Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

This is the Colossus, a giant bronze statue standing at the entrance of the Greek city of Rhodes. Built over 2,300 years ago, it was an incredible achievement for the time. However, it was only standing for 56 years before tragically collapsing. In this video, I explain all seven wonders of the ancient world, all from the incredible hanging gardens of Babylon to the enormous lighthouse of Alexandria, and of course, the amazing story behind the Colossus of Rhodes, a story including 900 camels and an incredible amount of money. But first, let's talk about the only of the seven ancient wonders of the world that's still standing. The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest structure on Earth for over 3,800 years, from when it was built in 2600 BC to the Lincoln Cathedral was finished in 1311. The pyramid was built with approximately 2.3 million stone blocks, each weighing between 2.5 and 15 tons. The lightest stones weighed roughly the same as a Tesla Cybertruck. The pyramid is nearly 147 meters high and covers more than 50,000 square meters at its base. But the pyramid wasn't just massive, it was built with incredible precision. All major pyramids in Egypt are actually aligned to true north. For the Great Pyramid of Giza, each of its four sides faces north, south, east and west by less than one-tenth of a degree. Some stones inside the pyramid are so precisely cut that a sheet of paper cannot fit between them. But how did they build such an incredible structure like this 4,600 years ago? First, what is really the ancient wonders of the world? When referring to the ancient wonders of the world, most people refer to the list from 1572, with detailed illustrations of each wonder. However, this is their illustration of the pyramids, and as you can see, it's not really accurate. They clearly based it on old descriptions, not first-hand reports. The list actually traces back over 1,500 years before that. The document is called Latakouli Alexandrini and included multiple lists, such as the seven tallest mountains, seven greatest generals, the seven greatest artists, and of course, the seven wonders of the world. It originated around 200 BC in Alexandria, the center of knowledge and the capital of Egypt at the time. Back in Giza, Pharaoh Khufu ordered a tomb to be built. It was going to be the greatest and most secure structure ever to exist, a place for Khufu's body to rest and secure his treasures for eternity. He gathered 25,000 workers and started the construction that would take 20 years to finish. Inside the pyramid, multiple tombs were built at different levels, and the biggest of them was the King's Chamber, the final resting place for Pharaoh Khufu. But how did they build the Great Pyramid of Giza? Multiple theories exist, but no exact method is agreed upon. This topic could be an entire video on its own, so for this video, I'll focus on the most widely accepted theories. First, they'd need the materials to build the pyramid. A huge amount of limestone and granite was needed. Most of these stones came from local mines, but inside the King's Chamber, a different kind of stone was used. The King's Chamber was built using red granite, with blocks of stone weighing up to 80 tons each. That's roughly the weight of a Boeing 737. Not only did the Egyptians have to move these stones with human force, they imported them from the opposite end of the Nile River. The red granite came from Aswan, a city over 800 kilometers away. That's nearly the same distance as driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back again. These massive stones are believed to have been transported along the Nile River. Once the ground was leveled, construction could begin. The most common theory is that the Egyptians built massive earthen ramps, either straight ramps or ramps with angled turns. Other suggestions include this ramp, built around the pyramid itself. The ramps could be no more than 8 degrees for the workers to comfortably move the stone blocks using ropes, poles, and sleds. However, none of these methods alone could have been used for the entire construction. The ramps would need to be impossibly long or too steep to reach the top. Another theory is that the Egyptians leveraged the Grand Gallery to help them move the stones weighing up to 80 tons. By building a straight ramp halfway up the pyramid, the workers created a path for the heaviest stones. They connected each stone to a counterweight inside the Grand Gallery. This would allow the Egyptians to leverage physics, making the heavy blocks easier to move. No single explanation has been proven, and the mystery is part of what makes the pyramid so spectacular. I've been using Opera for a while now, and here's why you might want to try it too. Opera has a video pop-out feature. This is perfect when I'm writing scripts and watching YouTube at the same time. I can detach any video so it follows me around, even outside the browser. Opera's tab islands are also great. They let me group related tabs together to stay organized, like articles, videos, assets, 3D, and research. It's easy to collapse and expand them. You can also customize the browser. I love using the Mirage theme when writing darker stories, and Midsummer when I'm in a creative mood. If you want to try Opera, use the link in the description. Of all the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one still standing. But for the next one, experts disagree whether it even existed or not. