Virtually everyone has heard of the seven wonders of the world, but do you know what they were? Here they are:

Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria was often called the “Pharos of Alexandria” after the island on which it resided. It was a tower that is estimated to have been 120 m high, at the time one of the tallest man-made structures on Earth. At its apex was positioned a mirror which reflected sunlight during the day; a fire was lit at night.

It was built in the 3rd century BC and remained operational until it was largely destroyed by two earthquakes in the 14th century. In 1480 the then-Sultan of Egypt, Qaitbay, built a medieval fort on the former location of the building, using some of the fallen stone. The remnants of the Pharos that were incorporated into the walls of Fort Qaitbey are clearly visible due to their excessive size in comparison to surrounding masonry.

Mausoleum of Maussollos

The Mausoleum of Maussollos was located at Halicarnassus (present Budrum), Turkey.

This enormous white marble tomb was built to hold the remains of Mausolus, a provincial king in the Persian Empire, and his wife, Artemisia. It was approximately 135 foot high and was covered with relief sculpture showing action scenes from Greek myth/history. On top of the tomb was thirty-six slim columns, with statues standing in between. Behind the columns was a solid block that carried the weight of the tomb’s massive roof, which was in the form of a stepped pyramid. Perched on top were Four massive horses pulling a chariot in which images of Mausolus and Artemisia rode.

It was completed around 350 BC, three years after Maussollos death, and one year after Artemisia’s. By 1404 A.D. a series of earthquakes had all but destroyed the Mausoleum.

Temple of Artemis

The Temple of Artemis stood at Ephesus (present day Turkey). It was commissioned by King Croesus of Lydia, and took 120 years to build.

The temple was destroyed in 356 BC in an act of arson committed by Herostratus. According to the story, his motivation was fame at any cost, thus the term herostratic fame. The legend affirms that Artemis herself did not protect her temple, because she was too busy tending to the birth of Alexander the Great, which took place that same night. The reconstruction of the great Temple of Artemis was again destroyed during a raid by the Goths in 262 BC.

The temple’s location was rediscovered in 1869 by an expedition sponsored by the British Museum, and several artifacts and sculptures from the reconstructed temple, though not the lost Wonder of the World, can be seen there today.

Statue of Zeus

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was carved in 433 BC, in what is presently Greece. In 394 AD, it was probably taken to Constantinople (modern Istanbul) where it is said to have been destroyed by raging fires.

The statue occupied the whole width of the aisle of the temple that was built to house it, and was said to be about 12 metres tall. Zeus was carved from ivory and was seated on a magnificent throne made of cedar wood and inlaid with ivory, gold, ebony and precious stones. In Zeus’ right hand there was a small statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, and in his left hand a shining sceptre on which an eagle perched.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were supposedly built by king Nebuchadnezzar around 600 BC. However, there is doubt as to whether they ever physically existed.

The Hanging Gardens are extensively documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, but otherwise their is little evidence for their existence. Some (circumstantial) evidence gathered at the excavation of the palace at Babylon (present Iraq) has been accrued, but does not completely substantiate what look like fanciful descriptions.

Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus of Rhodes was a huge statue of the Greek god Helios, erected on the Greek island of Rhodes between 292 and 280 BC.

Following an unsuccessful siege of the city of Rhodes, the Rhodians decided to celebrate by building a giant statue of their patron god Helios. They melted down bronze from the many war machines left behind for the exterior of the figure while a particularly large siege tower became the scaffolding for the project, which took 12 years to complete.

The statue was 110 feet high and stood upon a fifty-foot pedestal near the harbour mole. Although the statue has been popularly depicted with its legs spanning the harbour entrance so that ships could pass beneath, it was actually posed in a more traditional Greek manner: nude, wearing a spiked crown, shading its eyes from the rising sun with its right hand, while holding a cloak over its left.

The Colossus stood for some fifty-six years until an earthquake hit Rhodes and the statue collapsed. It is said that an Egyptian king offered to pay for its reconstruction, but the Rhodians refused. They feared that somehow the statue had offended the god Helios, who used the earthquake to throw it down.

Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only surviving wonder from the original seven wonders of the world. It served as the tomb of the 4th dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (also known under his Greek name Cheops).

The estimated date of its completion is 2570 BC and it is the earliest and largest of the three great pyramids in the Giza necropolis on the outskirts of modern Cairo, Egypt.

At construction the Great Pyramid was 146 metres (481 feet) tall, but due to erosion its current height is 137 metres (451 feet). It covers more than 13.5 acres at the base, which is a square of over 235 metres on each side. For over 4 millennia it was the world’s tallest building, not being surpassed until the 143 metres tall minster of Strasbourg was completed in 1439.

The pyramid was constructed of stones weighing two to four tonnes each, adding up to a total estimated weight of some 7 million tonnes, and a volume of 2,600,600 cubic metres. When originally built, the pyramid had inset facing blocks of polished limestone, creating smooth sides; they have since fallen out, or been recycled for other building projects, leaving the underlying step-pyramid structure visible. (The smooth outer cover is still visible at the very top of Khafre’s pyramid.)