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00:00:02the seven wonders the most spectacular structures of the ancient world the seven wonders of the
00:00:10ancient world were amazing buildings built by the best architects by the finest sculptors of
00:00:15the day these legendary monuments are shrouded in mystery today only one survives what are the
00:00:24wonders did they ever even exist what do we know about the seven wonders of the world well for the
00:00:32most part they're just ruined today investigators hunt for the truth behind the wonders they use
00:00:40innovative underwater scanning technology and engineering experiments to separate fact from
00:00:48fiction these were the einsteins and the newtons of their day what makes the wonders the greatest
00:00:56structures ever built and who decides which buildings make it onto the list to solve these
00:01:06mysteries we'll digitally deconstruct vanished cities piece together epic statues of ancient gods and
00:01:14and unearthed lost technology to rebuild the real seven wonders of the ancient world
00:01:30Alexandria in Egypt a vast metropolis on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea just over 2,000 years ago
00:01:39this port is the greatest city on earth a Greek colony in the land of the Pharaohs in Alexandria's famous
00:01:51library scribes gather knowledge from all over the known world tens of thousands of papyrus scrolls line
00:01:58its shelves they named the most astonishing structures ever made the seven ancient wonders for the Greeks the
00:02:09seven wonders of the ancient world were a list of must-see monuments like a bucket list something you must
00:02:14not miss if you were lucky enough to go on traveling around the Mediterranean
00:02:19like the Statue of Liberty today each wonder is a legendary landmark the ancient equivalent of the Eiffel Tower
00:02:28they include a temple tombs statues and gardens for 30 short years all seven exist at the same time from
00:02:41280 to 250 BC so ancient sources claim an enthusiastic traveler can visit every one
00:02:51today mystery and romance surrounds the existence of the seven wonders almost all are lost or in ruins
00:03:03what do we know about the seven wonders of the world well first there's only one that still stands
00:03:08that's the great pyramid in Egypt the rest of them for the most part if there is anything left they're
00:03:14just ruins
00:03:16before archaeology began all we had to work with were classical texts legends ancient stories and so for
00:03:23many archaeologists the job really was to go and find the evidence that these monuments really existed how
00:03:29much of what we know about the wonders is true why do the ancient Greeks consider them the greatest buildings
00:03:35of
00:03:35all time a clue lies in Egypt with the first of the wonders the Great Pyramid of Giza
00:03:49the pyramid is the tomb of a powerful Egyptian pharaoh called Khufu it rises more than 480 feet into the
00:03:58sky
00:03:58the sky today it's one of the most visited sites in the world but its construction remains a mystery
00:04:06over the years there have been countless theories about how the Great Pyramid was built it's perhaps one of the
00:04:12most
00:04:12scrutinized monuments anywhere in the ancient world and yet we still don't know exactly how the ancients did it
00:04:22blowing apart the pyramid reveals the hidden glory of Khufu's magnificent tomb made from over two
00:04:31million solid stone blocks deep inside mysterious narrow tunnels lead to two massive burial chambers
00:04:47this vast structure is more than four and a half thousand years old how did the ancient Egyptians
00:04:55create such a mammoth monument Adol Kalani is an Egyptian archaeologist and stonemason the precision of the
00:05:13pyramid builders never fails to amaze him when the ancient Egyptian built the base of the pyramid it was
00:05:20so accurate the dimension of the line it's about 229 meter and the difference between each line it's not
00:05:30more than 20 centimeters it is very accurate the ancient Egyptians don't have satellite positioning technology
00:05:39technology but they do have an intimate knowledge of the night sky their religion is based
00:05:46around the movements of the heavens Ra the sun god is their chief deity Adol thinks they use the stars
00:05:54to position the
00:05:55base of the base of the mighty pyramid the orientation of the pyramid it was so accurate it's linked
00:06:02to the north and south and east and west the ancient Egypt done it actually in very simple way because
00:06:08they
00:06:08are very clever with surveying using sun and the star for the right direction for the base the construction of
00:06:18the
00:06:18pyramids upper levels requires another ingenious technique today engineers have huge cranes to help
00:06:26them build super tall but the pyramid builders live in an age before the pulley or the winch how do
00:06:33they
00:06:33shift massive blocks of stone Adol investigates a clue at a nearby tomb the remains of a 5,000 year
00:06:41old
00:06:41construction ramp you will find evidence like like what we are standing or right now around we believe
00:06:51that it should be a kind of simple techniques and technology such ancient Egyptian music to build the
00:06:59pyramids Adol's own experiments reveal how the workers can slide the blocks along shallow ramps like this one
00:07:05it's a complicated dangerous job the workmen when they just put the blocks on the top of the sledge they
00:07:16need to use the ropes and pulling this kind of blocks using the rulers and keep working keep working keep
00:07:24working keep pushing and pulling the blocks this ancient technique reveals how workers drag the massive
00:07:31limestone blocks into position but it's just the first step a single ramp works well for the lower levels but
00:07:47as the
00:07:48pyramid rises the slope gets too steep to keep the ramp shallow it would have to be around half a
00:07:57mile long and need as
00:07:59much building material as the pyramid itself so one theory is that the Egyptians use a shallow ramp until
00:08:09two-thirds of all blocks are in the base then they build a narrow perimeter ramp up around the edge
00:08:17of
00:08:17the pyramid to lift blocks all the way to the top without making their ramp too steep the genius of
00:08:26the
00:08:26pyramid building program is its simplicity lots of men working hard doing exactly what they're told to do
00:08:36when the workmen put the blocks on their sledge they need to pull it with a roof to reach to
00:08:42the top of the
00:08:44pyramids this is really very hard physical work but they used to do it they used to do it ram
00:08:52it was a key for
00:08:54building high and big buildings the construction of a pyramid is the easiest way to build tall in the
00:09:04ancient world but it also requires vast resources and organization so how did the pharaohs find the
00:09:14manpower to build the first wonder of the world the answer lies with the river that brings life to the
00:09:23desert the mighty Nile every July when the river Nile bursts its banks it drops silt onto the Nile Delta
00:09:33transforming it into a fertile breadbasket but the floodwaters also prevent farmers from working their land
00:09:43the water during the flood will cover the whole of the Egyptian fields Egyptian have nothing to do
00:09:49with this time they have to leave to find another job to do the Nile flood frees up thousands of
00:09:57fit
00:09:57working-age men who form the construction gangs that build the mighty 481 foot pyramid the Greek historian
00:10:08Herodotus is the first to describe the great pyramid as a wonder it's already ancient when he visits
00:10:15Egypt in the fifth century BC the history of the seven wonders starts off with Herodotus I mean the
