THE FAMOUS SEVEN WONDERS of the ancient world were: the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria. Only the pyramid at Giza survives to the modern day.
1. The Great Pyramid is the largest tomb ever built, created for the 4th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu (2898–2875 BC), though he is better known by the Greek form of his name, Cheops.
It is one of the three great pyramids at Giza near Cairo, the other two being constructed for the pharaohs Menkaure and Khafre. The largest, for Cheops, was the tallest structure on earth for more than four thousand years, until the nineteenth century AD. Though the capstone was removed at some point, it would have stood at 481 ft (146.5 m) high.
The base is perfectly square – a feat of astonishing accuracy considering the sheer size of it. Each side of the base is 755 ft 8 in (231 m) long and each side slopes at 51 degrees, 51 minutes. It is composed of two million blocks of stone, each one weighing more than two tons. They fit together so well that not even a knife blade can be slid between them.
2. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built in what is now modern-day Iraq, on the banks of the river Euphrates. They were created by King Nebuchadnezzar for his queen between the seventh and sixth centuries BC.
Famously, they employed complex hydraulic systems to raise thousands of gallons from the river and keep the gardens blooming. We can only guess at the exact method, but an Archimedean screw, as shown here, may have been employed.
3. The Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus in what is modern-day Turkey is said to have awed Alexander the Great with its extraordinary beauty, though the citizens refused his offer to bear the cost of a restoration. Originally built in the sixth century BC, the temple was destroyed and rebuilt on more than one occasion, though the most famous was the night of Alexander’s birth, when a man named Herostratus burned it so that his name would be remembered – one of the greatest acts of vandalism of all time. It finally fell into ruin around the third century AD.
4. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was created for King Mausolus of Persia, who ruled from 377 to 353 BC. Halicarnassus is now the city of Bodrum in Turkey. On top of the rectangular tomb chamber, thirty-six columns supported a stepped pyramid crowned by statues of Mausolus and his wife (and sister) Artemisia in a chariot, reaching a height of approximately 140 ft or 42.5 m. It was destroyed in 1522 when crusading Knights of St John used the stone to build a castle that still stands today. The polished marble blocks of the tomb are visible in the walls. From Mausolus, we have the word ‘mausoleum’, meaning an ornate tomb.
5. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia is also lost to the modern world. Only images on coins and descriptions survive to tell us why the statue was considered so astonishing in the fifth century BC.
Olympia was the site of the ancient Olympic games – giving us the word. The site was sacred to Zeus, and Phidias of Athens was commissioned to carve the statue. The statue was of wood layered in gold for the cloth and ivory sheets for the flesh. In his right hand stood the winged figure of the goddess Victory (Nike), made of ivory and gold. In his left, he held a sceptre made of gold, with an eagle perched on the end.
The Roman emperor Caligula tried to transfer the statue to Rome in the first century AD, but the scaffolding collapsed under the weight and the attempt was abandoned. Later on, the statue was moved to Constantinople and remained there until it was destroyed by fire in the fifth century.
6. The Colossus of Rhodes in Greece is perhaps the most famous of the seven ancient wonders. It was a statue of Helios, over a hundred feet (30 m) high.
It did not actually stand across the harbour, but instead rested on a promontory, looking out over the Aegean Sea. The base was white marble and the statue was built slowly upwards, strengthened with iron and stone as the bronze pieces were added. It took twelve years and was finished around 280 BC, quickly becoming famous. An earthquake proved disastrous for the statue fifty years later. It broke at the knee and crashed to the earth to lie there for eight hundred years before invading Arabs sold it.
7. The Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria was built by the architect Sostratus of Cnidus for the Greco-Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus (285–247 BC).
Ptolemy’s ancestor had been one of Alexander the Great’s generals. His most famous descendant is Cleopatra who was the first of her Greek line actually to speak Egyptian. When Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria, he would have passed by the great lighthouse on Pharos island. Its light was said to be visible for 35 miles (55 km) out to sea. Its exact height is unknown, but to have shed visible light to that distance, it must have been between 400 and 600 feet high (121–182 m).
It was so famous that, even today, the word for lighthouse in Spanish and Italian is ‘faro’. French also uses the same root, with ‘phare’.
As you can see, even the greatest wonders can be lost or broken by the passage of millennia. Perhaps the true wonder is the fact that we build them, reaching always for something greater than ourselves.
The Five Knots Every Boy Should Know
BEING ABLE TO TIE KNOTS in rope is extremely useful. It is amazing how many people only know a reef and a granny knot. Rather than naming hundreds, we’ve narrowed it down to five extremely useful examples.
However, they take endless practice. I learned a bowline on a sailing ship in the Pacific. For three weeks, I used an old bit of rope on every watch, night and day. On my return to England, I attempted to demonstrate the knot – and found it had vanished from memory. To be fair, it didn’t take long to recall, but knots should be practised every now and then, so they will be there when you need them. There are hundreds of good books available, including expert levels of splicing and decorative knots. These are the standard basics – useful to all.
1. THE REEF KNOT
This knot is used to reef sails – that is, to reduce the amount of sail area when the wind is getting stronger. If you look at a dinghy sail, you’ll notice cords hanging from the material. As the sail is folded on the boom, the cords are tied together using reef knots. It is symmetrical and pleasing to the eye.
The
