[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ >> Nimoy: In the earliest of times, humans were but an insignificant presence in the world. The first people were nomadic, moving with the seasons. As they wandered in search of sustenance and shelter, they may well have gazed in awe at the creations of nature. To them, natural wonders were clearly the work of gods. In time, their roaming ended. They settled the land and began to build. Simple communities eventually became cities. Form soon transcended function. Art and architecture gave expression to the early builders' deepest creative urges. In response to nature's most impressive works, humans wanted to leave a mark on the landscape of history. An inventive spirit drove many to challenge nature, to rival the world's intrinsic wonders. Great temples marked sacred sites. Mighty tombs became desperate bids for immortality. Vast constructions attempted to harness nature... or even to subdue it. Spectacular monuments from antiquity are still to be found on five of the earth's continents. They were the products of great civilizations which rose and fell, leaving only fragments of their creations behind. The ancient world has bequeathed to us a list of seven particular sites which have risen in stature above the rest. When compiled, the list was touted as the Seven Wonders of the World. It is essentially a Greek register, for all Seven Wonders were part of the Greco-Asian world of the eastern Mediterranean. >> Five of the Seven Wonders are Greek or built by Greek architects and artists. Two of them are much older structures from the Near East. And clearly, the whole idea was that the Greeks were trying to make some sort of comparison between their own greatest products, their own greatest achievements, and the greatest achievements of the people in these lands that they had recently colonized. >> Nimoy: The idea of creating an actual list of wonders was born during the third century BCE. Then, a century later, the Greek empire was expanding and on the warpath. The armies of Alexander the Great had marched from the eastern Mediterranean into North Africa, across Persia, and on into India. As entire cultures fell before him, Alexander inspired a new era of building. Great cities and monuments sprang from his vision of a bold, triumphant future in which Greece would dominate the world. >> By the early part of the Hellenistic Age--this is the world that Alexander will forge after his death just through the sheer genius of his own strength, his intellect, and his vigor-- there is a body of monuments that eventually surpass almost everything that had been built before in the past. And when this does take place, certainly there is emphasis by the more learned individuals in the Hellenistic world to start creating a list of monuments that indeed were unique. And so what we get is a compiling of lists by geographers, historians, chroniclers, who take account of the physical features of the world as it existed in that time period as modern men. >> Nimoy: The first complete list of wonders was probably compiled by Philo of Byzantium. A Greek engineer, he spent many contemplative hours poring over documents in the great library at Alexandria in Egypt. Although scholars believe Philo had little firsthand experience of the actual sites, his technical knowledge helped create a list notable for its lucid descriptions. Each site was chosen for its unique merits. >> The three features which seemed to qualify monuments to be in the list of Seven Wonders are, first of all, size. They're all large. The second thing which most of them have is that they are works of great artistry. They've got many sculptures, or they're a wonderful piece of architecture. And the third thing is that they're great feats of engineering. >> It was a list of things for people who were traveling throughout the world. These were the must-sees. These were the thing, if you were going to travel across the known world, you had to go to the Hanging Gardens; you had to go to the pyramids. Much as the way today, if someone is going to Europe, they have to go to the Eiffel Tower. >> Nimoy: But why seven wonders? Why was this number chosen for the sites that were to be revered and remembered above all others? Throughout history, to many cultures, the number seven has been imbued with mystical qualities. In the Hebrew Bible, God created the universe in six days, then rested on the seventh. When Joshua laid siege to Jericho, seven priests with seven trumpets marched seven times around the city for seven days. Christian writings also embraced the number seven. There were said to be seven vices and seven virtues. Christ's final utterances were his last seven words spoken from the cross. Today our weekly calendar is divided into seven days. >> We certainly know that there are sacred numbers, a variety of sacred numbers in terms of the more ancient Near Eastern civilizations and traditions. The number three and the number seven are considered pure numbers. They're complete numbers. But three monuments would be really very limiting in nature because there would always be a question of why certain monuments were not added. Seven is a perfect number, in many