In the 5th century b.c. Herodotus in his History  first wrote of the Wonders of the World. A list of the Wonders was first compiled in the 2nd century b.c.

The Pyramids of Egypt

     The pyramids are the oldest and the only surviving member of the ancient wonders. The first and the largest of the pyramids at Gizah was built for Pharaoh Khufu. It was almost 500 feet high and covered 13 acres. It was built around 2700 b.c.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

     These gardens are said to have been laid out on a brick terrace near modern day Baghdad, Iraq by Nebuchadnezzar II for one of his wives around 600 b.c. They were approximately 400 feet square and 75 feet above the ground. They were watered by the Euphrates River.

The Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus

     The Temple of Artemis was build in the city of Ephesus on the west coast of modern Turkey. It was designed by the architecht Chersiphron and his son, Metagenes. The foundation was approximately 200 by 400 feet, and contained a double row of over 100 columns 40 to 60 feet high. The first temple was burned in 356 b.c. It was replaced and burned again in 262 b.c.

The Statue of Zeus

     The statue of Zeus was created about 457 b.c. by the Athenian sculptor Phidias of ivory and gold. It was placed in the temple of Zeus in the city of Olympia. The statue was moved to Constantinople where it rested until it was destroyed by fire in 462 A.D.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

     A large tomb of white marble was built in Turkey to hold the remains of Mausolus, a Persian king and his wife, Artemisia. It was designed by Greek architechts Satyrus and Pythius and provided with an ornamental frieze by four Greek sculptors. It was damaged by an earthquake in the 15th century A.D., and disassembled.

The Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria

     Built around 270 b.c. the lighthouse was built on the island of Pharos in the harbor of  Alexandria, Egypt. It is estimated that it was about 400 feet high. At the top a mirror reflected sunlight during the day, and a fire guided ships into the harbor for 1500 years. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 14th century A.D.

The Colossus of Rhodes

     It took the Greek sculptor Chares 12 years to create the 120 foot high bronze statue of the sun god Helios in the early 200s b.c. 56 years after it was completed it was destroyed by an earthquake.