I - 81 : Why only Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

Can't believe - only 101 days to go until we set foot on the Myra, our sail boat this summer!

Much of the Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria was found in the Harbor in 1968 by Divers

On our eight trips since 2017, we visited the remains of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the ruins of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassos and the port where once the Colossus of Rhodes stood. Had we been able to start our journey in 2024 as planned, we would also have seen the remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria and – maybe – the Pyramids of Gizeh. This summer we shall see Olympia where mighty Zeus once "supervised" the original Olympic Games. One of the seven wonders is out of reach though. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon in Iraq are too dangerous to visit.

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were all located in Alexander the Great's Empire

All of these monuments and buildings are impressive feats of engineering. There are two things though that puzzle me even more. Why was this list put together and what was the selection criteria?. We are so used to bucket lists today that we hardly ask the question. Much of modern tourism is driven by these “MUST SEE” lists. Can never forget the crowd on Santorini which gathered in Oia to get the mandatory sun set shot. Or the dozens of small catamarans every evening at 7 pm for their sunset cruise.

A "MUST DO" sun set shot in Santorini - there were several dozens of sun set cruise catas

In antiquity, there was no tourism though. Travelling was dangerous. Most people did not have the funds to travel. Everybody stayed at home. The poor in the cities and on their farms, the wealthy in their residences. The only people who travelled were merchants, soldiers and government officials. They did not go on sight seeing though but were busy with their duties. Add to this that only 5% of people were literate – mostly secular and religious officials. But these 5% had no easy access to scrolls or books. There were a few famous libraries in Alexandria, Pergamon, Ephesus or Athens. Or the Imperial Archives in Rome. But they were not open to the public – the first public library, the Marciana, opened in Venice in the 16th century. So, why making a list of wonders that nobody knows about?

The Marciana Library in Venice, next to the Doge Palace, was opened in 1588

As I was contemplating these questions I stumbled in Daunt, my favorite bookstore on London’s Marylebone Highstreet, on Bettany Hughes latest book. The famous travel writer and BBC documentary film maker had just published her latest book on “The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”. Many details of her lovely descriptions of the seven monuments I already knew. The insights from her introduction are priceless though.

She asks similar questions as I did and found intriguing answers. Here are a few:

• The seven wonders are a product of the Hellenistic Age which started with Alexander the Great and ended when Rome laid hands on Egypt after the death of Cleopatra.

• In the Hellenistic Age, intellectual curiosity led to the system of systematic analysis of cause and effect. It was the beginning of science. Also, during the three centuries of Hellenism a significant body of knowledge transferred from India, Persia, Mesopotamia and Egypt to the West.

  
  

  

  Scholars working in the Library of Alexandria (contemporary artist impression)

  
  

• It was also the time when scholars started to exchange scrolls to learn from each other and share their insights. There were many lists of seven: the seven most beautiful rivers, the seven most important islands, the seven best artists, the seven highest mountains.These lists were compiled to compare and understand the world.

• The number seven was not chosen randomly. The sky had 7 wandering bodies: Sun, Moon and the five planets. The universe was made from 4 elements (earth, water, fire, air) and the Sun, Moon and the stars. 7 was a magical number in antiquity.

• The composition of the 7 wonders list varied. On some the Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria was replaced by the Walls of Babylon.

• The first complete list which survives to today was written by Antipater of Sidon at around 100 BC. It was followed by many more. New 7 wonders lists were compiled by Romans. There were even a few written by Byzantine writers. Then the fashion faded away until antiquity was reborn in the Renaissance

  
  

  

  The Location of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in the Middle East

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The seven wonders are all located in Alexander’s empire where Hellenistic culture and Greek language remained vibrant for three centuries after his death (323 BC). Its center of gravity was the library of Alexandria. The Ptolemy (Macedonian Pharaohs of Egypt) realized “knowledge is power” and began collecting texts from all over the world.

When the Ptolemy started to collect Scrolls, the Pyramids were already 2'300 Years old

Thanks to their power, wealth and ample papyrus from the Nile, they assembled a collection of scrolls envied by the world. They did not stop with simply collecting texts but also invited prominent philosopher and scientists to Alexandria. It would exceed the scope of this blog to name them all. Here are just a few:

• Euclide, around 300 BC, the father of geometry and the mathematical proof

• Archimedes, 287 – 217 BC, the mathematician, scientist and inventor of water screws, pulleys, heat rays and measurement of volumes of irregular solids

• Erathostenes, 276 – 215 BC, who calculated the circumference of the world

• Heron of Alexandria, around 200 BC, who invented the first steam engine

• Claudius Ptolemy, 90 – 168 AD,  the famous astronomer and geographer

  
  

The list of the Seven Wonders of the World need to be understood in this context. They were illustrations of the world and and the achievements of powerful monarhs. It was a list that helped the first geographers (Erathostenes) and the early historians to describe the world and make sense of it. In our modern, data driven world, we all know that before we can analyze a problem and draw conclusions, we need to compile data. In this sense, the list of the Seven wonders was a data compiler for the very first scientists of our civilisation.

Temple of Zeus in Olympia, one of the Seven Wonder of the Ancient World