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Wonderful World

Jan 07, 2016

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a language project about the wonders of the world
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  • Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

  • 1.Egyptian pyramids2.Hanging Gardens of Babylon3.Statue of Zeus at Olympia4.Temple of Artemis5.Mausoleum at Halicarnassus6.Colossus of Rhodes7.Lighthouse of Alexandria

  • TheSeven Wonders of the World(or theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World) refers to remarkable constructions ofclassical antiquitylisted by various authors in guidebooks popular among the ancientHellenictourists, particularly in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. The most prominent of these, the versions byAntipater of Sidonand an observer identified asPhilo of Byzantium, comprise seven works located around the eastern Mediterranean rim. The original list inspiredinnumerable versionsthrough the ages, often listing seven entries. Of the original Seven Wonders, only onetheGreat Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the ancient wondersremains relatively intact.

  • TheEgyptian pyramidsare ancientpyramid-shapedmasonry structures located inEgypt.There are 138pyramidsdiscovered in Egypt as of 2008.Most were built as tombs for the country'sPharaohsand their consorts during theOldandMiddle Kingdomperiods.The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found atSaqqara, northwest ofMemphis.masonry. The estimate of the number of workers to build the pyramids range from a few thousand, twenty thousand, and up to 100,000.The most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found atGiza, on the outskirts ofCairo. Several of theGiza pyramidsare counted among the largest structures ever built.ThePyramid of Khufuat Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the only one of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient Worldstill in existence.

  • Traditionally they were said to have been built in the ancient city ofBabylon, near present-dayHillah,Babilprovince, inIraq. The Babylonian priestBerossus, writing in about 290BC and quoted later by Josephus, attributed the gardens to theNeo-BabyloniankingNebuchadnezzarII. There are no extant Babylonian texts which mention the gardens, and no definitive archaeological evidence has been found in Babylon.According to one legend, Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens for his Persian wife,Queen Amytis, because she missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland. He also built a grand palace that came to be known as 'The Marvel of the Mankind'.Because of the lack of evidence it has been suggested that the Hanging Gardens are purely legendary, and the descriptions found in ancient Greek and Roman writers includingStrabo,Diodorus SiculusandQuintus Curtius Rufusrepresent a romantic ideal of an eastern garden. If it did indeed exist, it was destroyed sometime after first century AD.

  • TheStatue of Zeus at Olympiawas a giant seated figure, about 13m (43ft) tall,made by the Greek sculptorPhidiasaround 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in theTemple of Zeusthere. Asculptureof ivory plates and gold panels over a wooden framework, it represented the godZeussitting on an elaborate cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones. It was regarded as one of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient Worlduntil its eventual loss and destruction during the 5th century AD.No copy of the statue has ever been found, and details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins.

  • TheTemple of Artemis, also known less precisely as theTemple ofDiana, was aGreek templededicated to the goddessArtemisand was one of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was located inEfesess, and was completely rebuilt three times before its eventual destruction in 401.Only foundations and sculptural fragments of the latest of the temples at the site remain.The first sanctuary (temenos) antedated the Ionic immigration by many years, and dates to theBronze Age.Callimachus, in hisHymn to Artemis, attributed it to theAmazons. In the 7th century BC, the old temple was destroyed by a flood. Its reconstruction began around 550 BC, under the CretanarchitectChersiphronand his sonMetagenes, at the expense ofCroesusofLydia: the project took 10 years to complete, only to be destroyed in an act ofarsonbyHerostratus. It was later rebuilt.Antipater of Sidon, who compiled the list of the Seven Wonders, describes the finished temple:

  • TheMausoleum at HalicarnassusorTomb of Mausolus was atombbuilt between 353 and 350BC atHalicarnassus(presentBodrum,Turkey) forMausolus, asatrapin thePersian Empire, andArtemisia II of Caria, who was both his wife and his sister. Thestructurewas designed by theGreekarchitectsSatyrosandPythius of Priene.The Mausoleum was approximately 45m (148ft) in height, and the four sides were adorned withsculpturalreliefs, each created by one of four GreeksculptorsLeochares,Bryaxis,ScopasofParosandTimotheus.The finished structure of the mausoleum was considered to be such an aesthetic triumph thatAntipater of Sidonidentified it as one of hisSeven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was destroyed through many earthquakes from 12th century to 15th century.

  • TheColossus of Rhodeswas astatueof the Greek godHelios, erected in the city ofRhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, byChares of Lindosin 280 BC. It is considered one of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was constructed to celebrate Rhodes' victory over the ruler of Cyprus,Antigonus I Monophthalmus, whose son unsuccessfully besieged Rhodes in 305 BC. Before its destruction inthe earthquake of 226 BC, the Colossus of Rhodes stood over 30 meters (98 feet) high,making it one of the tallest statues of theancient world.

  • TheLighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called thePharos of Alexandria, was a lofty tower built by thePtolemaic Kingdombetween 280 and 247 BC and between 393 and 450ft (120 and 137m) tall. It was one of the tallest man-made structures on Earth for many centuries, and was regarded as one of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World. Badly damaged by three earthquakes between 956 and 1323, it then became an abandoned ruin. It was the third longest surviving ancient wonder (after theMausoleum at Halicarnassusand the still extantGreat Pyramid of Giza) until in 1480 the last of its remnant stones were used to build theCitadel of Qaitbayon the site. In 1994, French archaeologists discovered some remains of the lighthouse on the floor of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramidshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Zeus_at_Olympiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_at_Halicarnassushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Rhodeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighthouse_of_Alexandria