The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
One unexpected consequence of the Seven Wonders Triva Challenge is that I am once giving serious thought to removing the commenting feature. The Guy, usually a thoughtful and amusing commentator, was disqualified for listing his penis among the Seven Wonder of the Ancient World; similarly, my brother, the Mountain of Love, didn't even make a effort at listing the Seven Wonders, but felt at liberty to suggest the undeniably phallic "penis tower" on the EMU campus in Ypsilanti, Michigan. I just don't know how to react to that kind of immature idiocy.

Among those who gave serious answers, the winning is The Professor with 6 1/2 correct answers. Social studies teacher Neutral Man had five correct answers and Kiel, who has never been given a nickname (would you like one?), had three. Thank you all for your efforts and congratulations, Professor!

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Great Pyramid at Giza
circa 2580 B.C.-present
No explanation is really necessary. The Great Pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders and the only one still in existence.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
circa 600 B.C.-byeh?
Babylon has been lost to the sands of Iraq and along with it the Gardens, which didn't really hang (they weren't potted plants). Today, there is a movement in many urban areas to plant gardens on the roofs of skyscrapers and smaller multi-storied buildings. These could be seen as a modern resurrection of the Hanging Gardens.

Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
circa 550-353 B.C., 323 B.C.-A.D. 262
Ancient accounts go on at length about the Temple's beauty, but spend precious little time describing what it actually looked like. The original Temple was destroyed by arson on the same night Alexander the Great was born; the arsonist burned to the Temple to make himself famous. The Temple was later restored and stood for centuries until it was again burned by the barbarian Goths.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympus
circa 435 B.C.-some time after A.D. 394
The statue was really big and, apparently, really lifelike. Think Michelangelo's Pieta. It was lost in a fire after being relocated from Olympus to Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (later the Byzantine Empire).

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
circa 350 B.C.-A.D. 1200s or 1300s
Much like a pharaoh's pyramid, nothing became King Maussollos in life so much as his death. He is remembered solely for his tomb, from which we get the word mausoleum. It was an enormous marble ediface build after his death by his grieving wife, Artemisia. It was gradually felled by a several earthquakes, being completely destroyed by 1404.

The Colossus of Rhodes
282-226 B.C.
The Colossus was a giant broze statue of the sun-god Helios, build to celebrate Rhodes victory over besieging forces. It was roughly the same size as the modern Statue of Liberty; it's legs did not, as some fancifully believe, straddle the entrance to a bay. The Colossus was toppled by an earthquake and not rebuild because of a local oracle. In our day, there has been much debate on Rhodes as to whether the Colossus should be recreated.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria
circa 300 B.C.-A.D. 1323
The lighthouse, also known as the Pharos after the island on which it sat, was an incredible 440 feet high. A massive furnace produced more light than any isolated fire, light that could be seen from as far as 35 miles away. The massive marble tower was adorned with statues in the Hellenic and Roman periods, obviously removed once Egypt became Islamic. Continuing a theme, the Lighthouse was felled by a pair of earthquakes.

The Professor listed all seven Wonders, but lost half a point because he could not describe the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus more specifically than as "a tomb of some sort." Still, a magnificent effort, sir. Well done. The Prize shall soon arrive at BTWest courtesy of the fine folks at the United States Postal Service.

Interestingly, both Neutral Man and Kiel listed the Great Wall of China. While the earliest sections of the Great Wall do indeed date the the third century B.C., the really impressive sections with which most of us are most familiar, the broad walls adorned with battlements and punctuated with splendid watchtowers, were not contructed until the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries A.D. Also, the list of the Seven Wonders of the World was complied in the second century B.C. by a Greek writer, Antipater of Sidon. China was unknown to the learned men of Hellenic world, who visited the Seven Wonders as tourists.

My thanks to those who seriously participated in the Seven Wonders Trivia Challenge.