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Wonder No. 1 The Hanging Gardens Of Babylon
The ancient city of Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to the traveller's eyes. "In addition to its size," wrote Herodotus, a historian in 450 BC, "Babylon surpasses in splendour any city in the known world." Herodotus claimed the outer walls were 56 miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide enough, he said, to allow a four-horse chariot to turn. The inner walls were "not so thick as the first, but hardly less strong." • Inside the walls were fortresses and temples containing immense statues of solid gold. Rising above the city was the famous Tower of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk, that seemed to reach to the heavens. While archaeological examination has disputed some of Herodotus's claims (the outer walls seem to be only 10 miles long and not nearly as high) his narrative does give us a sense of how awesome the features of the city appeared to those that visited it. Interestingly enough, though, one of the city's most spectacular sites is not even mentioned by Herodotus: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. • Accounts indicate that the garden was built by King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the city for 43 years starting in 605 BC (There is a less-reliable, alternative story that the gardens were built by the Assyrian Queen Semiramis during her five year reign starting in 810 BC). This was the height of the city's power and influence and King Nebuchadnezzar constructed an astonishing array of temples, streets, palaces and walls. • According to accounts, the gardens were built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar's homesick wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between the nations. The land she came from, though, was green, rugged and mountainous, and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of Mesopotamia depressing. The king decided to recreate her homeland by building an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens. • The Hanging Gardens probably did not really "hang" in the sense of being suspended from cables or ropes. The name comes from an inexact translation of the Greek word kremastos or the Latin word pensilis, which mean not just "hanging", but "overhanging" as in the case of a terrace or balcony. • The Greek geographer Strabo, who described the gardens in first century BC, wrote, "It consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt." • Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian, stated that the platforms on which the garden stood consisted of huge slabs of stone (otherwise unheard of in Babel), covered with layers of reed, asphalt and tiles. Over this was put "a covering with sheets of lead, that the wet which drenched through the earth might not rot the foundation. Upon all these was laid earth of a convenient depth, sufficient for the growth of the greatest trees. When the soil was laid even and smooth, it was planted with all sorts of trees, which both for greatness and beauty might delight the spectators." • How big were the gardens? Diodorus tells us it was about 400 feet wide by 400 feet long and more than 80 feet high. Other accounts indicate the height was equal to the outer city walls. Walls that Herodotus said were 320 feet high. In any case the gardens were an amazing sight: A green, leafy, artificial mountain rising off the plain. But did it actually exist? After all, Herodotus never mentions it. • This was one of the questions that occurred to German archaeologist Robert Koldewey in 1899. For centuries before that the ancient city of Babel was nothing but a mound of muddy debris. Though unlike many ancient locations, the city's position was well-known, nothing visible remained of its architecture. Koldewey dug on the Babel site for some fourteen years and unearthed many of its features including the outer walls, inner walls, foundation of the Tower of Babel, Nebuchadnezzar's palaces and the wide processional roadway which passed through the heart of the city. • While excavating the Southern Citadel, Koldewey discovered a basement with fourteen large rooms with stone arch ceilings. Ancient records indicated that only two locations in the city had made use of stone, the north wall of the Northern Citadel, and the Hanging Gardens. The north wall of the Northern Citadel had already been found and had, indeed, contained stone. This made it seem likely that Koldewey had found the cellar of the gardens. He continued exploring the area and discovered many of the features reported by Diodorus. Finally a room was unearthed with three large, strange holes in the floor. Koldewey concluded this had been the location of the chain pumps that raised the water to the garden's roof. • The foundations that Koldewey discovered measured some 100 by 150 feet. Smaller than the measurements described by ancient historians, but still impressive. • One can only wonder if Queen Amyitis was happy with her fantastic present, or if she continued to pine for the green mountains of her homeland.
