Seven Wonders of the World

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For other uses, see Wonders of the World (disambiguation).

The Seven Wonders of the World (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a widely-known list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antiquity. It was based on guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim. Later lists include those for the Medieval World and the Modern World.

Contents

[edit] History

The earliest known version of the list was compiled by Antipater of Sidon, who listed the structures in a poem around 140 BC:

"I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, 'Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.'" (Antipater, Greek Anthology IX.58)

The historian Herodotus, the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca 305–240 BC) at the Museum of Alexandria, and the engineer Philon of Byzantium had made earlier lists but the writings have not survived, except as references. The Greek category was not "Wonders" but "theamata"— closer to "must-sees". The list that we know today was compiled in the Middle Ages—by which time many of the sites were no longer in existence—comprising the seven most impressive man-made monuments from the ancient world. Since the list came mostly from ancient Greek writings, only sites that would have been known and visited by the ancient Greeks were included.

The Seven Wonders were wonders because they were among the most popular tourist destinations; even as early as 1600 BC, tourist graffiti was scrawled on monuments in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings (by which time the Great Sphinx of Giza was already a thousand years old). It is notable that the Seven Wonders sites were all man-made; no natural features were included since they were not popular destinations. With the industrial revolution's impact on the environment and the resulting naturalism of the Romanticism movement, natural features have become tourist destinations in and of themselves and as such new "Seven Wonders" lists have been created that incorporate natural features.

[edit] The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Listed in order of their construction, the seven wonders are:

Wonder Date Builder Destroyed Cause
Great Pyramid of Giza 2550 BC Egyptians still standing N/A
Hanging Gardens of Babylon 600 BC Babylonians after 1st century BC earthquake
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus 550 BC Lydians, Persians, Greeks 356 BC fire
Statue of Zeus at Olympia 435 BC Greeks 5th-6th centuries AD fire
Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus 351 BC Persians, Greeks by 1494 AD earthquake
Colossus of Rhodes 292-280 BC Hellenistic Greece 224 BC earthquake
Lighthouse of Alexandria 3rd century BC Hellenistic Egypt 1303-1480 AD earthquake

Antipater's original list replaced the Lighthouse of Alexandria with the Ishtar Gate. It wasn't until the 6th century AD that the list above was used. Of these wonders, the only one that has survived to the present day is the Great Pyramid of Giza. The existence of the Hanging Gardens has not been definitively proven. Records show that the other five wonders were destroyed by natural disasters. The Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus were destroyed by fire, while the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Colossus, and Mausoleum of Maussollos were destroyed by earthquakes. There are sculptures from the Mausoleum of Maussollos and the Temple of Artemis in the British Museum.

[edit] Seven Wonders lists about the Middle Ages

Seven Wonders lists about the Middle Ages are existing historical lists for which there is no unanimity of opinion about origin, content or name.[1] These historical lists go by names such as "Wonders of the Middle Ages" (implying no specific limitation to seven), "Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages", "Medieval Mind" and "Architectural Wonders of the Middle Ages". The lists are more properly seen as a type or genre than a specific list.

It is unlikely the lists originated in the Middle Ages. Brewer's calls them "later list[s]"[2] suggesting the lists were created after the Middle Ages. This is supported because the word medieval was not even invented until the Enlightenment-era, and the concept of a "Middle Age" did not become popular until the 16th century. Further, the Romanticism movement glorified all things related to the Middle Ages, or more specifically anything pre-Enlightenment era, suggesting such lists would have found a popular audience in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Some items found on some of the lists are not technically from the Middle Ages (according to modern historical standards), but we know the lists were not created by modern medieval historians, so such standards did not apply.

Typically representative[3][1][4][5][2] of the seven are:

Other sites that have been mentioned include:

[edit] Modern lists

In the tradition of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, many other lists of wonders have been proposed, including both human feats of engineering and wonders of nature. However, these lists are rather informal, and there is no consensus on any particular list.

