The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The original bucket list — and why only one of them still stands.

Greek travelers of the Hellenistic age drew up lists of the theamata, the sights worth seeing, around the eastern Mediterranean. The canonical seven ran from the Great Pyramid of Giza to the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Earthquakes, fire, and plunder took six of them. Only the pyramid, the oldest of all, survives.

#	Place	Where	When
1	The Great Pyramid of Giza The oldest of the ancient wonders and the only one still standing	Giza Plateau, Giza, Egypt	Built c. 2560 BCE
2	The Hanging Gardens of Babylon The terraced gardens of ancient legend whose existence and location are still debated	Babylon, near Hillah, Iraq (traditional site)	Traditionally dated c. 600 BCE
3	The Temple of Artemis The great marble temple of Ephesus, now a single column in a marshy field	Artemision, Selçuk, İzmir Province, Turkey	Built c. 550 BCE, destroyed by c. 401 CE
4	The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Pheidias' gold-and-ivory colossus of the king of the gods, lost in the 5th century CE	Temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece	Made c. 435 BCE, lost 5th century CE
5	The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus The tomb of a Carian ruler that gave the world the word mausoleum	Mausoleum site, Bodrum, Muğla Province, Turkey	Built c. 353–350 BCE, dismantled by 1522
6	The Colossus of Rhodes The bronze sun god that stood over a Greek harbor city for barely half a century	Mandraki Harbor, Rhodes, Greece (approximate)	Completed c. 280 BCE, destroyed 226 BCE
7	The Lighthouse of Alexandria The towering Pharos that guided ships into Alexandria for some 1,500 years	Citadel of Qaitbay, Alexandria, Egypt	Completed c. 280 BCE, ruined by 1323

Place

Where

When

The Great Pyramid of Giza
The oldest of the ancient wonders and the only one still standing

Giza Plateau, Giza, Egypt

Built c. 2560 BCE

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The terraced gardens of ancient legend whose existence and location are still debated

Babylon, near Hillah, Iraq (traditional site)

Traditionally dated c. 600 BCE

The Temple of Artemis
The great marble temple of Ephesus, now a single column in a marshy field

Artemision, Selçuk, İzmir Province, Turkey

Built c. 550 BCE, destroyed by c. 401 CE

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Pheidias' gold-and-ivory colossus of the king of the gods, lost in the 5th century CE

Temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece

Made c. 435 BCE, lost 5th century CE

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The tomb of a Carian ruler that gave the world the word mausoleum

Mausoleum site, Bodrum, Muğla Province, Turkey

Built c. 353–350 BCE, dismantled by 1522

The Colossus of Rhodes
The bronze sun god that stood over a Greek harbor city for barely half a century

Mandraki Harbor, Rhodes, Greece (approximate)

Completed c. 280 BCE, destroyed 226 BCE

The Lighthouse of Alexandria
The towering Pharos that guided ships into Alexandria for some 1,500 years

Citadel of Qaitbay, Alexandria, Egypt

Completed c. 280 BCE, ruined by 1323

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