Located in Egypt, this great temple took 80,000 workers over 2,000 years to complete. Although this programme truly reveals Karnak to be a majestic achievement by our ancestors, however, the great Temple was not considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The what?
As far back as the fifth century BC there was an established idea of several manmade structures that were as impressive and beautiful as anything in nature. The actual list of seven particular structures was originally compiled around the second century BC By Greek author Antipater of Sidon.

One of several writers writing around the 2nd Century BC to list the greatest monuments and buildings known to the classical world, he settled on seven because the Greeks considered that to be a magic or perfect number.

The Great Pyramid of Giza
This mighty Pyramid was allegedly built in Egypt around two and a half thousand years BC, during the 4th Dynasty, to be the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu - although his tomb was never found. It is the oldest of the seven wonders and the only one remaining intact today.

It has been estimated that it would have taken over 2,300,000 blocks of stone with an average weight of two and a half tons each. The total weight would have been 6,000,000 tons and a height of 482 feet (140m)!

To this day the origin and history of the Great Pyramid remains as elusive as that of the king who ordered its construction. Throughout the centuries the greatest thinkers believed the Pyramid to hold the key to understanding our planet, from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon were to be found in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC, in what is now modern day Iraq.

The Hanging Gardens probably did not really "hang" as in being suspended from ropes. The name comes from a translation of the Greek word kremastos, which is actually more closely translated as "overhanging".

It is thought the Hanging Gardens was a huge series of terraces built on top of stone arches twenty-three metres above ground and watered from the river Euphrates by a complicated mechanical system that brought water up to the plants.

Although The Hanging Gardens are widely documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Siculus, there is little evidence for their existence. If the gardens did exist however they would have been truly breathtaking to behold. As it stands, they represent the high level of ancient Babylonian art and architecture that used to dominate the region.

The Statue of Zeus
This gigantic statue of the king of the gods used to sit atop the ancient Greek city of Olympia during 5th century BC. Believed to be about forty feet tall and carved from ivory, Zeus was seated on a throne of cedar wood, adorned with ivory, gold, ebony, and precious stones. In his right hand there was a small statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, and in his left hand, an eagle perched on a sceptre.
In AD 394, after over 800 years at Olympia, it was taken to Constantinople - now Istanbul - the capital of the Byzantine Empire. It is believed that the Colossus was destroyed there in an accidental fire.

We still have the ancient testimony of those who lived to see the statue, writing of how they were awestruck upon witnessing the godlike majesty and splendour that it projected.

The Temple of Artemis
This awesome shrine was located in the ancient city of Ephesus, in present-day Turkey. Built around 550 BC it was a 120-year project started by King Croesus of Lydia. According to Pliny the Elder, the temple was 425 feet long and 225 feet wide with around 127 columns, each one sixty feet in height, supported the roof.

Although barely anything remains at the site, it is known that it was a widely respected place of refuge, which stems from the myth that the Amazons took refuge there from Dionysus. It also attracted many worshippers, many of whom formed the cult of Artemis.

Today the site of the temple is a marshy field, a single column rising from the earth to remind visitors of the massive shrine that once stood there.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
This enormous white marble tomb was built in what is now Bodrum, Turkey to hold the remains of Mausolus, a king in the Persian Empire, and his wife, Artemisia. Completed three years after his death in around 350 BC, it stood roughly forty-five metres high.

For 16 centuries, the Mausoleum remained in good condition until the early fifteenth century, when the Knights of St John of Malta invaded the region and used the stones of the Mausoleum to build a castle.

Today, the castle still stands in Bodrum, and marble blocks of the Mausoleum can be spotted within the walls of the structure. Some of the sculptures survived and are on display at the British Museum in London. At the site of the Mausoleum itself, however, only the foundation remains of the once magnificent tomb.

The Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus of Rhodes was a tall bronze statue of the Greek sun god Helios, erected about 280 BC and towered above the entrance to the harbour of the Mediterranean island of Rhodes in Greece.

The construction of the Colossus took twelve years and was finished in 282 BC, with the bronze statue standing thirty metres high. However, it only lasted for fifty-six years, as a strong earthquake hit Rhodes about 226 BC and the Colossus toppled to the dust.

For almost a millennium, the statue laid broken in ruins. In AD 654, the Arabs invaded Rhodes. The remains of the broken Colossus were sold to a Jew from Syria. It is said that the fragments had to be transported to Syria on the backs of 900 camels!

The Lighthouse of Alexandria
This was the only one of the Seven Wonders that had a practical use. For sailors, it ensured a safe return to the Great Harbour on the island of Pharos, which is now a promontory within the Egyptian port of Alexandria.

The project was conceived by Ptolemy Soter around 290 BC, and for centuries, the impressive Pharos Lighthouse was used to mark the harbour, using fire at night and reflecting sun rays during the day, by means of an enormous mirror.

Between 956 and 1323 AD series of major earthquakes shook Alexandria, and caused irreparable damage to the structure. In 1480 a military fort was built on the same spot where the Lighthouse once stood, using the fallen stone and marble.

Although the Lighthouse has now gone, its influence is clear. Architecturally it was the prototype for a commonly used design throughout Europe; it gave its name to all the lighthouses in the world: just look up in the dictionary for the French, Italian or Spanish word for lighthouse!

Sadly six of the Seven Wonders no longer stand, having been destroyed either by natural disaster or by humans. However, modern archaeological evidence reveals that for their builders, the Seven Wonders were a celebration of religion, mythology, art, power, and science.

For us, they reflect our ability to change the surrounding landscape for the better, by building massive yet beautiful structures, one of which has stood the test of time to this very day.