Betty Hughes: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

When you hear the phrase the seven wonders of the ancient world, what comes to mind? Most people would immediately think of the pyramids. The Colossus of Rhodes might be your next thought: a giant statue straddling the harbor. Maybe even the Lighthouse at Alexandria. But if you’re anything like me, you would have a hard time listing all seven off the top of your head. If so, Bettany Hughes’ “The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: An Extraordinary New Journey Through History’s Greatest Treasures” is just the thing to fill in the gaps of your hazy memory.

It’s important to remember that the seven wonders were a product of the late Hellenistic era, when Rome began to encroach on the Greek empires of the east, leading the scholars of Alexandria to a mania for learning more about the varieties of peoples and places that fell within their orbit. There were different lists created by different authors beginning about 100 BCE, but Hughes here follows the most iconic version, starting with the pyramids.

The Great Pyramids 

Quite frankly I think it’s bullshit that the great pyramid at Giza isn’t the distinctive looking one with the limestone cap in the center of the group in all the pictures. Tricks of photography and perspective have always incorrectly made me believe that one, the pyramid of Khafre, is the largest of the three when in actuality that honor goes to Khufu’s tomb. 

Nevertheless, the story told here about the building of these monstrous structures, all done within a surprisingly short time, a few generations in total, is an interesting one.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

For me, the most interesting chapter of her book focuses on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, because it was the only wonder that I previously knew absolutely nothing about. It was built to house the remains of Mausolus, a sub-king of the Persian empire, who ruled over Caria, located in western Anatolia. 

Built to resemble a temple, it was so admired in ancient times that above-ground tombs are still called mausoleums to this day.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon 

The most frustrating wonder for me is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which Hughes oddly calls the most famous of all the wonders. It is certainly the one shrouded in the most mystery. Virtually everything about this wonder is controversial. What was meant by “hanging gardens?” Was it made up of tiers like a step pyramid? Did it include plants suspended from the air in some way? By what method was it watered? But most of all, where was it? You would think that having Babylon in the name would settle that issue fairly easily, but apparently, many historians believe it may have actually been located in Nineveh.

Visitors to Babylon in its heyday like the historians Herodotus and Xenophon don’t mention it having notable gardens, nor does a boastful inscription of its great king, Nebuchadnezzar the second. Babylon was instead famous for its massive walls with great gates covered in lapis lazuli.

Nineveh on the other hand, under the rule of Sennacherib, was known in its own time for elaborate gardens. Sennacherib destroyed much of Babylon in 689 BC. Could this victim of Sennacherib’s imperialism have gotten credit for its conqueror’s wonder?

The Temple of Artemis

The most famous Greek temple today is the Parthenon in Athens, so it may be surprising for modern readers that it was not included as a wonder by the ancients, that spot going instead to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

Hughes goes to great lengths to emphasize that this temple celebrated not the Romified Artemis who they called Diana whom today we may be more familiar with, a goddess of hunting and the wild who looked like a kind of lady Robin hood, but a much earlier and stranger greek goddess, usually portrayed with 8 breasts and associated with fertility. The sheer size and beauty of this temple made it a kind of tourist attraction, despite the difficult and unstable terrain on which it was built.

Statue of Zeus

An admiration for sheer size and craftsmanship led to the inclusion of both the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, with its gold and ivory coating, and the colossus of Rhodes, which unfortunately did not actually straddle the harbor, and collapsed within a few decades of its construction. The story behind the colossus- it was erected to celebrate Rhodes’ victory over Demetrius “The Besieger”, one of the warlords who fought over the remains of Alexander’s shattered empire, is a fascinating one that I wish Hughes had devoted more time to. 

At times in this book she elaborates too much on her own personal visits to these sites, which is not surprising given that she is a frequent star of historical travel documentaries in Britain.      

Our Final Thoughts On Bettany Hughes

Overall, this is a nice collection of seven short histories of ancient landmarks. You’ll learn about the many trials and errors involved in the building of the pyramids, from collapsed prototypes to shafts leading seemingly to nowhere. 

The long afterlife as a fort of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus through the crusades and beyond. The mechanics of an Olympic festival, and the many attempts to imagine the design of the lighthouse at Alexandria, from medieval Francia to China.