The seven wonders of the ancient world were chosen by our ancestors a few centuries ago, while the seven wonders of the modern world were decreed in 2007. Greeks and Romans chose architectural structures, sculptures ed buildings present in Egypt, Greece, Turkey and Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq, and if modern ones can be a starting point for organizing a journey to discover them, seven ancient wonders unfortunately only one survived. Let’s go to their discovery, to understand what magnificence the man of yesterday and today has been able to accomplish.
The 7 wonders of the ancient world
The seven wonders of the ancient world they are architectural, artistic and historical works by man, and judged by the ancient Greeks and Romans as the most spectacular. Unfortunately, only one of the seven is still visible: the pyramid of Cheops in Giza. The disappeared wonders they are: the Colossus of Rhodes, the lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt, the statue of Zeus in Olympia, the hanging gardens of Babylon, the mausoleum of Halicarnassus, and the temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
The Great Wall of China
There Great Wall is one of the seven wonders of the modern world and since 1987 also a World Heritage Site. A construction made in the likeness of a long dragon that winds through the mountains, deserts and prairies from east to west for a total of 21,196.18 kilometers, is certainly not one of the most talked about buildings in China, indeed, it is certainly the symbol prince of the country.
Christ the Redeemer
Symbol of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, the Christ Redeemer it is one of the most famous monuments in the world. Consisting of a 38 meters high statue representing Jesus Christ, it is placed at 710 meters high on top of the Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca National Park. Built by sculptor Paul Landowski and engineer Heitor da Silva in 1931, it symbolically embraces the whole world, and physically the city, the ocean and the hills.
Petra
UNESCO World Heritage Site, Petra is a city carved in the rock declared one of the seven wonders of the modern world. A magical place discovered by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812, which was abandoned in the 8th century and forgotten until the contemporary age.
The Colosseum
The Colosseum, whose real name is Flavian Amphitheater, is a work commissioned by the Emperor Vespasian, who wanted a place dedicated to games between gladiators and animal hunting simulations. Composed of four superimposed architectural orders, inside it has tiers overlooking the wooden arena covered with sand, while the basement is composed of a series of galleries with cages and deposits.
Machu Picchu
The Machu Picchu it’s a archaeological site Pre-Columbian Inca from the 15th century located in Peru. Defined by many as the “lost city of the Incas”, it was built starting in 1400 and abandoned a century later during the period of the Spanish conquest. Its beauty was discovered during a mission by the American explorer, archaeologist and politician Hiram Bingham in 1911.
The Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum built from 1628 to 1658 by the emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Arjumand Banu, nicknamed Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth after the birth of her daughter. Masterpiece of Muslim art in India, in 1983 it was recognized by Unesco as a World Heritage Site, and in 2007 it was voted one of seven wonders of the modern world.
The Chichén Itzá
The Chichén Itzá it’s a Mayan archaeological site in Yucatán named World Heritage Site by UNESCO and included in the seven wonders of the modern world. In an area of 3 square kilometers are the remains of a large city active from the sixth to the eleventh century. Among the most famous buildings we should mention the pyramid of Kukulkan El Castillo, the astronomical observatory the Caracol and the Temple of the Warriors.