The original 7:
I have gazed on the walls of impregnable Babylon along which chariots may race, and on the Zeus by the banks of the Alpheus, I have seen the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Helios, the great man-made mountains of the lofty pyramids, and the gigantic tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the sacred house of Artemis that towers to the clouds, the others were placed in the shade, for the sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus.
— Greek Anthology IX.58
A timeline of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world
Map over the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
How we imagine some of them looked like:
Lighthouse of Alexandria
Was a tower built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 280 and 247 BC which was between 393 and 450 ft (120 and 137 m) tall. It was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world for many centuries.
Three-dimensional reconstruction based on a comprehensive 2006 study
Colossus of Rhodes
Was a statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC. Colossus of Rhodes stood over 30 metres (98 feet) high, making it one of the tallest statues of the ancient world.
The Colossus of Rhodes, as depicted in an artist's impression of 1880
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The Mausoleum was approximately 45 m (148 ft) in height, and the four sides were adorned with sculptural reliefs, each created by one of four Greek sculptors—Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas of Paros and Timotheus. The finished structure of the mausoleum was considered to be such an aesthetic triumph that Antipater of Sidon identified it as one of his Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was destroyed by successive earthquakes from the 12th to the 15th century.
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about 42 ft (13 m) tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus. No copy of the statue has ever been found, and details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins.
Reconstruction of Phidias' statue of Zeus, in an engraving made by Philippe Galle in 1572
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The location and ultimate fate of the Hanging Gardens is unknown, with speculation that they may not have existed at all.
*Note the tower of Babylon in the background of the first illustration
The Great Pyramid
What The Great Pyramid Looked Like More Than 4,000 Years Ago
The 'New7Wonders of the World' was an initiative started in 2000 as a Millennium project to choose Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments.
The popularity poll was led by Canadian-Swiss Bernard Weber and organized by the New7Wonders Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland.
The New7Wonders Foundation claimed that more than 100 million votes were cast through the Internet or by telephone. However, the poll was considered not scientific ("decidedly unscientific").
After supporting the New7Wonders Foundation at the beginning of the campaign, by providing advice on nominee selection, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) by its bylaws having to record all and give equal status to the world heritage sites distanced itself from the undertaking in 2001 and again in 2007.
The winners:
Taj Mahal - Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India - AD 1632
Petra - Ma'an Governorate, Jordan - 312 BC
Colosseum - Rome, Italy - AD 70
Chichen Itza - Yucatán, Mexico - AD 600
Machu Picchu - Cuzco, Peru - AD 1438
Great Wall of China - China - 700 BC
Christ the Redeemer - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - AD 1931
The Great Giza Pyramid was given a special honorary place among the winners. The only from the original list of 7.
Other finalists:
Acropolis of Athens - Athens, Greece - 447 BC
Alhambra - Granada, Spain - 1333
Angkor Wat - Angkor, Cambodia - 1113
Eiffel Tower - Paris, France - 1887
Hagia Sophia - İstanbul, Turkey - 360
Kiyomizu-dera - Kyoto, Japan - 1633
Moai - Easter Island, Chile - 1250
Neuschwanstein - Füssen, Germany - 1869
Red Square - Moscow, Russia - 1561
Statue of Liberty - New York, United States - 1886
Stonehenge - United Kingdom - 2400 BC
Sydney Opera House - Sydney, Australia - 1959
Timbuktu - Timbuktu, Mal - 1327