The Seven Wonders of the World or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (simply known as Seven Wonders) is a list of remarkable constructions of classical antiquity given by various authors in guidebooks or poems popular among ancient Hellenic tourists. Although the list, in its current form, did not stabilise until the Renaissance, the first such lists of seven wonders date from the 2nd–1st century BC. The original list inspired innumerable versions through the ages, often listing seven entries. Of the original Seven Wonders, only one—the Great Pyramid of Giza, oldest of the ancient wonders—remains relatively intact. The Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia were all destroyed. The location and ultimate fate of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are unknown, and there is speculation that they may not have existed at all.

Timeline of Wonders

Name Date of Construction Builders Date of Destruction
Great Pyramid of Giza 2584-2561 BC Egyptians Still in existence
Hanging Gardens of Babylon 600 BC Babylonians or Assyrians After 1st century AD
Statue of Zeus at Olympia 466-456 BC (temple)
435 BC (statue)
Greeks (Phidias) 5th-6th centuries AD
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus 550 BC; again in 323 BC Greeks, Lydians 356 BC (by Herostratus)
AD 262 (by the Goths)
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus 351 BC Greeks, Persians, Carians 12th-15th Century AD
Colossus of Rhodes 292-280 BC Greeks (Chares of Lindos) 226 BC
Lighthouse of Alexandria 280 BC Greeks, Ptolemaic, Egyptians AD 1303-1480