location. No archaeological evidence of the gardens has ever been found, leading many to suggest the Gardens were mythical. Some researchers believe that the Gardens of Babylon were actually King Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh.

It is possible that remnants of the garden are located underneath the Euphrates, however the river cannot be safely excavated.

that statue just keeps getting bigger and more fantastical with every subsequent artistic depiction.

Wasn't any chinese city recreating all the Wonders?

THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA - BUILT BETWEEN 2580 to 2560 BC

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the Giza Pyramid complex.

It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders(by almost 2000 years) and the only one still standing today.

It was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.

It was built as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu.

The pyramid is currently estimated to be 4,550 years old.

Good thing the greeks are planning to rebuilt it with debt money.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/27/greece-colossus-rhodes-new-project

And here's what the Pyramid looked like originally.

It was covered in around 5.5 million tonnes of limestone. A massive earthquake shook much of the limestone loose, which was then hauled to Cairo to be used in the building of Mosques and other temples.

The peak of the pyramid- called the "capstone"- was supposedly made of gold. However, it remains a mystery what happened to the capstone. Even ancient visitors to the pyramid reported that the pyramid was missing its capstone. Being made of gold, it is likely that the capstone was the first thing looted.

must have been quite a sight back in the day

definitely either that or the hanging gardens

>build a massive, pointless mound of rock
>people marvel at it for 1000s of years

Humans, wtf are you doing

>be kang
>have nothing better to do
>"I must make future generations remember how great I am"

it showed the immense power and wealth of the egyptian pharohs to their neighbors in the middle east

It is said that the sun reflected off it could be seen from the Levant. Don't remember the source.

(Me)
The Pyramids as they are today can be seen from space so I say it's plausible.

>How much of their loss can be blamed on Christianity and other sandnigger religions?

Three of them(Colossus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria, and Mausoleum at Halicanassus) were destroyed by earthquakes.

One(Pyramid of Giza) is still standing.

One(Hanging Gardens of Babylon) was never found.

One(The Temple of Artemis) was finally destroyed by the Goths(The first version of the Temple was likely destroyed by flood; the second version was destroyed via arson by Herostratus, who destroyed it because he wanted "fame at any cost"(he was executed for it); and the third and final version was destroyed by the Goths.

and
One(Zeus Statue) is unknown, though there's two theories: It was either destroyed by fire when the Olympic Temple burned down, or it was destroyed when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity(He had ordered the gold be stripped from all pagan shrines. Legend says a wealthy Greek moved the statue to his private art collection in Constantinople where it was later destroyed by a fire that swept the city.)

So, at most, only one of them was destroyed as a result of Christianity, however it is unknown.

>(Me)
samefag

(Me) is used precisely to show others that I'm quoting myself.

You're dumb.

you could see the pyramid all the way from over there? daayum

if he was such a kang then why did he make the pyramid white? shouldn't he have made it black to remind us all of how black he wuz

Actually with more reading, if the legend is true, the Zeus Statue wasn't actually "destroyed" by Emperor Constantine. He had only ordered the gold be removed from the statues.(So only partially ruined, but there's no hard evidence that the Zeus Statue was affected by this decree.)

After that, the statue was either destroyed along with the temple or removed by Lausus and placed in an art collection where it was destroyed by a city-wide fire in Constantinople.

Fun fact: the Statue of Zeus was sculpted by Phidias, who also made the Statue of Athena at the Parthenon.

It probably would have blinded lots of people.

I spent some time last year in the Yucatan and went to a Mayan ruin site that still had some of the limestone coating on its plaza. My eyes were burning like a son of a bitch after a few hours of that.

maybe that was intentional, you're not supposed to look at a god right in the eye

and the ancient egyptian kings did consider themselves to be literal god-tier

[spoiler]at night it's probably comfy though[/spoiler]

Was it just the pyramids that were made of limestone or all their temples?
>ywn see Egypt in the peak of its glory.

For me it's between the colossus of rhodes and the hanging gardens of babylon.

the pyramids

This is my favorite senpai.

>the hanging gardens of Nineveh
Fix'd.

It's a joke.

they're tombs for their kangz

>temple of marble
>destroyed by arson

But how?
I'm a history noob and I've always wondered how people have been razing shit with ease just for giggles and pissing on cultures they've dominated, but do they just go in tipping shit over and go at stuff with pickhammers? How does one with relative ease dismantle giant stone structures without explosives and industrial tools like ISIS?

Well i'm just gonna take a guess here and say that most of those stone temples probably had wooden elements too. Furniture and porches for example. But only the stone remained. It's like the case with the statues that used to be colorfully painted but all the paint has eroded with time, so we get clean white statues today.

I dunno man, if the pic in the OP is anything to go by, simply setting it on fire probably wouldn't do too much?

Well that pic is a painting of imagination so it doesn't say much

I meant as a general header as to how marble temple architecture used to look like in ancient greek.

How did the WTC burn down if it was just a bunch of concrete steel and glass?

I don't think we have a good estimation of that, maybe the entire temples were painted, who knows. Also i bet they had rugs. Stone floors get really cold.

Can a kerosene fire crack marble?

Gothic torches can't melt marble pillars

a kiln fire can

>In 356 BC, the temple was destroyed in a vainglorious act of arson by a man, Herostratus, who set fire to the wooden roof-beams

I'm guessing that after the wooden roof-beams burned, the roof collapsed onto the rest of the building and caused it to crumble.

Also, doing some googling, apparently marble will crack if it is exposed to fire for long enough.

Found a cool chart.

This one lists the Lighthouse of Alexandria as the last one to be built, as opposed to the Colossus of Rhodes which I stated above was the last.

fucking hell, the great pyramid of giza truly lives up to its name

first by nearly thousands of years and still there

>the Kangs were the vile Libyans
>they looted the natural kemetian pharohs
Because originally they were white until the nubia kings took over
Why would you half build a marble temple? Did they run out of money

Why not build an even bigger pyramid in a different location? It can't cost that much using modern equipment, and people could marvel at it for the next 10 or 15 millennia. It would be the perfect place to put stuff like a modern rosetta stone and other history-defining artifacts, so that if civilization fell and rose again, they could rediscover our wisdom.

Is it just be or does Giza look like an erect nipple?

>Why would you half build a marble temple? Did they run out of money

I'm not sure the reasons why wood was used in the construction of these temples, but it was a common practice from what I can find.

Take this description of the Parthenon:
ancient.eu/parthenon/
>The roof was constructed using cedar wood beams and marble tiles

So it seems that wood beams were essential in some manner for the construction of the roof. I guess the marble tiles were laid onto the wood beams, which acted as the frame for the roof.

So when Herostratus burned the wooden beams, the marble roof collapsed onto the rest of the temple.

We are, actually- the Great Sulphur Pyramids in Canada.

Sulphur waste in some kind of energy refinement is being stacked up like a pyramid.

Three pyramids, actually.

some low ass poly tits

I do hope they go through with finishing the pyramids. They will be larger than the Giza pyramid if they are completed.

why are they building three simultaneously

wouldn't building one big one and then deciding to build another later on make more sense

I guess the intention is not to actually build a pyramid, they just need to put the waste somewhere.

I imagine the taller the structure gets, it also gets more expensive to stack the blocks. So it would be more cost effective to just start another pyramid.

>some low ass poly tits
Problem?