Search - The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: A Journey Back in Time (Lost Treasures of the Ancient World) on DVD

Interesting quick guide to the seven ancient wonders

Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 04/23/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Product catalog for KULTUR, the manufacturer of THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, includes the most excellent "Broadway Theatre Archives."


The actual name of the British-made program on this DVD is LOST TREASURES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. Transfer quality of this documentary is excellent. Dynamic audio assures good speaker results on any DVD portable or notebook-type PC.

For anyone not familiar with this subject, a good deal of information is given in 50 minutes. We learn that most of the 7 Wonders perished in natural disasters, also that our concept of their appearance is necessarily imprecise. Contemporary coins or texts are all we have to go on.

1.) GREAT PYRAMID OF CHEOPS AT GIZA
Although finished two millennia before the other six Wonders, this largest stone building on Earth is the only one to survive to the present day; no mean feat for a 4,500 year-old work!

2.) HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON
Built in the 6th Century BC by Nebucadnezzar for his homesick wife, who was born in a hilly country. A rectangular series of ever-smaller terraces rose to a height of 80'. Upon these platforms were lawns, gardens, and tall trees. Destroyed by several earthquakes after 200 BC.

3.) STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA
Crafted by sculptor Phidias around 432 BC in honor of the Games, then at the zenith of their popularity. The sitting god had a wood frame covered with gold and ivory. After relocation to Constantinople, the 44' tall Zeus icon was consumed by fire in 475 AD, although it's a subject for debate.

4.) TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT EPHEUS
Completed around 550 BC, this colonnaded building located in what is now Turkey honored the fertility goddess Diana. Four times the size of the Parthenon, the gargantuan monument was ultimately destroyed by Goths in 262 AD.

5.) MAUSOLEUM OF HALICARNASSUS
Commissioned around 350 BC by the widow of Mausolus, who intended her husband's tomb to be the largest and most beautiful ever seen. Standing over 140' high and adorned with exquisite statuary and carvings, the Mausoleum has since given its name to all memorial buildings. Toppled to ruins by 13th Century earthquakes.

6.) COLOSSUS OF RHODES
100' tall statue constructed around 280 BC of brass plate over an iron frame, this monument to the sun God Helios stood near the harbor of Rhodes, but did not straddle the straits as once believed. After only 50 years, it fell in an earthquake, snapped off below the knees.

7.) PHAROS
150 foot tall lighthouse at Alexandria that went into use around 250 BC. Fire backed by a concave mirror supplied the beacon. It lasted nearly 1,000 years and was battered to bits by two early 13th Century earthquakes. The ruins were later used by Arabs to construct a fortress on the Pharos island."