respects. It's a complete number. It can't be divided in half, and therefore, you would not have a ranking of monuments. These would be monuments that would stand alone. >> Nimoy: With names familiar to most of us since school days, the Seven Ancient Wonders are portals into remarkable civilizations long past. These were works of astonishing vision, crafted on a dazzling scale that defies the genius of the master builder even now. They were painstakingly fashioned by almost superhuman effort. Though heavily obscured by questions to which we may never know all the answers, each of the ancient wonders emerges as a truly remarkable moment in human history. Each has its own unique story to tell. >> Nimoy: Like an immense silent sentinel guarding a secret from mankind's most remote past, the Great Pyramid dominates the plateau of Giza outside Cairo. What would have motivated anyone to build a structure so enormous, so simple in form, yet so demanding in terms of sheer engineering skill? For almost 5,000 years, this vast artificial mountain of stone, together with its two later companions, have challenged the imagination of all who visit them. >> You look at them, and you see the huge blocks, and you stand next to the blocks, and you see how diminutive you are in comparison to the pyramids. And there's all this open space around the pyramids, and it's just--it's just awesome. You are standing in a spot where an ancient Egyptian could have stood. You are looking at something that the ancient Egyptians saw, that the Greeks saw, that the Romans saw, that the Arabs saw, and you are just one in the next line of that, and you know that your children and your children's children will be able to see this, and it's an amazing connection with the past. >> Nimoy: Believed by most archaeologists to have been completed in 2560 BCE, the Great Pyramid is the largest stone structure ever built. It remains a miracle of architectural and engineering skill. Comprising nearly 2 1/2 million huge stone blocks, all interlocking with razor-sharp precision, the pyramid soars to a height of over 400 feet. Until the 19th century, it was the tallest building on earth. Its weight is estimated at over 6 million tons. It covers an area of more than 7,500 square feet, or 13 acres at its base. If it were hollow, it could accommodate four of the great cathedrals of Europe or the capitol building in Washington, D.C., with room to spare. It is in every way a remarkable accomplishment. But what was its purpose? Long believed to be the tomb of the Pharaoh Khufu who ruled during the fourth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, to most scholars, the pyramid is a monumental attempt to enshrine an extravagant ruler's yearning for immortality. The second pyramid, only slightly smaller than Khufu's, is believed to have been built by his son, Khafre; and the third one, the smallest, by Khafre's son, Menkaure. Two great funeral boats that were unearthed beside the Great Pyramid were meant to ferry the pharaoh's soul into the afterlife. Yet, if they were merely tombs, why were the pyramids laid out with such mathematical precision, exactly aligned to the earth's compass points? >> The three great pyramids could not have been laid out with these perfectly precise north, south, east, west alignments without the use of advanced astronomy. Even today, modern surveyors have to use astronomy to lay out buildings. And we could not lay out a building with the accuracy that that pyramid is laid out. And if we could, we would ask ourselves, "Why bother? What's the point of doing this?" You know, nobody's going to notice if your monument is 2 or 3 degrees off true north, and it will make it a lot less expensive to do it. But these ancients were looking at the stars and very precisely aligning their monuments to the stars. And we're asked to believe that this was done by a people who had just emerged from the Stone Age with absolutely no technological knowledge whatsoever? Suddenly, out of nowhere, this extraordinary monument, a high-tech achievement by any standards, just appears on the desert? This is a great mystery totally unexplained by conventional history. >> Nimoy: Since the time of Napoleon in the late 18th century, the pyramids and the Sphinx have been on the itinerary of all well-seasoned travelers. Today millions throng to the site every year. Why does the Great Pyramid exert an inescapable magnetic pull on so many? >> If you enter inside, you are completely isolated from the whole world. You are alone. You are by yourself. You can close your eyes. You can feel the past. You can feel the future. You can feel the king. You can meditate. And this why this pyramid is the only pyramid that attracts millions, millions of people all over the world. Some, they come to meditate. Some, they come to do religious things. You know, there is hundreds of thousands of organizations who really have a belief in this pyramid. Everyone has a theory, which I, really--from the last 15, 20 years working around the pyramids, there is over 100 theories presented to me. Everyone has his own mystery, and if you have your own mystery of the pyramid, you want everyone to believe in your own mystery. And this why the mystery