7 wonders of the Ancient World

[Parmenion]

If this has been done already I apologise, but I couldn't see it anywhere on a previous thread.

Anyway, can anyone tell me what the original 7 wonders of the Ancient World were, who composed the list and when?
The reason I ask is that I have been trying to count them up but I manage to get 9! My friend is insistent that the Great Library of Alexandria and the Great Wall of China are not on the original list. I was sure that the library was on the list at least.

Anyone help?

 

[Ribannah]

The original seven wonders were defined by Greece, and are all to be found in the realm of Alexander the Great.

They were: the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus, and finally the Pharos (Great Lighthouse).

 

[Locutus]

About the origin of the list:

The first reference to the idea is found in History of Herodotus as long ago as the 5th century BC. His list comprised the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens, and the Walls of Babylon among others. Callimachus of Cyrene (305BC-240BC), Chief Librarian of the Alexandria Mouseion, wrote "A Collection of Wonders around the World". All we know about the collection is its title, for it was destroyed with the Alexandria Library. The current list is sometimes attributed to the ancient poet and historian, Antipater of Sidon, although his list contained the Walls of Babylon in place of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The final list of the Seven Wonders was compiled during the Middle Ages when they were first depicted by the great Dutch architect Maerten van Heemskerck.

The Great Wall a wonder of the world? You've played a little too much Civ, Parmenion

 

[Stefan Haertel]

Throughout written history, one stumbles across a great number of lists of wonders of the world. The most famous is that of the seven wonders, which are those Ribannah listed.
But the historians often didn't care for a simple list of seven. There are great quantities of lists which name more. Some of the most important wonders not mentioned in the original list of seven wonders are:
The Walls of Babylon
The Colosseum in Rome
The Palace of Cyrus (different places are mentioned for this; the most popular ones are Ecbatana (Hamadan), Sardis and Pergamum, the most realistic one is Ecbatana, but you should rather place it into Pasargadae)
The statue of Athena in Athens
The temple of Hadrian in Cyzicus
The Museion (library) of Alexandria
The Phelephus of Smyrna (Izmir)
The Labyrinth of Knossos

 

[elfstorm]

"The Seven Wonders of The World" by John Romer, based on a recent TV series (Channel 4 I think) does quite a good job discussing the wonders and the various lists.

He describes the wonder lists as reflecting Hellenistic giganticism, the trend for vast public works (only 2 of his 7 are not greek).

His main source is Philo of Byzantium (the city, not the Empire) and he lists:
The Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Statue of Zeus, Colossus of Rhodes, Mausoleum, Temple of Artemis and the Pharos.

Though he explains that the Pharos wasn't on the orginal lists and only appeared much later replacing the walls of Babylon.