The Seven Ancient
Wonders of the World
About 150 B.C., a Greek math-
ematician, Philon of Byzantium,
wrote a small book giving his
choices for "The Seven Wonders of the World."
Philon chose well. Although, of his seven, only the Pyramids
still
stand with even an approximation of their former grandeur,
the rest
have lived on in legend. Located as they were in an area
whose dry
climate preserves architecture, Philon's marvels might be
standing
today but for the ravages of earthquakes and man himself.
To re-create the Wonders, Sawyer's research staff has
haunted
libraries, prowled book stores, corresponded with
authorities the
world over. Peeling away the layers of pure myth and
speculation,
building only on supportable fact, our craftsmen have given
life to
legend. You see the Wonders at the height of their
glory�rich,
gleaming, unmarred.
1. THE PYRAMIDS AT EL GIZA
The glaring sun burns, the ropes bite deeper into hands and
shoulders; but the overseer chants, backs bend, and the IVi
-ton core
blocks move ponderously up the ramp, foot by painful foot.
Rising
from the barren Egyptian sands is the pyramid tomb of the
Pharaoh
Menkaure, which will complete one of man's mightiest works�
the Pyramid Complex at El Giza, the only Wonder of the
Ancient
World still standing.
Looming in the background, their polished white limestone
outer
surfaces glaring, are the completed eternal homes of Khufu
and
Khafra. Largest and grandest was that of Khufu (or Cheops);
755
feet along its base, 481 feet tall, for the next 4,500 years
it would
remain the largest structure ever erected by human hands.
The pyramid was the culmination of the Egyptian Pharaoh's
effort
to preserve his own body and its necessities for the
everlasting
life after death. The Greek geographer Herodotus estimated
that
it took 100,000 men 20 years to build Khufu's tomb, and
modern
engineers have confirmed his figures. Over IVi million stone
blocks,
as heavy as 15 tons, went into it. Precise modern
measurements show
that each cube was finished to within I/100th inch of being
perfectly
square. The four corners vary less than l/20th degree from
being
absolute right angles. And this precision the Egyptians of
2600 B.C.
achieved with such crude tools as the chisel and a rope
knotted at
regular intervals for a measuring line!
But all was in vain . . . nothing has ever been found of
Khufu.
His imposing monument was plundered within a short time.
There
is a battered skeleton in the British Museum which may be
that
of Menkaure. No one today knows for sure.
2. THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES
The year is 280 B.C. and our merchant ship is entering the
crowded harbor of Rhodes. On the harbor wall, towering to a
height
of 120 feet, is Helios himself, the Sun God in all his
majesty,
staring out over the sea at his own image rising in the
east.
This tallest statue of all time, which gave our language the
word "colossal," was built by the people of the little
island of Rhodes
in gratitude for their deliverance from a siege by Demetrius
of
Macedonia. (The legend that the Colossus stood astride the
harbor
Etc Etc Etc
Taj Mahal EMpire State BUilding
grand coulee dam |