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was described as a huge garden built high above stone walls. Trees and large plants grew high above ground, and water flowed down from one level to the next. No ruins have been discovered to prove its existence. And to add to the mystery, some authors describe the garden in great detail, while other famous historians who visited Babylon never mentioned the garden. And it turns out that the Hanging Garden of Babylon might not have been in Babylon at all. But first, let's look at what made it so impressive. The garden was described as a square stone structure built with multiple raised levels. Each terrace had to hold tons of soil and stones without leaking or collapsing. A nearby aqueduct transported water into the garden. When the water reached the garden, some ancient stories claim that a device similar to the Archimedes' screw lifted water to each level. The screw worked by capsuling a spiral inside a bronze tube. By rotating the spiral inside, water would be pushed upward to the next level. This would have allowed water to reach the top of the garden, then flow down every terrace, keeping the entire garden alive and also creating a spectacular view. The only problem is that the Archimedes' screw wasn't invented until 350 years later. To try to solve the mystery of where the Hanging Gardens was located, we need to ask, who built the gardens? There are two theories. Some claim the gardens were built by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC. According to the story, he built it for his wife, Amitis. She came from a green, mountainous homeland and missed the forests and hills of her old home. The garden was said to be a gift, a way to bring her homeland to the flat landscape of Babylon. No record confirms this, yet the story has survived for more than 2,000 years. The second theory is that the garden was actually located in the ancient city of Sin, Nineveh in Iraq. Nineveh was a bigger and older city compared to Babylon, and the Assyrian king Sennacherib designed the city with advanced water systems. Inscriptions describe vast gardens, artificial canals and advanced plumbing. Water was carried more than 50 km from the mountains through aqueducts, including a stone aqueduct that still exists today. Some Assyrian sources also describe Nineveh as Old Babylon, and the whole region as Babylonia. Nineveh's advanced plumbing leads some experts to believe that Nineveh was the true location of the hanging gardens, while others find it more likely that the garden actually was in Babylon. The author of the book Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Bettany Hughes, has a different theory. Maybe the title was never meant to be The Hanging Garden of Babylon, but instead The Hanging Gardens of Babylonia. Although The Hanging Garden of Babylon's existence is disputed, the next ancient wonder of the world is well documented, and it was huge. Surrounded only by ocean in all directions, you finally see a light on the horizon. After days at sea, you're closing in on the largest city in the ancient world, an important trading hub connecting ancient Greece to the Nile Valley. This is the city founded by none other than Alexander the Great. The light guiding you safely towards shore is the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Originally called the Pharos, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was massive in size. Compared to a lighthouse in the 21st century, the Pharos was up to three times the height. It was one of the tallest man-made structures for centuries, excluding the pyramids. To achieve this height, the lighthouse consisted of three levels. A square base, an octagonal middle, and a cylindrical top, crowned with a statue. The statue might have represented Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, or Poseidon, the god of the sea. Inside the lighthouse, historians believe a large mirror was used to reflect light and guide nearby ships. During the day, the lighthouse reflected sunlight, and by night, a massive fire guided ships approaching the harbor. Some stories claim that the lighthouse could be seen from over 50 kilometers away. The Lighthouse of Alexandria was so famous that its name became universal. Pharos became the word for lighthouse in Greek, French, Spanish, and many other languages. Between the years 900 and 1300, several strong earthquakes hit Alexandria. Piece by piece, the lighthouse collapsed. The stones and ruins were later reused to build a medieval fortress on the same island where the lighthouse once stood. The Lighthouse of Alexandria survived for over 1500 years, and while we know what happened to the lighthouse, historians are not exactly sure what happened to this next wonder. The statue of Zeus was a giant statue of the Greek god seated on a throne. The famous sculptor, Phidias, created the statue around 435 BC in the hometown of the original Olympic Games, Olympia. The statue of Zeus was so tall it almost touched the temple ceiling. Standing around 12 meters, the statue was made from large quantities of gold and ivory. Some sources describe a reflecting pool of oil placed in front of the statue, making it appear even taller. The statue was seen as both extremely expensive and beautifully made. For example, the philosopher Epictetus believed one could only die happy after witnessing the statue of Zeus. So how could something so beautiful just disappear? Historians aren't entirely sure what happened to the statue. One theory suggests the statue was destroyed by earthquakes around year 522 in Olympia, but no ruins remain to confirm this. However, an 11th century historian claimed Emperor Theodosius I moved the statue from Olympia to Constantinople, the city that would later become modern-day Istanbul. Around year 391, Emperor Theodosius I introduced Christianity, making the statue of the Greek god not welcome in Olympia. Its new home was allegedly in the palace of Lausos, owned by a high-ranking official and art collector. Later, the statue is believed to have been destroyed in a fire in Constantinople during the 5th century. The statue of Zeus was huge, but this next wonder wasn't just big, it was arguably the largest Greek temple ever built. The ruins of the Temple of Artemis stand in modern-day Turkey, in the historic city of Ophiuchus. The temple was constructed entirely of marble. This was more than a place of worship. Temple of Artemis