00:10:23first great world traveler which he saw things like the Egyptian pyramids he invented the term
00:10:29hieroglyphs and he wrote a descriptive history of the ancient world as he knew it at that time the
00:10:35pyramid's sheer size is as impressive to the ancient Greeks as it is to us today it's no surprise that
00:10:43the great pyramid of Giza would be one of the seven ancient ones of the world it was well known
00:10:47throughout
00:10:48the ancient world for being you know a massive awe-inspiring monument the pyramids were admired
00:10:55because they were big the concept behind the wonders it was very much an idea you've got to see this
00:11:00it's
00:11:01really big you can't see anything else like it the Great Pyramid is the tallest building in the world at
00:11:10the time of its construction a title it holds on to for more than 3500 years it sets the benchmark
00:11:19for
00:11:19every wonder that follows but what do the other six look like do they ever exist the hunt for the
00:11:28second
00:11:29wonder leads to one of the oldest cities of the ancient world Babylon home to the most romantic and
00:11:37elusive wonder of all the fabled hanging gardens
00:11:592,500 years ago the Greek historian Herodotus sets out on an epic voyage he travels to Egypt where he
00:12:08gazes on the Great Pyramid of Giza
00:12:12the first of the seven wonders of the ancient world
00:12:19these iconic mega structures are must-see sites for the ancient Greeks
00:12:25but how much of what they write about them is true a clue lies with one of the oldest cities
00:12:32in history
00:12:35Babylon in Mesopotamia modern Iraq home of the mysterious hanging gardens
00:12:44the Babylonian capital is a city like no other on earth
00:12:48some consider its mighty ishtar gate
00:12:52as an eighth wonder of the world
00:12:55but legend says that fabled hanging gardens are the city's star attraction
00:13:00a lofty green oasis in the desert
00:13:05multiple tiers supported by hundreds of pillars densely planted with exotic trees and shrubs
00:13:13overlooking it all is the mighty tower of Babel
00:13:18a temple so tall it supposedly reaches all the way to heaven
00:13:27the hanging gardens are the most romantic of babylon's many sites
00:13:33legend tells how the ancient king nebuchadnezzar the second built him for his queen to remind her of her distant
00:13:39homeland
00:13:41but there's a mystery
00:13:43herodotus never mentions the hanging gardens they only appear on lists written hundreds of years later
00:13:50so are the stories about the second wonder true
00:13:54we don't know if the hanging gardens of babylon existed
00:13:59it's uncertain because most of the seven wonders of the world
00:14:04show remnants or remains that there was something there but at babylon
00:14:10there are no clues
00:14:13jeff allen leads a team from the world monuments fund trying to protect babylon's unique remains
00:14:20decades of war and turmoil mean that most of the city is unexplored
00:14:25in the 1980s iraq's dictator saddam hussein
00:14:28reconstructs this replica and a private palace on top of the ancient ruins
00:14:34but jeff finds traces of a sophisticated metropolis
00:14:39the babylonians were prolific builders you can tell that by babylon itself and other cities
00:14:46and part of that was a quest for irrigation water management control through structures and buildings
00:14:54that existed at no level similar in the ancient world
00:15:01the ancient babylonians are sophisticated hydraulic engineers
00:15:06carvings reveal that their kings create aqueducts
00:15:09and private pleasure gardens each one known as a paradise
00:15:15many have debated the actual locality of the hanging gardens of babylon whether it was
00:15:20at babylon or another site the answer is inconclusive we don't know but there is enough
00:15:25documentation to suggest that it could have been at babylon
00:15:32the idea of a hanging garden suspended in midair may sound outlandish
00:15:38but a grain of truth might also lie behind another of babylon's fabled buildings
00:15:45jeff believes that this mound of earth is the base of a giant ziggurat pyramid
00:15:51the foundations for the tower of babel
00:15:56babylon has a long and well attested description of its wonders through history
00:16:04if the tower really existed it would have been here
00:16:10babylon and its wonders fascinate greek writers
00:16:14but many like the historian herodotus never visit the city
00:16:19they gather their information from travelers who bring back tales of huge towers and lush gardens
00:16:26gardens were an important aspect of mesopotamian royalty a kind of pleasure garden but something
00:16:33could be really quite large so you're creating a beautiful fertile green space by the side of the river
00:16:40is it possible that ziggurats like the tower of babel inspire the stories of the hanging gardens
00:16:47the whole of mesopotamia all the major centers had these ziggurat temples which is basically
00:16:54like a wedding cake a square wedding cake and so you've got a base tier and another chair on top
00:17:00of
00:17:00that another chair on top of that a temple on the top and then you've got the stairways coming up
00:17:05to
00:17:05so those terraces could have seemed to be hanging in that particular sense my own personal idea is
00:17:12is that somebody's confused the report of the ziggurat temple possibly at babylon possibly somewhere
00:17:18else with one of these formal gardens that were laid out by the persian rulers and somehow they you
00:17:25know the story got mixed up when it came back to the greek-speaking world the legend of the hanging
00:17:33gardens may be rooted in reality a story that grows more elaborate the further it travels
00:17:40for the greeks babylon the largest city in the world is a distant exotic legend so why does this
00:17:47remote metropolis and egypt's pyramid appear on a greek list of must-see wonders the answer lies with a
00:17:56momentous event one that brings the marvels of the east closer to greece than herodotus could ever
00:18:03have imagined the greek conquest of the ancient world
00:18:21the seven wonders of the world the most dazzling structures known to the ancient greeks
00:18:30egypt's egypt's great pyramid and the hanging gardens of babylon are the two oldest wonders
00:18:37why do these treasures top a list of must-see greek monuments
00:18:44historian andrew chug thinks that a clue lies with alexandria in egypt
00:18:50this city owes its existence to an event that reshapes the ancient world
00:18:58for the three centuries before christ alexandria was the greatest city in the world
00:19:03it rose to a population of about half a million people alexandria is a special city
00:19:11it stands on the egyptian coast but it is founded by the most famous greek ruler of all time
00:19:18alexander the great
00:19:28alexander the ruler of all greece invades the mighty persian empire
00:19:38the two sides are bitter enemies with a history of rivalry and conflict stretching back hundreds of years
00:19:49a remarkable string of victories sees alexander's armies conquer a vast empire stretching from egypt
00:19:56to mesopotamia and the indus valley as they conquer the greeks encounter civilizations thousands of years
00:20:04older than their own the marvels of the ancient east are beyond their imagination
00:20:14babylon was a wondrous city to the greeks it was on a scale ten times bigger than any equivalent greek
00:20:20city at the time these exotic wonders are as mind-blowing in the fourth century bc as a visit
00:20:28to mars would be today in egypt the first wonder is already more than two thousand years old when alexander
00:20:35and his men see it the conquering greeks tread lightly but they still leave behind a mark wherever
