Step inside history to discover the wonders that await. Created by Debra Harrington Yeager Middle School

Inspired by mythology, religion and art, ancient civilizations undertook these seven enormous projects from about 2700 B.C. to about 270 B.C. Only one, the Egyptian pyramids at Giza has survived. Fires, earthquakes, war and the ravages of time have led to their demise.

The Pyramids of Giza The Great Pyramid is an enigma - its origins unknown. Herodotus said that it would have taken 30 years and 100,000 slaves to have built it. Another theory is that it was built by peasants who were unable to work the land while the Nile flooded between July and November. They may have been paid with food for their labor. The flooded waters would have also aided in the moving of the casing stones. These stones were brought from Aswan and Tura and the water would have brought the stones right to the pyramid. This pyramid is thought to have been built between BC - the Fourth Dynasty by the Pharaoh Khufu.

The Babylonian kingdom flourished under the rule of the famous King, Hammurabi ( BC). It was not until the reign of Naboplashar ( BC) of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty that the Mesopotamian civilization reached its ultimate glory. His son, Nebuchadnezzar II ( BC) is credited for building the legendary Hanging Gardens. It is said that the Gardens were built by Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife or concubine who had been "brought up in Media and had a passion for mountain surroundings". Hammurabi The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The magnificent Temple of Zeus was designed by the architect Libon and was built around 450 BC. Under the growing power of ancient Greece, the simple Doric-style temple seemed too mundane, and modifications were needed. The solution: A majestic statue. The Athenian sculptor Pheidias was assigned for the "sacred" task, reminiscent of Michelangelo's paintings at the Sistine Chapel. In the first century AD, the Roman emperor Caligula attempted to transport the statue to Rome. However, his attempt failed when the scaffolding built by Caligula's workmen collapsed. After the Olympic games were banned in AD 391 by the emperor Theodosius I as Pagan practices, the temple of Zeus was ordered closed. Olympia was further struck by earthquakes, landslides and floods, and the temple was damaged by fire in the fifth century AD. Earlier, the statue had been transported by wealthy Greeks to a palace in Constantinople, where it was destroyed by a severe fire in AD 462. Today nothing remains at the site of the old temple except rocks and debris.

The Temple of Artemis was completed about 550 BC. Referred to as the great marble temple, it was sponsored by the Lydian king Croesus and was designed by the Greek architect Chersiphron. The Temple was decorated with bronze statues sculpted by the most skilled artists of their time: Pheidias, Polycleitus, Kresilas, and Phradmon. The temple served as both a marketplace and a religious institution, visited by merchants, tourists, artisans, and kings who paid homage to the goddess by sharing their profits with her. On the night of 21 July 356 BC, a man named Herostratus burned the temple to ground in an attempt to immortalize his name, which he did indeed. Oddly enough, Alexander the Great was born the same night. The historian Plutarch later wrote that the goddess was "too busy taking care of the birth of Alexander to send help to her threatened temple". By the fourth century AD, most Ephesians had converted to Christianity and the temple lost its religious glamour. The final chapter came when in AD 401 the Temple of Artemis was torn down by St John Chrysostom. Then Now

For 16 centuries, the Mausoleum remained in good condition until an earthquake caused some damage to the roof and colonnade. In the early fifteenth century, the Knights of St John of Malta invaded the region and built a massive crusader castle. When they decided to fortify it in 1494, they used the stones of the Mausoleum. By 1522, almost every block of the Mausoleum had been disassembled and used for construction. Today, the massive castle still stands in Bodrum, and the polished stone and marble blocks of the Mausoleum can be spotted within the walls of the structure. Some of the sculptures survived and are today on display at the British Museum in London. At the site of the Mausoleum itself, only the foundation remains of the once magnificent Wonder. From 377 to 353 BC, king Mausollos of Caria reigned and moved his capital to Halicarnassus. Nothing is exciting about Maussollos life except the construction of his tomb. The project was conceived by his wife and sister Artemisia, and the construction might have started during the king's lifetime. The Mausoleum was completed around 350 BC, three years after Maussollos death, and one year after Artemisia's. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

Throughout most of its history, ancient Greece was comprised of city-states which had limited power beyond their boundary. On the small island of Rhodes were three of these: Ialysos, Kamiros, and Lindos. In 408 BC, the cities united to form one territory, with a unified capital, Rhodes. To celebrate their unity, the Rhodians erected an enormous statue of their sun god, Helios. The construction of the Colossus took 12 years and was finished in 282 BC. For years, the statue stood at the harbor entrance, until a strong earthquake hit Rhodes about 226 BC. The city was badly damaged, and the Colossus was broken at its weakest point -- the knee. For almost a millennium, the statue lay broken in ruins. In AD 654, the Arabs invaded Rhodes. They disassembled the remains of the broken Colossus and sold them to a Jew from Syria. It is said that the fragments had to be transported to Syria on the backs of 900 camels. The Colossus of Rhodes

The world's first lighthouse, the Pharos lasted for 1500 years rendering guidance to sailors coming to the harbor. Built about 270 B.C. and upon completion, the Alexandria lighthouse - commonly estimated to have been about 400 feet high - was one of the tallest structures on Earth. The Greek architect Sostratus designed it during the reign of King Ptolemy II. For centuries, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was used to mark the harbor, using fire at night and reflecting sun rays during the day. Destroyed by earthquakes in the 14th century A.D. Recently, some divers in1996 claimed to have found the ruins of the fabled lighthouse of Pharos while investigating the waters of the Mediterranean Sea The Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria Because of dangerous sailing conditions and flat coastline in Alexandria, the construction of a lighthouse was necessary.