The Egyptian pharaoh Khufu built the Great Pyramid in about 2560 B.C. to serve as his tomb. The Great Pyramid is the largest of three Pyramids at Giza, bordering modern-day Cairo. Although weathering has caused the structure to stand a few feet shorter

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The Egyptian pharaoh Khufu built the Great
Pyramid in about 2560 B.C. to serve as his tomb.
The Great Pyramid is the largest of three
Pyramids at Giza, bordering modern-day Cairo.
Although weathering has caused the structure to
stand a few feet shorter today, the pyramid was
about 480 feet (145 meters) high when it was
first built. It is the only remaining ancient
wonder.
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In contrast to the pyramids, the colossus was the
shortest lived of the seven wonders of the
ancient world. Completed in 282 B.C. after taking
12 years to build, the Colossus of Rhodes was
felled by an earthquake that snapped the statue
off at the knees a mere 56 years later. The
towering figuremade of stone and iron with an
outer skin of bronzerepresented the Greek sun
god Helios, the island's patron god. It looked
out from Mandráki Harbor on the Mediterranean
island of Ródos (Rhodes), although it is no
longer believed to have straddled the harbor
entrance as often shown in illustrations. The
Colossus stood about 110 feet (33 meters) tall,
making it the tallest known statue of the ancient
world. It was erected to celebrate the
unification of the island's three city-states,
which successfully resisted a long siege by the
Antigonids of Macedonia.
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Constructed on the small island of Pharos between
285 and 247 B.C. Its estimated height was 384
feet (117 meters)equivalent to a modern
40-story. The lighthouse was operated using fire
at night and polished bronze mirrors that
reflected the sun during the day. It's said the
light could be seen for more than 35 miles (50
kilometers) out to sea. The huge structure
towered over the Mediterranean coast for more
than 1,500 years before being seriously damaged
by earthquakes in A.D. 1303 and 1323.
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The massive gold statue of the king of the Greek
gods was built in honor of the original Olympic
games, which began in the ancient city of
Olympia. The statue, completed by the classical
sculptor Phidias around 432 B.C., sat on a
jewel-encrusted wooden throne inside a temple
overlooking the city. The 40-foot-tall
(12-meter-tall) figure held a scepter in one hand
and a small statue of the goddess of victory,
Nike, in the otherboth made from ivory and
precious metals. The temple was closed when the
Olympics were banned as a pagan practice in A.D.
391, after Christianity became the official
religion of the Roman Empire. The statue was
eventually destroyed, although historians debate
whether it perished with the temple or was moved
to Constantinople (now Istanbul) in Turkey and
burned in a fire.
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The hanging gardens are said to have stood on the
banks of the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq,
although there's some doubt as to whether they
ever really existed. The Babylonian king
Nebuchadnezzar II supposedly created the terraced
gardens around 600 B.C. at his royal palace in
the Mesopotamian desert. It is said the gardens
were made to please the king's wife, who missed
the lush greenery of her homeland in the Medes,
in what is now northern Iran.
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The famous tomb at Halicarnassusnow the city of
Bodrumwas built between 370 and 350 B.C. for
King Mausolus of Caria, a region in the southwest
of modern Turkey. Legend says that the king's
grieving wife Artemisia II had the tomb
constructed as a memorial to their love.
Mausolus was a satrap, or governor, in the
Persian Empire, and his fabled tomb is the source
of the word "mausoleum." The structure measured
120 feet (40 meters) long and 140 feet (45
meters) tall.
The tomb was most admired for its architectural
beauty and splendor. The central burial chamber
was decorated in gold, while the exterior was
adorned with ornate stone friezes and sculptures
created by four Greek artists. The mausoleum
stood intact until the early 15th century, when
Christian Crusaders dismantled it for building
material for a new castle. Some of the sculptures
and frieze sections survived and can be seen
today at the British Museum in London, England.
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The great marble temple dedicated to the Greek
goddess Artemis was completed around 550 B.C. at
Ephesus, near the modern-day town of Selçuk in
Turkey. In addition to its 120 columns, each
standing 60 feet (20 meters) high, the temple was
said to have held many exquisite artworks,
including bronze statues of the
Amazons, a mythical race of female warriors. A
man named Herostratus reportedly burned down the
temple in 356 B.C. in an attempt to immortalize
his name. After being restored, the temple was
destroyed by the Goths in A.D. 262 and again by
the Christians in A.D. 401 on the orders of Saint
John Chrysostom, then archbishop of
Constantinople (Istanbul).