seven wonders of the ancient world
By Bethany Hughes (W&N £25, 416pp)
An aproto science fiction novel by the 2nd century AD Greek writer Lucian of Samosata in which the protagonist travels to the moon. Only when he looks down and finds two of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos Lighthouse, can he recognize the Earth.
They still have some significance today, despite the fact that only one wonder, the Great Pyramid of Giza, remains almost intact. In this deeply researched book, historian and television documentary maker Bettany Hughes explores the continuing fascination that these “brilliant adventures of the mind” have with us.
Although various slightly different lists have existed over the centuries, Hughes's book focuses on the most frequently cited so-called standard seven. The first and oldest Great Pyramid was built in the 26th century BC as a tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu. The people involved in this work had to lift the limestone blocks one by one every two to three minutes for at least 24 years, 10 hours a day.
She then wonders how great the treasure that was buried with Khufu must have been. They must have been much better than those found in the burial chamber of Tutankhamun, a relatively unimportant pharaoh, although they were plundered by tomb robbers and disappeared long ago.
The second wonder may not have even existed. Although the Hanging Gardens of Babylon retain their fame today, there is little evidence to prove that they were real. Neither Xenophon nor Herodotus, two ancient Greek historians who almost certainly visited Babylon, mention them. Some scholars now argue that if they existed, they were located in Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and not in Babylon.
There is no doubt that other wonders are real. “The sun has never shone upon anything comparable to this,” wrote one visitor to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Reportedly the largest building in the ancient world, twice its size as the Parthenon, it has been destroyed and rebuilt many times.
One of its regular customers was a man named Croesus, so rich that his name is still synonymous with incredible wealth.
It has remained a tourist attraction for almost 1000 years. Now, just as you can buy a mini Big Ben in London, visitors can buy a mini Temple of Artemis.
Size mattered to the ancients. The statue of Zeus at Olympia, the only wonder on mainland Greece, was the size of a three-story house.
Its creator, Phidias, reportedly sought approval from the King of the Gods upon completion. Zeus dropped a thunderbolt. (It is not clear how he would have reacted differently if he had disapproved.)
Phidias may also have used the statue to confess his infatuation with famous athletes. It is said that Zeus had the words “Pantarces is beautiful'' engraved on his finger.
The tomb of Mausolus, ruler of Caria, in what is now southwestern Turkey, was so impressive that it deserved to be listed as a wonder. Although it was reopened and plundered within a few years of this man's death in 353 BC, his name lives on. We still refer to grand funerary structures as “mausoleums.”
Another wonder, the Colossus of Rhodes, “became legendary within weeks of its completion,” in Hughes' words.
Over 100 feet tall, with an iron skeleton and bronze skin, the tower stood guard over the island for just 60 years before being toppled by an earthquake. The earthquake also affected Alexandria's Pharos Lighthouse, for a long time her second tallest structure in the world. It finally fell in AD 1303, nearly 1,500 years after its construction.
Hughes has written a very detailed guidebook to what wonders meant to the people of the classical world, and what they mean to us today, what they can and can do. Provided a lot of insight.