The Seven Wonders of the World

The Seven Wonders of the World - the Egyptian Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Pharos of Alexandria, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Olympian Zeus - serve as yardsticks of human achievement going back five thousand years.

Other than the Pyramids, none of these once majestic monuments - of stone, bronze and marble, gold and ivory - can be visited today except in the mind's eye: either they lie in ruins or they have vanished in the sands of time. The list of the Seven Wonders was created in the Hellenistic Age, a period dominated by Alexander the Great and the one in which the West began to measure itself in human terms for the first time.

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The book draws on history and archaeology, joining ancient writings to remnant stones and landscapes, to create accurate reconstructions of each of the original wonders. For example, Pausanias's description of the gold-encrusted, ivory flesh of the statue of Zeus is traced back to the sculptor's studio where the tools that wrought Zeus's robe and the molds from which the folds were cast are examined.

Likewise, images from coins and explorations from an ancient city in Egypt offer a clear picture of the Pharos at Alexandria whose remains today lie under an Islamic fort. To secure these images, the authors - experienced archaeologists and historians - take us on a treasure hunt across time from the Hellenic towns of coastal Turkey through the deserted Greco-Roman cities of Egypt to the dusty basements of several of the world's leading museums.

Along the way the reader gains a unique view of the birth of the modern imagination.