The Seven Wonders of the World

The Seven Wonders of the World are a series of constructions of classical antiquity (between the 8th century BCE and the 5th century CE). The list varied through the years and did not stabilise until the Renaissance, and now includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Six of them – except for the Pyramid of Giza, which still stands relatively intact – have been destroyed, while the Hanging Gardens of Babylon may not have existed at all.

Background

The Greek conquest of much of the known western world in the 4th century BC allowed for Hellenistic travellers to discover the civilizations of the Egyptians, Persians, and Babylonians.