00:20:44they go in egypt they build a dazzling new metropolis alexandria they intended it to be their future
00:20:54capital it wasn't initially but gradually they built it up into the most magnificent city in the world
00:21:03the city's rulers construct an enormous library and instruct its scribes to copy every book in
00:21:10existence the idea of a list of wonders is born some of the men who traveled with alexander wrote
00:21:20wondrous accounts of the journey these got to be very popular in the generation after alexander's death
00:21:28and it's at that time then we see other greek writers starting to compile lists of wonders around the
00:21:34empire archaeologist penny wilson thinks that alexandria reveals how conquest changes the greeks
00:21:47a clue lies beneath the city's busy streets
00:21:56there's something amazing down here
00:22:02penny investigates a tomb built during alexandria's heyday
00:22:08fire destroys much of the old greek city in 47 bc but it leaves these extraordinary catacombs intact
00:22:17this burial chamber is the final resting place of one of alexandria's wealthiest couples
00:22:25their statues are a strange hybrid of both egyptian and classical sculpture
00:22:32this is probably a statue of the owner of the tomb
00:22:36his body with his left leg striding forward wearing a short kilt is very egyptian in style whereas his head
00:22:43is
00:22:43much more classical his curly hair the wrinkles on his forehead and those emaciated looking cheeks
00:22:49these signs of realism are things which very much come from classical sculpture
00:22:56the protective gods that line the tomb's walls also reveal alexandria's cultural mix
00:23:04so the snake himself is wearing a double crown of the king of egypt to give him extra power from
00:23:10the
00:23:10egyptian perspective he's holding two symbols of greek protection and well-being and his body is
00:23:16actually in a knot which is a powerful egyptian magical symbol for protection so in this one scene
00:23:22they're pulling everything together to give maximum protection to the tomb it's like a the ultimate in life assurance
00:23:37alexandria is a cultural melting pot alexandria is a cultural melting pot
00:23:40two mighty civilizations fuse together here and create a new hybrid culture
00:23:48the kinds of fusion that we see in this tomb and the linking together of different ideas is probably
00:23:54what you could see across alexandria and its buildings its architecture
00:24:00in the greek imagination the wonders of egypt and babylon now combine with their own
00:24:09alexander the great kicked off a period when people thought what was possible
00:24:13that seems to be in the spirit of alexandria in that there were no bounds to what people could do
00:24:22conquest fuses the civilizations of greece and the east
00:24:28in egypt the rulers of alexandria become the new pharaohs in babylon alexander's successors live like
00:24:37persian kings the greeks see themselves as the new rulers of the world the greeks were confronted with
00:24:46technical wonders and buildings they had never seen and they were sort of looking also to their
00:24:52achievements it became competitive with all the exotic wonders of the world which the greeks had seen
00:24:59in other countries like egypt and mesopotamia the greeks are determined to prove that their existing
00:25:07wonders match those of the east but which ones should they choose and why
00:25:14the list continues with the third ancient wonder an enormous temple said to be the most beautiful
00:25:22the world has ever seen
00:25:39the seven wonders the must-see sites of the ancient greek world
00:25:44the great pyramid in egypt and the hanging gardens of babylon captivate greek travelers
00:25:50but some claim the third wonder is the greatest of all the temple of artemis at ephesus in turkey
00:25:59archaeologist julian bennett tracks down this lost wonder
00:26:05standing in now is the main street to the harbor so anybody arriving ephesus by ship would have to come
00:26:11walking all the way up here in ancient times ephesus is one of many greek colonies on the coast of
00:26:19asia
00:26:19minor the city straddles a crossroads between east and west it was very much a bustling metropolis a
00:26:27major trading port they've got people coming from all parts of the greek-speaking world
00:26:34ephesus is an ancient tourist trap the new york city of its day and there's one site every greek
00:26:42traveler wants to see
00:26:46today just one pillar is all that remains of the third wonder of the world
00:26:51but legend says the temple of artemis touches on architectural perfection
00:26:57from an ornate base more than 100 slender columns rise into the sky
00:27:03fluted like the folds of a robe each one topped with curled capitals
00:27:11they support a solid roof that towers 59 feet above the ground
00:27:18is this temple really the greatest in the ancient world how does it measure up to the wonders of the
00:27:24east
00:27:28the greek historian herodotus says that a local ruler called croesus built the temple in the sixth
00:27:34century bc the ancient greeks are immensely proud of his creation but today almost nothing remains
00:27:44this is all that we see today but we're walking just inside a colonnade there would be a row of
00:27:5021
00:27:51columns but inside it you have the remains of the earlier cold center now as a visitor we would be
00:27:59coming here we'd walk around and admire the height of this structure i mean it's absolutely enormous just
00:28:05look at the size of those columns the temple appears big but do ancient writers exaggerate its size
00:28:14julian's first step is to compare the ruins with surviving accounts well after measuring it we can
00:28:21see that what pliny says about the size of the temple it is more or less correct uh and we
00:28:26can see just
00:28:27how large a structure this was how large well everybody knows what the partner in athens looks like
00:28:33the partner the classic greek temple what a partner could fit inside here with room to spare
00:28:39and the columns in the partner wouldn't even reach the lower part of the columns of this one i mean
00:28:44this is a massive temple next julian examines the building material here we have the footings a local
00:28:54blue limestone and then on top of these footings what you've got is temple built of solid marble not just
00:29:02the biggest blocks entirely of marble it's not marble on the facade of a structure this is marble all
00:29:10the way through the temple is an incredible feat of technology it confirms the sophistication of greek
00:29:24architecture
00:29:26robert han is an expert on greece's classical temples
00:29:32he explores a full-size replica of one in nashville tennessee
00:29:38the construction of these ancient buildings is a monumental challenge
00:29:44architects had to deal with enormously heavy objects both to be transported and installed
00:29:51it produced a host of technical problems
00:29:55how in the world were they able to get the stones to reach more than 60 feet off the ground
00:30:04the builders at ephesus are a father and son team cursifron and metagenes
00:30:14the sacred ground is soft and marshy so they lay a base of sheepskins and charcoal to keep the
00:30:20foundation stable to transport massive marble blocks they design ancient monster trucks with stone lintels as axles
00:30:37and to lift these huge stone blocks they use a new greek invention the crane
00:30:48we know that when you erect the column out of column drums they have to be lifted to a great
00:30:54height
00:30:55and they have to be lowered into place very carefully
00:31:00we have surviving examples which shows the existence of bosses