served as a center for religion, banking, and a shelter for refugees. Kings, cities, and ordinary people stored their money here. It became known as the Bank of Asia, making it an influential building before it was tragically destroyed. However, the temple is said to have survived for up to 600 years. And unlike the other wonders, the Temple of Artemis was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. The temple's exact construction date is unknown, but the first version is believed to have been destroyed by a flood in the 7th century BC. 200 years later, the temple was rebuilt. Its size was about the same as a football field. Six years later, on the day Alexander the Great was born, a man obsessed with being written into history lit the temple on fire. The Temple of Artemis burned to the ground. Later, Alexander the Great offered to fund the reconstruction, but the people of Ophiuchus refused because it was inappropriate for a god to dictate offerings to another god. After Alexander the Great's death, the people of Ophiuchus rebuilt the temple with their own funding in 323 BC. With more than 127 columns stacked in two rows around the temple, the larger design measured 137 meters in length and 69 meters in width, nearly four times the size of Athens' Parthenon. Pliny the Elder, the famous Roman historian, documented the largest version of the temple, confirming its size and beauty. The Temple of Artemis must have been an unbelievable sight, but one might wonder how it compared to this next building only 200 km away. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a towering, richly sculpted marble building in the southwestern part in modern-day Turkey. The mausoleum was built as a tomb for the ruler of Caria and his wife around 350 BC. It combined Greek architecture with a purpose similar to the pyramids of Egypt. The mausoleum stood on a high rectangular platform, positioned on a hill above the city of Halicarnassus. The building is described as a multi-level structure rising over 40 meters high, with lots of sculptures and decorations on each level. At the bottom was a massive stone base, a wide staircase led up to the platform guarded by stone lions and statues. On top of the base stood the main body of the tomb, a tall marble block surrounded by rows of columns. Between these columns stood hundreds of statues, turning the building into a gallery of stone figures visible from every side. Above the columns, there was a roof resembling a pyramid. This rooftop set the mausoleum apart from any Greek temple. At the very top stood a colossal chariot, pulled by four horses. But what happened to the mausoleum? Between the 1100s and 1400s, earthquakes gradually destroyed the building. Some remaining sculptures are now displayed at the British Museum in London. However, the massive marble sarcophagus inside the tomb has never been found. The mausoleum was so influential that the word mausoleum ended up meaning giant and impressive tomb, much like the next wonder, the Colossus of Rhodes. After the death of Alexander the Great, a war started. Alexander's generals turned on each other, and the empire suffered the wars of the successors. In the middle of the war, Rhodes thrived as a merchant city. Perfectly placed between Greece, Egypt, and Asia, it became one of the most important trading hubs in the ancient world, but also an important target for enemies. In 305 BC, a powerful general named Demetrius attacked the city. Rhodes was well protected, but Demetrius brought one of the most terrifying weapons ever built, the Helepolis. A siege tower unlike anything else. It stood around 40 meters tall and weighed over 160 tons, around the same weight as a blue whale. The attacks went on for almost a year. In the end, the war on Rhodes became too expensive. Demetrius gave up and his army left Rhodes. The people of Rhodes gathered the bronze, iron, and metal from the battlefield. They melted it all and sold it as scraps. The total value came to around 300 talents of silver, an enormous fortune in the ancient world, estimated to be worth millions of dollars in today's money. With this wealth, the people of Rhodes decided to honor the god of the sun, Helios, building a statue like no other, something as grand as the weapon that tried to conquer the city. The greatest sculptor on the island was hired to build the giant statue. His name was Kares of Lindos. Construction began and it lasted for 12 years. The statue stood on a massive stone pedestal, and the sculpture is said to be around 32 meters tall. Bronze was used as the statue's skin. To complete the statue, Kares of Lindos had workers build a massive earthen ramp. Unfortunately, the colossus did not stand for long. In 226 BC, only 56 years after it was finished, a powerful earthquake struck Rhodes. The statue snapped at the knees and collapsed. Surprisingly, the people of Rhodes did not rebuild the statue. The broken pieces were left on the ground, and even in ruins, the colossus stayed famous. People continued to visit the site for over 800 years, making the ruins of the colossus a tourist attraction itself. So, why isn't anything left in Rhodes today? In year 653, Rhodes was captured by Arab forces. What remained of the colossus was melted and sold. According to the story, the metal was carried away by over 900 camels, leaving the city of Rhodes with only descriptions of the legendary statue. With no ruins left to study, a lot of creative freedom painted the picture of the Colossus of Rhodes. The Colossus is often depicted standing with legs apart, ships sailing beneath it, but experts argue this would not have been structurally possible at the time. The statue was far more likely standing beside the harbour, but still so large and impressive that sailors might have described it as if they were sailing beneath it. If you found this video interesting, I think you'll enjoy my video about the final hours of Pompeii. Thanks for watching and please consider subscribing.