A Whole New World: Exploring the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The earliest known list of wonders of the world dates back to the 1st Century BC, but such lists were popularised after Alexander the Great's conquests of the western world in the 4th Century BC gave Hellenistic travellers access to new civilisations. Fascinated by the architectural creations of the Babylonians, Egyptians and Persians, these travellers created lists of the marvels they had witnessed as a way to remember all they had seen. 

In a poem, the ancient Greek poet Antipater of Sidon of the 2nd and 1st Centuries BC created one of the earliest known lists of the seven wonders of the ancient world. His list was almost identical to the one we think of today, only substituting the Lighthouse of Alexandria for the walls of Babylon. 

Typically, the seven wonders of the ancient world are considered to be the Great Pyramid of Giza (the only ancient wonder that has not been destroyed), the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the existence of which is disputed. 

The Colossus of Rhodes, a 33 metre tall statue of the Greek sun god Helios, was the last of the seven wonders to be constructed and the first to be destroyed: it stood for 54 years until its destruction by an earthquake in 226 BC. Because of this, all seven wonders existed simultaneously for fewer than sixty years. 

Earthquakes destroyed not only the Colossus of Rhodes, but also the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The Temple of Artemis, on the other hand, was destroyed in an arson attack by a Greek called Herostratus. It is not entirely certain how the Statue of Zeus was destroyed: most people either believe that it was taken from Olympus to Constantinople, where it fell victim to the great fire of the Palace of Lausus in 475 AD, or that it perished along with the temple that originally housed it, which was severely damaged by fire in 425 AD. 

We don't know how the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were destroyed because we don't know if they existed in the first place. Legend tells that the gardens were constructed on the orders of Nebuchadnezzar II, King of the Second Babylonian Empire, for his Median wife, Queen Amytis, in order to recreate the green hills of her homeland. However, there are no surviving Babylonian texts that mention the Hanging Gardens, nor has any definitive archaeological evidence of its existence been unearthed in the ruins of Babylon. 

There are three main theories on the existence of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The first is that they were a myth, invented by ancient Greek and Roman writers as a romanticised ideal of what an eastern garden would be like. According to the second theory, the gardens did exist in Babylon but were destroyed in the first century AD. The third theory suggests that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is actually a reference to a well-documented pleasure garden built by the Assyrian King Sennacherib in Nineveh, one of the largest cities in Assyria. 

Here's a fun fact about each of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World:

• The Great Pyramid of Giza - Graffiti has been found in multiple chambers within the Great Pyramid. Aside from levelling lines and indication marks to help the stonemasons working on the pyramid, there are also hieroglyphic inscriptions on the limestone walls of the chambers, spelling out the names of 'gangs' (groups of approximately 1,000 workers) that had worked on the pyramid. 

• The Colossus of Rhodes - Ptolemy III, the third pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, offered to rebuild the Colossus after its collapse, but Pythia, the priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, convinced the Rhodians that they had offended Helios, the God represented by the Colossus. Because of this, the Rhodians refused to have the statue rebuilt.

• The Lighthouse at Alexandria - Originally called the Pharos of Alexandria, it was the world's first lighthouse. According to legend, the people of the island on which it was built were 'wreckers', raiding ships that had run aground on the island's shores. As a result, Ptolemy I Soter, successor to Alexander the Great, had the lighthouse built to guide ships into port at night and reduce the number of wreckages. 

• The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus - The word 'mausoleum' is derived from the name of King Mausolus, for whom the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was built. However, it was Mausolus' wife, Artemisia II, who oversaw the building of the tomb, because Mausolus died before building work began. Both Mausolus and Artemisia's ashes were placed inside the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

• The Temple of Artemis - In his poem outlining seven wonders of the world, Antipater of Sidon described the Temple as the most spectacular of all the marvels he had witnessed, claiming that 'apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand'. 

• The Statue of Zeus at Olympia - According to the Roman historian Suetonius, the Roman emperor Caligula declared that the finest statues of the Gods, including the statue of Zeus at Olympia, should be brought from Greece to Rome so that their heads could be removed and an effigy of his own head put in their place. Caligula was assassinated before this could happen.

• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon - The Hanging Gardens get their name from the Greek word 'kremastós', meaning 'overhanging'. 'Kremastós' has a broader meaning than the modern English word 'hanging' and refers to trees that have been planted on a raised structure, such as a terrace. 

Many lists of seven wonders of the world have followed the original list of the seven ancient wonders, and the world is full of wonders, both natural and man-made. Nevertheless, I still mourn the losses of the original wonders, even if one of them may never have existed to begin with.

SOURCES:

• Adhikari, Saugat, 'The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World', Ancient History Lists, (2024)

• 'Hanging Gardens of Babylon', Britannica, (2025)

• Mark, Joshua J., 'The Seven Wonders', World History Encyclopaedia, (2023)

• 'The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World', ed. Clayton, Peter A., Price, Martin J., (Routledge, 1988)