00:31:04and thereby shows that there were lifting devices that enabled the drums to be put in place
00:31:14the greeks invent big wooden cranes that can winch 10 ton marble pieces over three stories high
00:31:21they leave the drums uncarved except for the protrusions called bosses
00:31:27the lifting ropes grip the bosses and release with ease afterwards sculptors chisel them away
00:31:34the construction site at ephesus is like an ancient tech hub a hothouse of innovation
00:31:45robert believes that the greeks continually develop smart new engineering techniques
00:31:52he thinks the temple builders are more than just architects
00:31:58they are the world's first scientists
00:32:03the monuments were monuments to their own ability their own ingenuity and their own command of nature
00:32:10it's a vision that nature's principles could be discovered and could be controlled
00:32:20the temple of artemis is a worthy addition to the list of wonders
00:32:25it heralds the dawn of a new greek age bursting with self-confidence
00:32:32the ancient greeks admire beauty as well as size
00:32:36the fourth wonder supposedly combines both the giant statue of zeus at olympia
00:32:44but today it's nowhere to be seen does it really ever exist
00:33:03ancient descriptions of the lost seven wonders could be far more accurate than we realize
00:33:09in iraq archaeologists are discovering that babylon and its treasures are more than myth and legend
00:33:17and ephesus the greeks build a temple that rivals the great monuments of egypt
00:33:26but size is not the only criteria for a wonder
00:33:31the fourth wonder of the world is the supreme example of greek artistic genius
00:33:39olympia in greece birthplace of the famous olympic games
00:33:47legend says the statue of zeus at olympia is nearly 42 feet tall
00:33:52with skin made from ivory plates and gold panels
00:33:57it sits inside a huge temple that appears almost too small to house it
00:34:04is there any evidence that the statue ever exists
00:34:14this is the stadium where the olympic games originated
00:34:19and it had a capacity for 40 000 visitors
00:34:24archaeologist reinhard sempf has excavated the sanctuary at olympia for over a decade
00:34:32we are now walking through the southern colonnade the temple of zeus of course when the building was
00:34:39still complete there would be a high wall
00:34:44today little remains at olympia but the ruins reveal the outline of a huge temple
00:34:52altered to accommodate a massive seated figure
00:34:56this is exactly the place where the giant seated figure of zeus was set up the smaller
00:35:02inner rows of columns were further moved to the walls in order to enlargen the room for the giant
00:35:10figure one has to imagine that it stood something like 12 meter 50 height so the figure itself was
00:35:16even larger than the columns outside and in antiquity this led to the remark that the figure was so
00:35:24big that he had he risen from his throne he would definitely have crushed the ceiling with his head
00:35:35reinhardt is also able to reconstruct the appearance of the statue
00:35:40he examines fragments found at the workshop where the statue is made
00:35:46they match the ancient descriptions
00:35:49they are pieces of ornaments which were meant to be inserted into the throne of zeus for some reason
00:35:56they were broken and discarded with this material we can get as close as possible to the statue of zeus
00:36:03which was made of the precious materials gold and ivory
00:36:10legend says that the golden statue of zeus dazzles all who see it
00:36:18herodotus says its sculptor is a man called phidias the same artist responsible for creating the great
00:36:25statue at the parthenon in athens
00:36:28the fragments here come from his workshop
00:36:33but there's a mystery the sanctuary inside a greek temple has no windows
00:36:39how does phidias make his wonder of the world shimmer
00:36:45reinhardt uses a piece of marble to reveal phidias's lighting masterstroke
00:36:52what i have here is a thin piece of marble the same type of marble that made up the tiles
00:37:02of the roof
00:37:03exactly above exactly above the statues this marble is found in just a few quarries in all of greece
00:37:11phidias makes use of its special ability to transmit light to illuminate the statue of zeus
00:37:19you can see how the light virtually pours through the marble and therefore gives us very special lighting
00:37:27effect also on the statue of zeus thousands of these marble tiles form the temple ceiling
00:37:35each one shines as bright as a 200 lumens bulb bathing zeus in sunlight
00:37:45the incredible effort with which greek artists executed their pieces of work the precision of the
00:37:52architecture and the beauty of the sculptures led to completely new horizons in the art history of the ancient world
00:38:05the statue of zeus at olympia is the zenith of greek artistry
00:38:11the custodians of olympia build their wonder to outdo their rivals in athens who have a giant statue
00:38:18dedicated to the goddess athena the whole statue a vision of divine majesty shimmers in the bright greek
00:38:27sunlight the statue of zeus is the last wonder built in the lifetime of herodotus the historian whose
00:38:36work inspires the list he never gets to see the next wonder that rises in his home city the mausoleum
00:38:44of
00:38:44halicarnassus
00:39:01in greece the historian herodotus creates the ultimate travel guide to the ancient world
00:39:07he describes the marvels of egypt babylon and greece must see sights that become the seven ancient wonders
00:39:18the fifth wonder is in herodotus's home city it lies on the coast of asia minor now turkey
00:39:26a gigantic tomb the mausoleum of halicarnassus
00:39:32legend says this towering tomb is a labor of love
00:39:36built by a queen to remember her dead husband a king called mausoleum
00:39:42thirty-six towering pillars stand on top of a huge plinth
00:39:46crowned by a horse-drawn chariot carrying mausoleum himself
00:39:52it's a wonderful romantic story but how much of it is true
00:40:00archaeologist julian bennett is on a mission to distinguish fact from fiction
00:40:06he begins by trying to piece together the mausoleum's appearance
00:40:10well here we are at the mausoleum i mean one of the wonders and what a wonderful pile of stones
00:40:16and
00:40:17some beautifully half complete columns the mausoleum originally stands in the center of the old city
00:40:25today only fragments remain but a clue to what it looks like lies in this nearby castle
00:40:33in the 15th century crusader knights build a mighty citadel overlooking the harbor
00:40:39the castle appears just as the mausoleum vanishes from history
00:40:46if you look closely at the castle there are blocks of greenstone like this which are cut to a uniform
00:40:53sort of standard based on an ionian foot of 30 centimeters just over there 90 centimeters
00:41:00and then we look at the height of it 30 centimeters or so a standard ionian foot is just over
00:41:0711 and a
00:41:08half inches so we can recognize blocks that could have come from the mausoleum but they are cut to
00:41:15the same standard the same measurement that is used in the mausoleum why wouldn't the knights who built
00:41:21the castle use the mausoleum ancient marble and stone blocks stud the castle walls more pieces lie inside
00:41:34what we have here is actually one of the most important pieces of the mausoleum that's built into
00:41:40the castle as a block of marble and it gives us the spacing of the columns and it's exactly 2
00:41:47.99 meters
00:41:48long and from that we can calculate everything else this is a good piece of clear evidence that the
00:41:54builders of the castle in 1522 onwards were using parts of the mausoleum it's marble but the dimensions