of the pyramid is not one mystery; it's the<i> mysteries</i> of the pyramids. >> Nimoy: The riddle of the pyramid's construction fascinated the greatest minds of ancient times. As early as the fifth century BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus sought clues to its origins. Egyptian priests and storytellers said that the Pharaoh Khufu was a tyrannical ruler who went to any lengths to possess a tomb noble and imposing enough to ensure passage to the afterlife. It was even said that he forced his own daughter to work in a brothel to help raise funds for the construction of her own pyramid. As payment for her services, she was said to have demanded a stone from each of her clients. These tales convinced Herodotus that the Pharaoh was a despot who cruelly enslaved 100,000 laborers for 30 years to build the pyramid. Recent archaeological discoveries of dormitory-type housing close to the pyramids have led some scholars to question the stories of slave labor. >> The pyramids were not built by slaves. This is introduced by the old movies in Hollywood always showing the Egyptians building the pyramids, and the guards push them, and they hit them to do the work. That's not true. I always say that, you know, slavery can build huge buildings, but it will never produce anything smart or genius. Building a pyramid is a genius work. People who do this work, they had to do it with love. >> Nimoy: Archaeological studies reveal that even though a very large labor force was once employed at the site, the numbers involved were probably far less than the figures recorded by Herodotus. >> We know that it would have been an enormous effort because even a few thousand workmen kept on a site for months throughout the year would have taken a lot of effort in providing them with food and housing. But we do think that it was probably more likely 10,000 or 20,000 people were involved than the 100,000 mentioned by Herodotus. >> Nimoy: But does the presence of living quarters and hundreds of grave sites necessarily mean that the evidence dates back to the actual construction period? Was the site perhaps inhabited by large numbers of people long after the pyramid was built? >> Now, it's a fact that surrounding the great pyramids of Egypt are a large number of heavily inscribed tombs which definitely date from Egypt's fourth dynasty, around 2,500 BC--4,500 years ago. The Egyptological conclusion is, because the tombs surrounding the pyramids can be dated to 2,500 BC, therefore, the pyramids were also built in 2,500 BC. In my view, this is a dangerous logical step to take. We know ourselves that there are many cases of people wishing to be buried on sites which have ancient prestige and an atmosphere of sacredness around them. In Europe today, people are still buried--prominent individuals, at any rate--in the grounds of our great cathedrals, yet those cathedrals were built 1,000 years before. Should we assume from a modern burial in the grounds of a cathedral that the cathedral was built today? No; it's not logical. It's the same logic that's being applied to the pyramids. >> Nimoy: The only likeness of the Pharaoh Khufu ever found is this tiny statue, barely 4 inches high, unearthed hundreds of miles away in southern Egypt. New research into the interior of the Great Pyramid may eventually yield answers to age-old questions. Why was no evidence of actual royal burial ever found here? Was Khufu really responsible for its construction? Many even believe that the design and dimensions of the building hold answers to profound mysteries about a vast, lost epoch of the human experience. >> I think it's possible, indeed probable, that we are a species with amnesia, that we've lost the record of our story going back thousands of years before so-called history began. And I think if we could go back into that dark epoch, we would discover many astounding things about ourselves. >> Nimoy: For thousands of years, the Great Pyramid has tantalized and intrigued scholars and dreamers alike, and it is likely to do so for centuries to come. [heartbeat pounding] [gunshot] >> Nimoy: Today we celebrate an event that unites the nations of the world for a few brief days every four years. The Olympic Games is a high point in international relations, bringing out the best in the competitive human spirit. The games were born here, at Olympia, in Greece, more than 2,700 years ago. By 433 BCE, the location had become the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a great statue of the god Zeus. The ancient Greeks worshipped the human body. Even the gods took human form. Foremost of all the gods was Zeus, father of the Olympic Games. >> Those competitions were held in honor of Zeus. Every runner, every discus thrower was throwing with all his might or running as fast as he could in honor of the great god Zeus. People would travel from all over the Greek world, from the Black Sea, from the coast of Turkey, from Sicily, Italy, from Marseilles, South of France, to come see the Olympic Games, to participate in the spirit of Greek camaraderie and pay homage to their great god Zeus. >> Nimoy: To honor Zeus, a temple was commissioned by the citizens of Olympia in 470 BCE. Outwardly, it was a