Seven Wonders of the ancient world
Seven Wonders of the ancient world,canon of seven ‘sights’ (theamata) of art and architecture. First attested in the 2nd cent. bc in the Laterculi Alexandrini (Berlin Papyri 13044v, col. 8–9) and in Antipater of Sidon (Anth. Pal 9. 58), the canon comprises the pyramids of Egypt, the city walls of Babylon (see Babylonia), the hanging gardens of the semi-legendary Assyrian queen Semiramis there, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, and the colossus of Rhodes. The concept was developed in individual references to a single wonder and especially in complete lists of seven, sometimes drawn up to celebrate an ‘eighth’ wonder (like the Colosseum in Rome in Martial, Spect 1, or Saint Basil's hospital in...
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