The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
For virtually 5,000 years man has been building inspiring and majestic wonders. It seems that one of man's greatest desires is to be remembered, and in doing so gives rise to these outstanding and beautiful structures, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, to be remembered for all time. The year was approximately 2560 B.C.; King Kufu and his trusted architect Imhotep, of Egypt, began construction on the Great Pyramid. Using over 100,000 slaves, they built a 450-foot-high, solid granite pyramid taking up thirteen acres of land in only twenty years. The outer layer was composed of highly polished, white limestone and was capped at the top in solid gold. In 465 B.C., Herodotus, a Greek historian, wrote: "as I came around the river bend, I was blinded by the brightness of the white limestone, and the golden caps took my breath away." Although it is nearly 2000 years older than any of the other six ancient wonders, the Great Pyramid of Giza alone withstood the test of time. It has been over 5,000 years since its completions, while no other wonder has lasted longer than 1,200 years. The majority of historians agree that the Great Pyramid of Giza is, perhaps, the most wondrous wonder of them all.
King Nebuchadnezzar II was building an outstanding, beautiful garden, to make his wife feel more at home. Although this significant beauty of a building lasted a long time, it was hit by an earthquake and slowly disassembled in the 15th Century. The people of Ephesus were so angry with him that if anyone said his name, they were put to death. Although little has been written about the Hanging Gardens, some experts assume they were fictitious. It had a hollow interior, with iron and stone supports, bronzed outside, and holding a torch symbolizing freedom. Near Constantinople, this 135-foot, white marble tomb was made to hold Persia's King Mausolus and his wife Artemisia. The final wonder of the ancient world was completed in the early 200's B. Rulers over the land of Ephesus held great pride in having the temple under their rule, until Herostratus came into power. The Colossus of Rhodes was similar to the Statue of Liberty. Later, the statue was moved to Constantinople in fear that it would fall apart in an earthquake, only to be destroyed by a fire in 462 A. Because the Temple of Zeus was too plain, Phidias, the Greek sculptor, began constructing the forty-foot-high statue of Zeus, in 468 B. The men's names who built these marvelous spectacles, perhaps, did not live on, but by seeing the human limit, and exceeding it through these structures has stood the test of time.
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Acceptance Essays
