The Lost City of Petra

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt decided he wanted to be an explorer. Born in Switzerland in 1784, he was twenty years old when he managed to get himself hired by the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa. As part of his preparation to explore the western parts of that continent, the Association decided to have him spend two years in Syria preparing for the trip by learning the Arabic language. Burckhardt hoped that if he could master the language and customs there, he might be able to pass himself off as an Arab and avoid the suspicions and mistrust that western visitors to that region often encountered.

Light House of Alexandria

This light house of Alexandria was one of the wonders among all the seven wonders of the world, which was constructed to serve a practical purpose. Besides being a marvelous example of architectural elegance, it ensured a safe return for the sailors to the Great Harbor.

THE STATUE OF ZEUS

The statue of the Greek god Zeus at Olympia, one of the world's greatest statues, was created in about 450 BC by the renowned Greek sculptor Phidias. It is in honor of this god that the Ancient Olympic games were held. During those times truce is declared and wars are stopped. Players and athletes from all over the places traveled to a place in Greece called Peloponnesus.

The Temple of Artemis

1100 A.D.: A troop of Crusaders stops at a muddy little village in Asia Minor. Their leader looks around. Confused he dismounts. This place is not what he expected. He read in the ancient texts that this was a large seaport with many ships docked in its bay. It isn't. The sea is almost three miles away. The village is located in a swamp. There are no ships to be seen. The leader accosts a nearby man.

The Riddle of the Sphinx

Your fearful form is the work of the deathless gods. To spare the flat and fertile lands they placed you in your depression. A rocky island from which they banished the sand. They placed you as a neighbor to the pyramids...Who vigilantly watches the blessed Osiris... -Inscription from the second century A.D.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The city of Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to the ancient traveler's eyes. "In addition to its size," wrote Herodotus, a Greek historian in 450 BC, "Babylon surpasses in splendor any city in the known world."

The Mausoleum of Maussollos

The famous tomb of the king Maussollos of Halicarnassus known as the Mausoleum of Maussollo , which served as tomb for the satrap (a local governor) of the Persian empire and his wife (who was also his sister) was considered by the ancient Greeks one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

7 Wonders of the Ancient World

This is the seven wonders of the world that never existed in ancient times....

Khufu's Great Pyramid

It's 756 feet long on each side, 450 feet 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. Even in 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. Even today it remains the most massive building on Earth. It is the Great Pyramid of Khufu, at Giza, Egypt.

The Tower of Babel

Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly."

Stonehenge and the Rings of Rock

Stonehenge maybe, in many peoples' minds, the most mysterious place in the world. This set of concentric rings and horseshoe shapes on the empty Salisbury Plain, is, at the age of 4,000 years, one of the oldest, and certainly best preserved, megalithic (that means large, often ancient, stone) structures on Earth.