STABILITY!
THE SEVEN WONDERS SURVIVALS OF THE PAST All through the pages of history there are stories of the falling of once mighty nations. To-day most of those fallen nations are forgotten, but we still have a reminder of some of them in “ The seven wonders of the ancient world,” whose fame has outlasted most of the structures. These seven wonders have often been discussed and described, and here is a list of them.
The Pyramids of Egypt.—-The largest of these was the Great Pyramid at Gizeh, which was nearly 500 feet high and a little more than 750 feet square when built. The total weight of the stone in the Great Pyramid is estifated to be more than 6,000,000,000 tons.
The Hanging Gardens of Semiramis, at Babylon.—Nebuchadnezzar erected a magnificent building, on the terraced roofs of which were planted flowers, shrubs, and trees to comfort his Median Queen because the plains of Babylon seemed dreary to her in comparison with her wooded mountain home. The Statue of Zeus (Jupiter) at Olympia.—The work of the great sculptor, Phidias, it was of gold and ivory, and Was about 40 feet high. The Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus.—According to Pliny, the temple required 220 years to build, aud included in its structure 125 marble columns, each 60 feet high, and weighing 150 tons. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, built for King Mausolus by his wife, Artemisia. Marble statues stood between its columns, and above them was a frieze in the making of which the greatest sculptors of the ancient world hoped to perpetuate their fame. The Colossus of Rhodes, a bronze statue about 100 feet high set up on the shore of the harbour of Rhodes. Later legends pictured it as astride the entrance to the harbour. An earthquake felled the statue; and after remaining prostrate for nine centuries it* was at last sold for the metal it contained.
The Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria.—A lofty tower of white marble on the Island of Pharos, A fire atop the tower furnished the light, and the structure stood for more than 15 centuries.
The Walls of Babylon are sometimes named as an alternative seventh wonder of the world.
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Evening Star, Issue 23380, 25 September 1939, Page 9
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364STABILITY! Evening Star, Issue 23380, 25 September 1939, Page 9
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