Seven Wonders of the World

Preeminent architectural and sculptural achievements of antiquity, as listed by various Greco-Roman observers. Included on the best-known list were the Pyramids of Giza (the oldest of the wonders and the only one substantially in existence today), the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (thought to be a series of landscaped terraces, ascribed to King Nebuchadrezzar II, the semilegendary Queen Sammu-ramat, or the Assyrian king Sennacherib), the Statue of Zeus at Olympia (a large gold-and-ivory figure of the god on his throne by Phidias), the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (a temple, built in 356 BC, famous for its imposing size and the works of art that adorned it), the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Pharos of Alexandria (a lighthouse built c. 280 BC on the island of Pharos off Alexandria, said to have been more than 350 ft, or 110 m, high). These wonders inspired the compilation of many other lists of seven attractions, or “wonders,” by later generations.

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