00:42:02of this and the size of it fit in with what we know was coming from the mausoleum the stones
00:42:09from the
00:42:09castle reveal beyond a doubt that the mausoleum is a huge structure but it is supposedly the tomb's marble
00:42:17statues that make it a wonder of the world most are now missing the medieval knights who build the
00:42:24castle crush them up to make lime could they be the key to solving the mysterious origins of the
00:42:30mausoleum many pieces of the statues are now here at the british museum in london curator peter higgs
00:42:45tries to reconstruct this lost monument he detects the hand of mausolus himself behind his own final
00:42:53resting place i think most people know the word mausoleum as a great grand tomb but forget that it
00:43:01was named after the great king mausolus from carrier some of the statues are huge this fragment of a
00:43:09galloping horse is more than six and a half feet high one statue may even represent the king himself
00:43:19the statue that we call mausolus is around three meters high which is usually a scale reserved for
00:43:23the gods not for mortals so that just shows how he thought of himself in terms of scale and magnitude
00:43:29he wanted to be seen like a god everything about this tomb is larger than life but mausolus himself
00:43:37is a minor ruler why does he need such a magnificent tomb
00:43:46peter hunts for clues in the basement of the museum here he keeps the majority of the fragments
00:43:53to his trained eye these are works of exquisite beauty
00:43:59mausolus spared no expense in employing the best sculptures of the day
00:44:03they're extremely fine quality as fragments they're great but joined together they become
00:44:09more much more of the original sculptural form peter spends hours examining the broken fragments
00:44:16trying to join the pieces back together this piece here from a human cheek and left eye
00:44:23may belong to this head it's around the right scale the weathering pattern looks very similar
00:44:28and we can't prove that they belong together but they would make a tangible composition
00:44:34it's clear that mausolus's tomb is a monumental act of self-promotion
00:44:40he obviously built up great wealth and was a megalomaniac and he wanted to be remembered
00:44:50the tomb is also the star attraction of a new capital city
00:45:09the mausoleum the mausoleum is the work of a grieving widow
00:45:25but all the evidence points to the king
00:45:31when we look closely at the plan of haricarnassus is it it's there in the plan to start off with
00:45:38all ancient greek cities would have a big monument known as heroon which was the monument to the
00:45:44founder of the city where mausolus went one step different was to have this enormous structure
00:45:50rising up almost in the center of the town you couldn't miss it he wants everybody to know i am
00:45:59mausolus
00:46:02the mausoleum is a worthy wonder it also has an enticing story that ensures its lasting fame
00:46:11it's so impressive that its name becomes a byword for an above-ground tomb
00:46:18but the sixth wonder of the world takes architectural ambition to even greater heights
00:46:24the astonishing colossus of rhodes why do the people of this tiny greek island build the biggest statue in
00:46:42the world
00:46:47by the reign of alexander the great five huge monuments dominate the ancient world
00:46:53in egypt the great pyramid babylon's romantic hanging gardens the temple of artemis at bustling ephesus
00:47:02the statue of zeus in olympia home of the famous games and the soaring mausoleum of halicarnassus
00:47:12but the sixth wonder is so tall it redefines what it means to build big
00:47:18a gigantic statue on a tiny greek island the awe-inspiring colossus of rhodes
00:47:28legend describes the colossus as over 100 feet tall it towers over the island's main harbor
00:47:35sheets of bronze made from melted down weapons create the giant's shimmering skin
00:47:42with a crown of rays and windswept hair his eyes gaze skywards towards the sun
00:47:49the statue is said to represent helios the greek sun god
00:47:54why do the citizens of rhodes build such a remarkable statue
00:48:02ancient writers say it's built to celebrate a great victory
00:48:07in 304 bc roads become swept up in the civil wars that tear apart the greek world after the death
00:48:14of
00:48:15alexander the great ptolemy the ruler of alexandria in egypt rescues the island from a terrible siege
00:48:23in return the islanders melt down their enemies weapons
00:48:28and build the colossus to their patron god helios
00:48:35the colossus
00:48:35today nothing remains of this mighty bronze statue
00:48:39but the popular image of its straddling rhodes's harbor is almost certainly wrong
00:48:44a romantic idea invented centuries later during the renaissance
00:48:49one theory is that the colossus actually stands above the city perhaps where the castle is today
00:48:57so how much do we really know about its origins
00:49:06andrew chug thinks that there is a forgotten side to the colossus
00:49:12he believes it's really built to honor someone else
00:49:16the statue hides a secret identity
00:49:21he finds a clue among the ancient greek statues at cambridge university in england
00:49:28this statue is particularly interesting because if i look up behind and look at the band around the hair
00:49:37i can see holes in there uh and it looks as though they are the sockets for some rays
00:49:45that fixed into those sockets so surrounding the head uh like the rays of the sunday
00:49:54the sun crown is a classic representation of the god helios
00:49:58ancient writers say that the colossus has a similar headdress
00:50:03but the cambridge statue portrays a human being alexander the great when we see rays emerging
00:50:11from the head of a male statue like this it's a well-known type in ancient sculpture and it refers
00:50:18to the sun god helios and that means that alexander is being represented in the guise of the sun god
00:50:25helios
00:50:26andrews here as a kind of act of flattery towards him
00:50:31alexander the greatest conqueror of the ancient world is obsessed with his image
00:50:38there was no photography there were no movies and so if you wanted to project your presence
00:50:44amongst your people across the great empire then some kind of standardization to make the portraits
00:50:49recognizable was an urgent necessity
00:50:53andrew believes that alexander uses his court sculptor to create an image that everybody in
00:50:59the ancient world can recognize a vision of alexander as a god
00:51:06his family told him he was descended from zeus on both his mother's and father's side it was their
00:51:12family tradition the most famous helios statue of all time was the colossus of rhodes and we know
00:51:19it was sculpted by a pupil of alexander's court sculptor i believe that the colossus of rhodes was a
00:51:29portrait of alexander in the guise of the god helios but there's a mystery alexander the great is long
00:51:37dead when the people of rhodes build their colossus why do they immortalize him with a supersized statue
00:51:46andrew believes that the answer lies across the sea with their allies in egypt
00:51:51at the same time as the colossus is being built at rhodes the greeks here embark on their own wonder
00:51:58the lighthouse of alexandria this new greek powerhouse honors alexander the great
00:52:07andrew believes that a statue of the dead king even crowns the city's new lighthouse
00:52:13any image that shows the statue on top of the lighthouse with any definition that's extremely rare
00:52:20this is my favorite one here and this time we can see the statue in great definition we can see
00:52:26that he's holding in his hand a great sphere or orb and on his head he has a crown that
