The seven wonders of the world are: The Pyramids, the Colossus of Rhodes, Diana's Temple at Ephesus, the Pharos of Alexandria, the Hanging Gardens at Babylon, the Statue of the Olympian Jove, and the Mausoleum by Artemisia at Halicarnassus. The Pyramids are numerous, and space forbids anything like even a list of them. The great piles were constructed of blocks of red or synetic granite, and of a hard calcareous stone. These blocks were of extraordinary dimensions, and their transportation to the sites of the pyramids and their adjustment in their places, indicate a surprising degree of mechanical skill. The Great Pyramid covers an area of between twelve and thirteen acres. The masonry consisted originally of 89,028,000 cubic feet, and still amounts to about 82,111,000 feet. The present vertical height is 450 feet, against 479 feet originally; and the present length of the sides is 746 feet, against 764 feet originally. The total weight of the stone is estimated at 6,316,-000,000 tons. The city of Rhodes was besieged by Demetrius Polior-cetest King of Macedon, but, aided by Ptolemy Soter, King of Egypt, the enemy was repulsed.

To express their gratiude to their allies and to their tutelary deity, they erected a brazen statue to Apollo. It was 105 feet high, and hollow, with a winding staircase that ascended to the head. After standing fifty-six years, it was overthrown by an earthquake, 224 years before Christ, and lay nine centuries on the ground, and then was sold to a Jew by the Saracens, who had captured Rhodes, about the middle of the seventh century. It is said to have required nine hundred camels to remove the metal, and from this statement it has been calculated its weight was 720,000 pounds. The Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was built at the common charge of all the Asiatic states. The chief architect was Chersiphon, and Pliny says that 220 years were employed in completing the temple, whose riches were immense. It was 425 feet long, 225 feet broad, and was supported by 125 columns of Parian marble (sixty feet high, each weighing 150 tons), furnished by as many kings. It was set on fire on the night of Alexander's birth by an obscure person named Erostratus, who confessed on the rack that the sole motive which prompted him was the desire to transmit his name to future ages.

The temple was again built, and once more burned by the Goths in their naval invasion, a.d. 256. The colossal statue of Jupiter in the temple of Olympia, at Elis, was by Phidias. It was in gold and ivory, and sat enthroned in the temple for 800 years, and was finally destroyed by fire about a.d. 475. From the best information, it is believed that the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a rectangular building surrounded by an Ionic portico of thirty-six columns, and surmounted by a pyramid, rising in twenty-four steps, upon the summit of which was a colossal marble quadriga with a statue of Mausolus. The magnificent structure was erected by Artemisia, who was the sister, wife, and successor of Mausolus.