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Monday, June 7, 2010

If I Could Turn Back Time,

I would visit the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World.
Out of the 7, only the Great Pyramid of Giza still stands bold and strong on the deserts of Egypt.
The other 6 have been unfortunately perished in earthquakes and fires or else destroyed by some dude(s) who did not have the brains to think of preserving the Wonders for future references.

And as you might have expected, this blog post is to promote the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, and I am doing so because I feel bored ahaha. ;)

The Great Pyramid of Giza
It was built as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu (hey, we studied him in history!), has two chambers and an entrance. I never knew that we could actually enter the pyramid! :D I always thought that they built it by using rocks, stuffed the King and Queen inside the pyramid and then used rocks to cover the whole thing up again. I don't think the original entrance can be used anymore. Tourists who want to enter the pyramid have to enter through this alternate entrance built by this dude. Oh well, you learn something new every day. :)

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Was built by Nebuchadnezzar II (we studied him in history too!) for his homesick wife Amytis of Media. It was really long and really wide, multi-levelled and was said to resemble a theatre. There're vaults constructed under the terraces of the garden which carried the entire weight of the garden and made it look like it was floating, hence the name. Lots of trees were planted, the soil and soft and red, water flowing everywhere- you get the point. It was a garden beautiful enough to charm anyone into staying there for ever and ever. Like El Dorado, The City of Gold. :)

Statue of Zeus at Olympia
They have a 12m tall statue of Zeus in the Temple of Zeus, Olympia! The statue takes up pretty much the whole temple and in Zeus's right hand he holds a small statue of the Goddess of Victory, Nike and in his left hand a golden sceptre. It was crafted by a Greek sculptor, Phidias.
The cause of destruction is a debate. Some reckoned it was destroyed by this Roman Emperor Caligula, who wanted his head on all the famous statues of the gods because he decided himself worthier of them. Others think it was perished in a disastrous fire.

Temple of Artemis
It was dedicated to the Greek Goddess Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, twin to Apollo the Sun God and it took 120 years to built the temple. But it was destroyed in one snap by this guy called Herostratus. He torched the temple just so he could get famous. It was rebuilt by Alexander the Great, only to be destroyed by the Goths. Rebuilt again but it was closed and destroyed by a mob led by St John Chrysotom.
I don't think Artemis could've been that popular in those days, if her temple was to be built and destroyed three times. :S

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus 
It was built as a tomb for Mausolus, a leader in the Persian Empire, very much like the Pyramid of Gize I suppose. Halicarnassus is a city constructed by Mausolus and his wife Artemisia. After Mausolus died Artemisia was heartbroken, so she decided to built him this huge tomb. She took over the job as ruler of Halicarnassus, and she even won this war against the Rhodians. She died two years after her husband died, and their urns were put into the tomb. As a sacrifice ritual bodies of dead animals were put on the stone steps of the tomb and then sealed with stones and rubble. The tomb was built on a hill overlooking the city, which bytheway is a very nice place to have your ashes put after you die.

Colossus of Rhodes
It's a statue of the Greek god Helios (we read about him too!). It stood over 30 metres high, making it the tallest statues of the ancient world. It started with the Siege of Rhodes, and the Rhodians won. In order to celebrate their victory, they constructed this GIANT statue of Helios. It was destroyed in an earthquake, and was offered the money by Ptolemy III to rebuild the statue. But the Rhodians, who feared that they have insulted Helios the God, declined.

Lighthouse of Alexandria
Also known as Pharos of Alexandria, Pharos is a Latin word for 'lighthouse'. There is nothing very much interesting in this lighthouse, for it was ever just a lighthouse.

1 comment:

Nicholas said...

Duh you can enter the pyramids because that's what I did. And the lighthouse IS important. It was the first lighthouse of its kind that guided ships and stuff, in the ANCIENT WORLD. :P