00:52:32represents the
00:52:33rays of the sun these are unmistakable this is the god alexander helios it is a statue of alexander helios
00:52:42that we have at the summit of the lighthouse the people of rhodes build the colossus to grab a
00:52:50little piece of alexander's legacy for themselves at the same time as the lighthouse is being erected
00:52:58the citizens of rhodes are celebrating having withstood a great siege with the help of their
00:53:03allies the ptolemies in alexandria and they're building an enormous colossus of alexander helios
00:53:10on an even a larger scale another wonder of the ancient world
00:53:18the wonders reach new heights with the colossus of rhodes and the lighthouse of alexandria
00:53:25both are built to herald a new civilization the greeks of alexandria the scribes who write the list
00:53:34believe they are living in a new golden age what is it about this remarkable city that reshapes the
00:53:41ancient world and inspires its citizens to create the final ultimate wonder the lighthouse of alexandria
00:54:01in 280 bc the city of alexandria in egypt is at its glorious peak a greek metropolis in the land
00:54:11of the
00:54:14pharaohs in its enormous library writers record the ancient world's greatest wonders they catalog the
00:54:21marvels of greece and persia but the final magnificent monument emerges in their own city
00:54:30legend has it that alexandria is home to the ultimate wonder
00:54:37a mighty mega structure that no other ancient city could build
00:54:43at the entrance to alexandria's harbor
00:54:46stands the tallest tower in the world the famous lighthouse
00:54:53immense bronze tritons greek gods keep watch over the harbor below
00:55:02while mirrors that beam a blazing light across the sea supposedly make alexandria visible to ships
00:55:08still a day's sail away the lighthouse builders top off the tower with a statue of alexander
00:55:15as the god helios and rumors even tell of a deadly death ray weapon at the tower's summit
00:55:25modern high-rise buildings now dominate alexandria's skyline
00:55:30but the lost lighthouse is one of the most written about of all the wonders
00:55:38its reputation casts a spell over those who hunt for it
00:55:45emad khalil is a marine archaeologist at alexandria university
00:55:50he spent the last 25 years tracking down this city's lost wonder
00:55:56in the 1990s emad is part of a team that investigates mysterious ruins on the seabed
00:56:04what they discovered stuns the world thousands of ancient stone blocks
00:56:11we didn't really know what we're gonna find that we we knew that there are artifacts there
00:56:17but what exactly is going on we didn't really know
00:56:20seeing uh sphinxes underwater was something that none of us have ever seen before seeing pieces of
00:56:26obelisks underwater with hieroglyphics written on it huge blocks like this one this is something that
00:56:33none of us have experienced before
00:56:37archaeologists think these sunken stone blocks could be the remains of the fallen lighthouse
00:56:43but they can't be sure
00:56:46only a few precious images of the lighthouse survive
00:56:51it's a huge puzzle basically and you you want to put it back together
00:56:55without a picture to base your your reconstruction on and this is where digital imaging and computer
00:57:02assimilation came in and this is being done until present
00:57:09today emad continues his hunt for the lost lighthouse above water
00:57:14this is the ideal place to start hunting for the lighthouse mainly because of the material we have here
00:57:22emad explores the citadel of kite bay on alexandria's waterfront
00:57:28this will be the most durable material it will withstand the weather and the salt and and so on
00:57:35and so this is probably came from a maritime structure
00:57:40emad believes these ancient stones match the blocks found underwater
00:57:46parts of alexandria's fabled lighthouse still survive
00:57:52standing on the spot where legends say the ancient structure once stands
00:57:57this fortress of kite bay was built using some of the blocks that exist in the lighthouse
00:58:03so what does the lighthouse look like
00:58:07beneath the blocks lies a clue inside the fort stands a sacred mosque
00:58:15it should be facing mecca to the southeast but this mosque faces north towards the sea
00:58:22more proof that it stands on the old lighthouse foundations
00:58:28on the roof of the mosque is a strange octagonal opening
00:58:33could this help emad work out what the ancient lighthouse looks like
00:58:44the structure of this mosque is quite typical until you start looking up and this is very unusual
00:58:50it's very unusual to have a square minaret basically and part of it is octagonal and then
00:58:56another part is cylindrical that doesn't happen in islamic architecture
00:59:02emad is convinced the mosque's distinctive design
00:59:06a square base topped with an octagon and a circle
00:59:10copies the shape of the original lighthouse
00:59:13that's because 30 miles west of alexandria
00:59:17there's an ancient structure that follows this blueprint
00:59:21abusir lighthouse it stands guard over an ancient necropolis
00:59:30what we have here basically is a typical hellenistic tomb
00:59:35uh an altar in the middle and couches two couches one on each side to be used by the visitors
00:59:41and then we have the burial chamber
00:59:44you can still see the remains and the bones and the remains of the deceased
00:59:50on some of the walls snake carvings offer protection to the spirits of the dead
00:59:56typical of a greek style burial
01:00:01all around us there are plenty of them there are i think over 13 of them very much the same
01:00:06design greek tombs and this is a building which was built during the same period during the same
01:00:11era in the shape of a lighthouse
01:00:16emad thinks the builders of this tomb take inspiration from the lighthouse of alexandria
01:00:22it's an evidence it gives us indication that this is the shape of the original lighthouse of alexandria
01:00:29abusir lighthouse is a miniature copy of the lighthouse at alexandria
01:00:35it confirms that ancient images offer a true glimpse of the lost wonder
01:00:44so the builders of this were actually able to see the original lighthouse of alexandria
01:00:49and copy the design into this structure
01:00:54the ancient alexandria lighthouse had three levels a square one an octagonal one and a cylindrical one
01:01:00very much similar to this monument we have here the lighthouse of abu sir is a crucial piece of evidence
01:01:07it shines new light on the lighthouse of alexandria's appearance
01:01:13it affirms that the lighthouse is an immense building with a distinctive three-level design
01:01:21a square base with an octagonal central section and a cylindrical turret
01:01:32the final wonder is perhaps the greatest of them all
01:01:37an ancient skyscraper not matched until the modern age
01:01:41but the lighthouse is a curiosity why does this city need such an elaborate and oversized warning beacon
01:01:49and why is it the last wonder of the ancient world
01:02:07the lighthouse of alexandria is the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world
01:02:13why do the people of this city build a stone skyscraper taller than any in history
01:02:19a lighthouse is supposed to guide ships and warn them of approaching danger
01:02:25but the most perilous waters in ancient alexandria lie inside the harbor
01:02:32a clue lies nearly 125 miles along the alexandrian coastline at marsabagouche
01:02:44beneath the calm surface lurk deadly rocks and shifting sandbars
01:02:51half buried in the sand lie the shattered remains of countless amphorae ancient clay pots for carrying wine and oil
