Elephants in the Alps - Don't Know Much About Geography - page 98

The Zeus at Olympia Nothing survives of this famed statue of the mightiest of the Greek gods (ad-
opted by the Romans as Jupiter). Completed about 435 BC , it was supposedly forty feet tall and carved of
ivory and gold, with Zeus seated upon a great cedar throne. The statue was not located on Mount Olym-
pus, the mythic home of the gods in northeast Greece, but in the Great Temple in the Plains of Olympia in
southern Greece, where the ancient Olympic games were held every fourth year.
The mad Roman emperor Caligula wanted to carry the statue to Rome and replace Zeus's head with
a carving of his own face. That plan was thwarted when the workmen who had come to move the statue
were driven away by loud laughter in the temple. Another Roman emperor, Theodosius, did have the statue
moved to Constantinople, where it was destroyed by fire in AD 475. The site of the Great Temple still
exists, but only scattered blocks of stone remain. Although nothing remains of the Zeus , other pieces of
original sculpture from the temple are displayed in the Olympia Museum.
The Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus Completed about 323 BC , this was supposedly the most
beautiful of the ancient wonders, built to honor the daughter of Zeus and sister of the sun god Apollo.
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the Aegean coastline in what is now Turkey. It was also a Roman
provincial capital and is the city in which the Apostle Paul lived, nearly causing a riot when he preached
against the licentious worship of Artemis, an ancient fertility goddess.
With 127 marble columns, each 60 feet (18 meters) high, the temple was large and architecturally as-
tonishing. According to one ancient writer, the temple “surpasses every structure raised by human hands.”
Destroyed in AD 262 by Goth invaders, the temple site was later buried beneath a river whose course had
changed. Some remnants of its renowned columns are preserved in the British Museum.
The Tomb of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus Located near the modern coastal Turkish city of Bod-
rum, this monument was erected by Queen Artemisia in memory of her brother, King Mausolus of Caria,
a province of the Persian Empire in Asia Minor, who died in 353 BC. Artemisia also died before the work
was complete. The finished shrine in honor of Mausolus was a pyramid resting on a square base. Atop the
pyramid was a sculpture of a horse-drawn chariot in which the king stood.
Some remains of the structure, including a massive statue of Mausolus, are also in the British Museum.
And the shrine is the source of the word mausoleum.
The Colossus of Rhodes Located 12 miles (19 km) from the coast of Turkey, the island of Rhodes is
today a part of Greece. In the year 312 BC , a war was fought between Rhodes and the Greek state of Mace-
don. After Rhodes survived an attack, a statue in honor of the god Apollo was commissioned, to be cast
from metal taken from captured Macedonian weapons. Built by the sculptor Chares, the colossal statue
took twelve years to complete. When finished in 280 BC , the Colossus representing Apollo towered over
the harbor at Rhodes, 105 feet (32 meters) tall, falsely said to be high enough for ships to sail between its
legs.
According to legend, Chares thought he had made a mistake in the figure's proportions and killed him-
self. Although well known throughout the ancient world, the Colossus was short-lived. About fifty years
after its completion, the statue was destroyed by an earthquake. The pieces were still there in the 1st cen-
tury AD , according to the Roman historian Pliny, who described their great size.
The Pharos Lighthouse Built in 270 BC on the small island of Pharos off the coast of Egypt, the light-
house stood outside the port of Alexandria, the world's cultural capital since its founding in 332 BC by
Alexander the Great. Designed by the Greek architect Sostratus, the white marble lighthouse stood 440
feet (1,234 meters) high, with a square base, an octagonal middle section, and a circular top section. A
fire burned continuously in a brazier at the top of the lighthouse to provide a beacon for Mediterranean
shipping. Inside the top was a mirror that was supposedly used as a weapon, capable of focusing the sun's
rays to set fire to hostile ships. For a long time, the word pharos was used to describe any lighthouse. The
Pharos Lighthouse continued to serve its function for nearly nine hundred years until the Arabs conquered