by The Historian

Created on: October 29, 2007

Only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still stands today. That is the Great Pyramid of Giza. All the others were destroyed long ago. One of the most impressive of the Ancient Wonders, however, was probably the Colossus of Rhodes. At 100ft in height, it was the tallest statue in the world when it was built between 292BC and 280BC. In an age before modern machinery and engineering, a statue 3/4ths the size of today's Statue of Liberty must have been a truly amazing sight to behold.

Following the death of Alexander the Great in 323BC, the Greek island of Rhodes came under the dominion of Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals. In 305BC, however, another of Alexander's generals sent his son Demetrius Poliorcetes to invade Rhodes with an army of 40,000 men. When Ptolemy sent an army to assist Rhodes, however, Demetrius was forced to retreat. The people of Rhodes were so thankful for their deliverance that they sold the equipment that Demetrius had left behind and used the money to build a stature to honor Helios, their patron god.

Construction began in 292BC under the direction of Chares of Lindos. Scholars cannot be certain how it was built, but it is likely that it was built on a brick pedestal close to the harbor entrance using iron beams and bronze plates. Interestingly, the people of Rhodes probably used some of the items left behind by Demetrius and his army in the actual construction of the statute. They probably melted their weapons into iron beams and used their siege towers as scaffolding.

The statue was finished in 280BC. Although it probably did not straddle the entrance to the harbor as many subsequent drawings indicate, it was certainly an impressive sight as long as it lasted. Unfortunately, it did not stand for very long. In 226BC, only 54 years after it was finished, an earthquake broke the statue at the knees and it fell to the ground. Although Ptolemy III offered to pay to have it rebuilt, it was not rebuilt because the Oracle of Delphi told the people of Rhodes that they had offended Helios. The statue laid right where it had fallen for over 800 years, but continued to marvel tourists who came to see the ruins. When Muslims conquered the island in 654, however, the statue was sold for scrap and removed in pieces on the backs of 900 camels. Such as the end of the Colossus of Rhodes. No ruins of the statue have ever been found.

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