01:03:02these shards span 900 years of history and hint that this bay is a ship's graveyard
01:03:09how treacherous is the egyptian coast is the purpose of this colossal lighthouse simply to prevent endless shipwrecks
01:03:21archaeologist emad khalil and his team dive the site
01:03:30they find undisturbed jars on each descent to the sea floor
01:03:41during diving we just came across some shards of pottery inside the bay and the further we look
01:03:47we discover more pottery more ceramic and then we started discovering single amphora intact amphora
01:03:56the sheer number of amphorae on the seabed is a surprise
01:04:03are they all from wrecked ships
01:04:07finding an amphora or few amphoras does not definitely indicate an existence of a shipwreck
01:04:14because amphoras could have fallen off a ship thrown over a ship
01:04:18emad must investigate further
01:04:22the team takes thousands of high resolution photos to build a digital model of the seabed
01:04:29the scan reveals a surprising clue the distinct forms of anchors from ancient ships
01:04:36the team discovers a total of 14 in the bay
01:04:42finding more than one anchor in the same place means that this has been used frequently by ships
01:04:50this coastline is not without danger
01:04:53but the concentration of anchors here suggests that ancient ships travel to marsabagouche on purpose
01:05:02marsabagouche is an ideal example for a safe haven or a safe natural anchoring
01:05:06first of all it's deep enough for ships to come in secondly the entire bay is protected from both
01:05:12sides by reefs so whenever the wind comes from it's still protected
01:05:19marsabagouche is not a ship's graveyard but a refueling stop on the way to alexandria
01:05:25this discovery transforms emad's view of the lighthouse
01:05:29ancient sailors do not need a mega tower to warn them of hidden dangers
01:05:34the alexandrians build the lighthouse to capture lucrative trade
01:05:39the seventh wonder exists to draw sailors into a new city it's visible from many miles away
01:05:53it would be a banner basically to draw the attention of ships and sailors coming into egypt
01:06:00they would head for this new town the new town with this big huge monument alexandria
01:06:12alexandria
01:06:12historian andrew chug thinks the lighthouse is really a deliberate attempt to promote a new city
01:06:18and a new ruler a greek general called ptolemy
01:06:24ptolemy is one of alexander the great's most trusted companions
01:06:29he emerges victorious in the civil wars that follow alexander's death
01:06:36ptolemy declares himself to be king of egypt and founds a new dynasty of pharaohs
01:06:41and they last for 300 years ptolemy has big plans for his new metropolis
01:06:48he builds a city larger than any in greece so here's a massive ancient fragment of wall
01:06:56it's made out of immense blocks they're one and a half meters long and three quarters of a meter tall
01:07:03they have drafted margins where the edges of the block are cut smoother all the way around
01:07:11this is highly characteristic of masonry from the period just after the death of alexander the great
01:07:20ptolemy even steals alexander's body and brings it here about 30 years after alexander's death ptolemy's
01:07:28son moves the tomb of alexander himself to lie at the heart of alexandria the ancient sources
01:07:36place an enclosure in which alexander's tomb lay in exactly this part of the city
01:07:43alexandria is meant to be an entire city of wonders
01:07:50it's clear that the ptolemies had similar aspirations for alexandria as alexander had had
01:07:55for babylon he builds immense buildings like the lighthouse and he builds the walls of alexandria on
01:08:01a scale comparable with the walls of babylon but ptolemy's ambitions go beyond stone and mortar
01:08:09he wants his city to be the intellectual capital of the known world
01:08:16so here we are in one of the classrooms of what was effectively a university in fourth
01:08:22century a.d alexandria alexandria has been a place of learning a center of scholarship in the world
01:08:29for nearly seven centuries at this point it's a really embedded part of the culture of the place
01:08:37the center of alexandria's learning is the great library where scholars make copies of every
01:08:44manuscript entering the city's port this vast store of ancient knowledge attracts the greatest minds from
01:08:53from across the ancient world
01:09:01it's here that the philosopher eratosthenes first calculates the circumference of the earth
01:09:11and the celebrated mathematician euclid first sets out the fundamental principles of geometry
01:09:21the scholars from the library were the einsteins and the newtons of their day they were making
01:09:28dramatic breakthroughs which are remembered now as the foundations of much of the scholarship and the way
01:09:36that we approach science technology in the modern world 2300 years ago alexandria is the most sophisticated
01:09:46city in the mediterranean andrew believes its scholars are responsible for the incredible feats of
01:09:53engineering at the lighthouse there's a link i think between the magnificent buildings and the spirit of
01:10:03alexandria as a place of study and learning many of the principles that were being explored and advanced
01:10:09at the library were feeding the architecture and the engineering principles on which great buildings
01:10:16like the lighthouse were based
01:10:25the scholars of alexandria have access to vast swaths of ancient knowledge
01:10:31from egypt greece and every other corner of the known world
01:10:35the greeks of egypt build the lighthouse so high simply because they now have the technical expertise
01:10:46alexandria's lighthouse proclaims it as the greatest city on earth
01:10:50it's an extraordinary statement of power
01:10:54each one of the wonders glorifies its creator
01:10:58the pharaoh khufu of egypt the mighty king nebuchadnezzar and the megalomaniacal king mauslas with ideas above his station
01:11:09but there's a surprise alexandria's own wonder the lighthouse is not on the original list of seven
01:11:20why does it join them only centuries later
01:11:24and is there a forgotten eighth wonder of the world
01:11:41the lighthouse of alexandria is the last of the seven wonders
01:11:45but it only receives this title more than 900 years after its construction
01:11:53so what else do the ancients consider to be a wonder of the world
01:11:59the notion of a wonder as a must-see site stretches back to the days of herodotus
01:12:05the scholars of alexandria's great library continue his work
01:12:08but the oldest list that survives dates to the second century bc
01:12:13when the city is past its prime
01:12:18a greek poet called antipater of sidon writes it
01:12:22he selects the walls of babylon as his seventh wonder
01:12:26babylon was an immense city it had huge walls made out of baked brick
01:12:32which were glazed with brightly colored images of animals and the animals that the babylonians regarded as gods
01:12:40today the only walls that survive at babylon are modern replicas
01:12:45but the most impressive section of the city's defenses
01:12:48is the ishtar gate now kept at a berlin museum
01:12:53we have its walls they're accounted a wonder in themselves sometimes they are on a huge scale
01:13:00tens of kilometers of circuit and hundred feet tall or of that order they were covered with
01:13:06colored glazed tiles and decorated with images of animals and gods
01:13:14the list of wonders changes many times over the centuries the greek historian herodotus originally
01:13:20includes the lost maze at hawara as one of his must-see sites he visits this remarkable structure in egypt
01:13:282500 years ago the maze is actually an elaborate temple next to a pyramid