eshajam
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Wonder No. 2 Eiffel Tower
The magnificent structure known as the Eiffel Tower, shaped by supports of iron, was built in France, for the 1889 Paris Exposition. Designers Maurice Keochlin and Emile Nouguier assisted the French structural engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. This massive 984-foot structure, built to celebrate the world's accomplishments in science and engineering, consists of two immense parts; a base composed of a platform resting on four separate supports and, above this a slender tower rising above a second platform to combine into a towering peak. • On March 31, 1889, a small group of dignitaries climbed the 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower to hoist a huge French flag at the top. It was once said that the French flag flew on the highest flagpole in the world. Meanwhile, on the ground, tables were laid for a great celebration. • The tower was an enormous hit at the Paris Expo, attracting almost two million visitors in five months alone. During the exposition, visitors had to paid money to ascend up the tower. • First Platform 2 franc • Second Platform 3 francs • Top 5 francs • By the end of the year 1889, seventy-five percent of the total cost to build the tower had been recovered. • For over forty years, Eiffel's creation remained the tallest in the world. The tower was also a European leader in aerodynamics on account of its precisely calculated curves and design. Withstanding weather and competition of the world, the Eiffel Tower still remains one of the most exquisite structures of the world.
eshajam
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Wonder No. 3 Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful and costly tombs in the world. The Mughal Emperor Shahjahan ordered it built in memory of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1629A.D. • Islamic architecture, in its purest form, is epitomized by the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan's Taj Mahal. Work started on this movement in 1634 continued for almost 22 years. Situated in the city of Agra in India, on the banks of the river Yamuna, the Taj is enclosed in a garden amongst fountains and ornamental trees.The walled complex includes two mosques and an imposing gateway. The tomb is encased in white marble which is decorated with flawless sculptures and inlaid design of flowers and calligraphy cut from precious gems. Below the dome in a dimly lit chamber lie the mortal remains of Shahjahan and beloved wife,queen Mumtaz Mahal, reminding the world of their undying love. It rests on a platform of red sandstone . At each corner of the platform stands a slender minaret (prayer tower). Each tower is 133 feet high . The building itself is 186 feet square. A dome covers the center of the building. It is 70 feet in diameter and 120 feet high.Passages from the Muslim holy book,Quran, decorate the outside. Built in charming environs, the Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful architectural work in the world. • Without doubt, The Taj Mahal ranks as amongst the most perfect buildings in the world, flawlessly proportionate, built entirely out of marble. Intended to be a commemoration of the memory of Shahjahan's beloved wife , in reality it is his gift to entire human race.
eshajam
Age: 36
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Wonder No. 4 The Great Pyramids of Giza
It's 756 feet long on each side, 450 high and is composed of 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each averaging 2 1/2 tons in weight. Despite the makers' limited surveying tools no side is more than 8 inches different in length than another, and the whole structure is perfectly oriented to the points of the compass. • Until the 19th century it was the tallest building in the world and, at the age of 4,500 years, it is the only one of the famous "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" that still stands. It is the Great Pyramid of Khufu, at Giza, Egypt. • Some of the earliest history of the Pyramid comes from a Greek traveller named Herodotus of Halicanassus. He visited Egypt around 450 BC and included a description of the Great Pyramid in a history book he wrote. Herodotus was told by his Egyptian guides that it took twenty-years for a force of 100,000 oppressed slaves to build the pyramid. Stones were lifted into position by the use of immense machines. • In 1638 a English mathematician, John Greaves, visited the pyramid. He discovered a narrow shaft, hidden in the wall, that connected the Grand Gallery with the descending passage. Both ends were tightly sealed and the bottom was blocked with debris. Some archaeologists suggested this route was used by the last of the Pharaoh's men to exit the tomb, after the granite plugs had been put in place, and by the thieves to get inside. Given the small size of the passageway and the amount of debris it seems unlikely that the massive amount of treasure, including the huge missing sarcophagus lid, could have been removed this way. • Some have suggested that the pyramid was never meant as a tomb, but as an astronomical observatory. • Richard Proctor, an astronomer, did observe that the descending passage could have been used to observe the transits of certain stars. He also suggested that the grand gallery, when open at the top, during construction, could have been used for mapping the sky. • Most archaeologists, though, accept the theory that the great pyramid was just the largest of a tradition of tombs used for the Pharaohs of Egypt. • So what happened to Khufu's mummy and treasure? Nobody knows. Extensive explorations have found no other chambers or passageways. Still one must wonder if, perhaps in this one case, the King and his architects out smarted both the ancient thieves and modern archaeologists and that somewhere in, or below, the last wonder of the ancient world, rests Khufu and his sacred gold.
