The Seven Wonders of the World

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 1, 1 July 1939, Page 26

The Seven Wonders of the World

SOMEBODY'S next-door neighbour visited Radio City recently in New York, prepared to take part in a radio "Test-Your-Knowledge" contest, writes Herbert B. Nichols in the "Christian Science Monitor." It was one of those husband-versus-wife affairs and the story is told of the woman who diligently studied up even on the Seven Wonders of. the World, only to fail with all contestants still standing—because she was asked to name not the Seven Wonders, but the man who compiled the famous list. She had the wonders of the ancient world down pat, all the way from Egypt's pyramids and the Hanging Gardens of • Babylon clear to the Pharos (lighthouse) of Alexandria a*d the Colossus of Rhodes. She remembered all about the statue of Jupiter at Olympia, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus —but she didn't know that in those early days there were many lists, and that the most famous was one compiled by the poet Antipater of Sidon, who made verses\ in 150 B.C. His is the classical list accepted today.

Recalling the wonders of the world is a question that comes up many times,

according to Radio City guides, and it's one few people can answer fully. Nearly everyone knows of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, believed to have been built by the Egyptian Pharaoh Cheops some 7000 years ago as a tomb for himself. A few have heard of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, those terraces of gardens rising 300 feet in the air, built by King Nebuchadnezzar to delight his queen, who longed for her native mountains. Some even could list the Colossus of Rhodes, that great statue 105 feet tall, which stood at the entrance of the Harbour of Rhodes much as the Statue of Liberty dominates the entrance to New York Harbour. Erected in 280 8.C., the bronze giant came tumbling dqwn during an. earthquake, in 224 8.C., and the pieces lay strewn about for 900 years—until the Saracens conquered the island and sold the bronze for old metal. Few ever heard of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, they say, except Greek Scholars and a few persons who have been there. But in its day it was considered the greatest and finest of Greek temples in Asia Minor. Sometimes it is called" the "Ephesian Dome," and an interesting story goes with that name.

The remark is sometimes passed that So-and-So is trying to "fire the Ephesian Dome." It means that So-and-So is like the man who wanted to become famous and thought surely if he fired this great temple everyone would remember him. The temple burned, but only a few scholars and curiosityseekers can tell who kindled the blaze, and we won't, because his name doesn't deserve to be talked about. The Pharos of Alexandria was the name given a great lighthouse' whose fiery beacon, reported to have been 600 feet above the surface of the sea, could be seen by mariners far out upon the Mediterranean. It was erected more than 250 years 8.C.. and stood for 1500 years before it also toppled over during an earthquake. Scholars have made several attempts to reconstruct the tomb built at Halicarnassus by Queen Artemisia for her husband, but no two drawings seem quite the same. His name was Mausolus, and from this we derive the term "mausoleum" for great: -tombs built since his day. The giant statue of Jupiter, or Zeus as the Greeks knew him, is believed to have been the work of Phidias, perhaps the greatest of Greek sculptors. Erected at Olympia, a glorious achievement in ivory and gold, it disappeared, no 'one knows when or how. Of all these Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the only one still standing is Cheops' Pyramid, reigning over the Nile country. Of course, there are other wonders, many times confused with the authentic seven. There is the Sphinx near' Gizeh, China's Great Wall built in the third century 8.C., the Tower of Babel at Ur of Chaldea, Stonehenge on Salisbury Plains, the Catacombs at Rome, the slave^built Colosseum, Constantinople's Mosque of St. Sophia, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the ancient temple ruins of Angkor in Cambodia, the Palace of Sargon, and Diocle.tian's Baths at Rome. As for the seven modern "wonders, anyone's, list is as good as the next man's, but probably radio and the aeroplane should go in any, followed, perhaps, by radium, X-ray, the steel skyscraper, the electric light, and automobile. Rayon, rubber, printing, the movies, and modern plumbing are already taken for granted. Who knows what marvels the future will bring—harnessed atomic power? Interplanetary communication and transportation? Electronic telescopes? Synthetic meats and vegetables, perhaps in tablet form? Conquered weather? A balanced social and economic system? World peace?