01:13:36today almost nothing remains
01:13:40but herodotus says that it contains 3000 interconnected rooms and courtyards
01:13:46giving it the appearance of a labyrinth
01:13:50later writers select other ancient monuments as their wonders
01:13:55they include the coliseum rome's huge amphitheater where gladiators fight to the death
01:14:02and the ancient egyptian city of thebes home to the mighty karnak temple
01:14:09at olympia the temple that houses the statue of zeus is itself seen as a wonder
01:14:18i personally think that this idea of seven wonders it fitted in with the idea of the
01:14:23the universe at that time you've got the the seven planets including the sun and the moon seven has
01:14:28always been a mystical number surprisingly the list of wonders that we know today isn't fixed until the
01:14:35middle ages a french bishop called gregory of tours is the first to name the lighthouse as a wonder
01:14:42when we look at the history of the the seven wonders of the world we see different ones included
01:14:47it sounded like the seven hills of rome and romans couldn't agree which were the seven hills of rome
01:14:53in the ancient world they couldn't agree which were the seven main wonders we've inherited the tradition
01:14:59that the monks of the medieval period that's what they thought from their reading were the seven main
01:15:05wonders
01:15:09so why do later generations choose the lighthouse as the seventh wonder
01:15:15the tower's remarkable construction holds a clue
01:15:19the lighthouse builders lock thousands of stone blocks together
01:15:24they carefully shape the stones for a perfect fit chiseling holes into neighboring blocks and connecting
01:15:31them with dowels metal clamps lock the blocks together and a special lead mortar fills any remaining gaps
01:15:40to seal the walls against the pounding waves of alexandria's harbor
01:15:46could this clever engineering explain why the lighthouse claims the final spot on the list of wonders
01:15:59of the universe of memphis at the university of memphis structural engineer adal abdul navy
01:16:04investigates its unique construction
01:16:10he wants to know how a stone tower is able to survive for nearly 1500 years
01:16:18if you ask an engineer if he or she can build a skyscraper from stone they would think you're crazy
01:16:26you know we don't do that
01:16:29stone is heavy expensive and hard to work
01:16:34and the higher you build the greater the risk the building will collapse under its own weight
01:16:53so what this does it applies a compression force until it crushes the sandstone
01:17:02at first sandstone holds strong
01:17:09only to shatter at 57 000 pounds we're gonna do a crash test for the limestone limestone is stronger
01:17:18and we're good to go
01:17:24but it still fails at 134 000 pounds
01:17:33the only material that's up to the job is pink granite
01:17:39this is the stone that egyptian masons used to carve out huge obelisks
01:17:49the vice maxes out at over a quarter of a million pounds
01:17:55and the granite is still going strong
01:17:59so you don't have a choice the best material to use is granite that's the only type of masonry
01:18:07blocks that can survive these conditions
01:18:12super hard granite allows the lighthouse of alexandria to survive for centuries
01:18:19it is still going strong more than a thousand years after its construction
01:18:25medieval writers who finalized the list are in no doubt that the lighthouse should be judged a wonder
01:18:31of the world they can see the proof with their own eyes
01:18:36the fame of the lighthouse rests with its extraordinary longevity
01:18:40so why does this golden age of the seven wonders of the world come to an end
01:18:45world and what are the wonders of the modern era
01:19:02the seven wonders are the greatest sites of the ancient greek world
01:19:07a group of extraordinary monuments each one huge and unique
01:19:13today our list of ancient wonders is far broader than that of the greeks
01:19:20in the 15th century european explorers head out across the globe
01:19:26they reach the americas where they encounter civilizations that are the equal of ancient egypt and babylon
01:19:35the maya
01:19:37the incas and the aztecs
01:19:41they admire the stepped pyramid of chichen itza and the mountainous machu picchu
01:19:48and on the other side of the planet later travelers gaze in awe at the great wall of china
01:19:56but the original seven continue to cast a spell over archaeologists and historians
01:20:03only one remains the great pyramid at giza how do the other six come to an end
01:20:11in the fifth century a.d christians move the statue of zeus to constantinople
01:20:17where it's consumed by fire in the year 462
01:20:24babylon falls into ruin following alexander's death
01:20:28its hanging gardens left to rot and disappear while christians shut down the temple of artemis
01:20:35earthquakes claim the colossus of rhodes 56 years after its completion
01:20:40and the mausoleum is lost to tremors centuries later
01:20:48engineering brilliance keeps the lighthouse of alexandria standing for more than 15 centuries
01:20:55but it can't stand forever a series of earthquakes hits the ancient wonder during the middle ages
01:21:02in 1303 the stone skyscraper finally topples over
01:21:07the great blocks of granite plunge into the harbor sinking to the seabed where most still lie today
01:21:17egypt's rulers reuse the foundations to build kite bay fort and mosque
01:21:25the destruction of the lighthouse of alexandria is the final chapter of a lost age
01:21:31the age of the seven wonders of the ancient world
01:21:36an astonishing era of new discoveries that flourishes in the great metropolis of alexandria
01:21:44i think there's little doubt that alexandria at its peak is probably the greatest city in the world
01:21:52each wonder of the world expresses humankind's urge to greatness
01:22:00a quest to control the world through artistry and stone
01:22:07all of the seven wonders could be seen as attempts by mankind by groups of men and women to go
01:22:15a bit
01:22:15further than anyone has gone before
01:22:20the construction of the seven wonders is the start of a two thousand year journey that begins with the
01:22:25great pyramid of giza
01:22:29and the hanging gardens of babylon
01:22:33the ancient greeks take on the baton with the temple of artemis and the statue of zeus at olympia
01:22:41the massive mausoleum at halicarnassus and the colossus of rhodes take ancient engineering and sculpture to even greater heights
01:22:52finally the wonders are complete with the construction of the astonishing lighthouse of alexandria
01:23:02the great pyramid of giza might be the only survivor of the original seven wonders
01:23:07but each one casts a long shadow
01:23:11they inspire the architects and engineers who build the modern world
01:23:17the great cathedrals of europe surpass the pyramid in the middle ages
01:23:22but the race to build the tallest structure on the planet continues
01:23:26with the eiffel tower
01:23:29the empire state building
01:23:33and the burj khalifa
01:23:36the mausoleum of halicarnassus influences the design of landmark buildings across america
01:23:48and the designer of the statue of liberty in new york takes inspiration from the lost colossus of rhodes
01:23:54he even gives lady liberty a sun crown
01:23:57just like the one worn by the awe-inspiring statue in greece
01:24:04the idea of the seven wonders endures as a vision of the heights humankind can reach
01:24:12today we continue to compile our own new lists
01:24:16this just like the alexandrians convinced that our own age will outlive that age of wonders
01:24:23and the greatest of them all
01:24:36this is
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