[edit] Modern wonders

The American Society of Civil Engineers compiled another list of wonders of the modern world [10]:

Wonder Date Started Date Finished Locations
Channel Tunnel December 1, 1987 May 6, 1994 Strait of Dover, Europe
CN Tower February 6, 1973 June 26, 1976 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Empire State Building January 22, 1930 May 1, 1931 New York, New York, USA
Golden Gate Bridge January 5, 1933 May 27, 1937 Golden Gate Strait, north of San Francisco, California, USA
Itaipu Dam January, 1970 May 5, 1984 Paraná River, South America
Delta Works 1953 May 10, 1997 Netherlands, Europe
Panama Canal January 1, 1880 January 7, 1914 Isthmus of Panama, Central America

[edit] Tourist travel wonders

The following list of the top seven tourist travel wonders (not including pilgrimages) was compiled by Hillman Wonders:[11]

[edit] Natural wonders

Similar to the other lists of wonders, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the world, as there has been debate over how large the list should be. One of the many lists was compiled by CNN [12]:

[edit] Underwater wonders

This list of underwater wonders is of unknown origin but has been repeated sufficiently often to acquire a degree of notability:[13] [14]

[edit] New Seven Wonders

In 2006 two organizations promoted a "New Seven Wonders" list.

In early 2006 an initiative was started by Swiss organization NOWC to choose the New Seven Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments (ongoing).[15] Twenty-one finalists were announced January 1, 2006.[16]

In November 2006 the American national newspaper USA Today in conjunction with the American television show Good Morning America revealed a list of "New Seven Wonders" as chosen by six judges.[17] The wonders were announced one per day over a week on Good Morning America. An "eighth wonder" was chosen on November 24th from viewer feedback.[18]

Number Wonder Location
1 Potala Palace Lhasa, Tibet
2 Old City of Jerusalem Israel
3 Polar ice caps Polar regions
4 Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument Hawaii, United States
5 Internet N/A
6 Mayan ruins Yucatán Peninsula, Mesoamerica
7 Great Migration of Serengeti and Masai Mara Kenya and Tanzania
8 Grand Canyon (viewer-chosen "eighth wonder") Arizona, United States

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Hereward Carrington (1880-1958), "The Seven Wonders of the World: ancient, medieval and modern", reprinted in the Carington Collection (2003) ISBN 0-7661-4378-3, page 14.
  2. ^ a b I H Evans (reviser), Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Centenary edition Fourth impression (corrected); London: Cassell, 1975), page 1163
  3. ^ WonderClub.com
  4. ^ Edward Latham. A Dictionary of Names, Nicknames and Surnames, of Persons, Places and Things (1904), page 280.
  5. ^ Francis Trevelyan Miller, Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt. America, the Land We Love (1915), page 201.
  6. ^ The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Crusades (2001, page 153))
  7. ^ The Rough Guide To England (1994, page 596))
  8. ^ Palpa, as You Like it, page 67)
  9. ^ The Catholic Encyclopedia, v.16 (1913), page 74
  10. ^ American Society of Civil Engineers Seven Wonders
  11. ^ Hillman Wonders
  12. ^ CNN Natural Wonders
  13. ^ Underwater Wonders of the World
  14. ^ 2nd list of Underwater Wonder
  15. ^ New Seven Wonders
  16. ^ Finalist Page
  17. ^ New Seven Wonders panel
  18. ^ ABC Good Morning America "7 New Wonders" Page

[edit] See also

[edit] External links and references

[edit] Further reading

  • Cox, Reg, and Neil Morris, "The Seven Wonders of the Modern World". Chelsea House Publications: Library. October, 2000. ISBN 0-7910-6048-9
  • Cox, Reg, Neil Morris, and James Field, "The Seven Wonders of the Medieval World". Chelsea House Publications: Library. October, 2000. ISBN 0-7910-6047-0
  • D'Epiro, Peter, and Mary Desmond Pinkowish, "What Are the Seven Wonders of the World? and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists". Anchor. December 1, 1998. ISBN 0-385-49062-3
  • Morris, Neil, "The Seven Wonders of the Natural World". Chrysalis Books. December 30, 2002. ISBN 1-84138-495-X


Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Great Pyramid of Giza | Hanging Gardens of Babylon | Statue of Zeus at Olympia | Temple of Artemis | Mausoleum of Maussollos | Colossus of Rhodes | Lighthouse of Alexandria

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