large but unremarkable structure made of local limestone. But what it eventually contained was extraordinary. Seated on a jewel-studded throne, the statue of Zeus was seven times the height of a man. There was barely a foot between the roof of the temple and the top of the statue's head. >> "Whereas we marvel at the other six wonders of the world, we kneel in front of this one in reverence. The work brings praise, and the immortality present here brings honor to the beholder." --Philo of Byzantium, third century BCE. >> Nimoy: For an ancient Greek, visiting Olympia was tantamount to being in the physical presence of the gods. It took about five years to create the statue of Zeus. The sculptor's name was Phidias. Some said he was only able to achieve the daunting feat because he could speak directly to the gods, much as the Greek poet Homer was reported to have done. >> Homer says, "Sing to me, muses," and asked for that inspiration. It seems likewise that Phidias was directly inspired by Zeus, had some sort of intuition or communicative powers with the beyond, a kind of contact with the parallel universe of the gods. Plotinus, a later Roman author, writes, "When Phidias carved his Zeus, he did so not by basing it on any model which was perceptible to the senses, but rather by taking from his mind an image which reflected the way Zeus would appear if he did, in fact, decide to make himself visible." >> Nimoy: Phidias was said to be the greatest sculptor of ancient times, the creator of two giant statues at the Parthenon in Athens. Tragically, however, not a single piece of any of his statues is believed to have survived the centuries. In 1958, 2,000 years after Phidias' death, an astonishing discovery was made at the very site of the statue of Zeus in Olympia. It was the remains of Phidias' workshop, where the legendary Zeus had been designed and built. Examination provided clues to the mysteries of the statue's creation. Evidence included molds for casting precious metals as well as jeweler's tools used for working gold and ivory. A touching link to a life lived over 2,000 years ago was this simple mug inscribed, "I belong to Phidias." >> Can you imagine, the very cup from which Phidias drank as he was working on that statue for those five years? The letters, the carving of the letters on the base of that cup are meticulous. The shapes of the letters are beautiful. It probably was the case that Phidias himself scratched his name on the bottom of his cup. >> Nimoy: So great was Phidias' attention to detail that he constructed his workshop to match the exact height, length, and width of the temple. He could fit the statue together, piece by piece, to be sure of its dimensions before moving it to its final position. Despite his remarkable gifts as an artist and sculptor, Phidias often sought divine help. When the statue was completed, he prayed for approval from Zeus. In reply, a lightning bolt is said to have flashed within the temple, leaving a scar on the marble floor. However, this may not have been a sign of approval from Zeus, but rather, an omen. Less than a year after completing the statue, Phidias lay dead, murdered by his own compatriots, some say out of jealousy or because of political intrigue. With his death, legends of the statue's strange supernatural powers began to abound. Almost five centuries later, the infamous Roman emperor Caligula heard of the statue and became obsessed with the desire to possess it. Eventually he ordered it seized and brought to Rome. Workmen were dispatched to capture it, but as they were preparing it for shipment, a strange cackle of laughter echoed from beneath its ivory-shrouded skin. The workmen fled in terror, and Caligula was denied his prize. Had the god Zeus spoken, or was there a more rational explanation for the bizarre incident? Soon after the incident, Caligula reportedly dreamed that he was seated beside Zeus himself. On the very next day, Caligula was brutally assassinated by his personal palace guards. Legend has it that this was Zeus' revenge for the emperor's attempt to remove the statue from the temple at Olympia. The majestic wonder would eventually fall, not to the greed of an emperor, but to a new religion sweeping the world. After standing in place for more than 800 years, 300 years later than the time of Christ, the statue and its temple were destroyed. In the year 391, Rome's new Christian emperor, Theodosius, fearing Zeus' continued hold on pagan believers, ordered the statue dismantled and stripped of its gold. Within another century, the magnificent temple had disappeared from history. But in a curious sense, the likeness of Zeus may still survive today. Many art historians believe that the facial features of the statue were used as a model for images of Jesus. Because so few traces of them remain, the quest for the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is often a journey into the unknown. For archaeologists, every precious fragment unearthed provides surprising insights into the classical world and raises provocative new sets of questions. >> Nimoy: Exceeding the Parthenon in Athens in size, stature, and fame, one of the largest temples of classical times once stood here, in Ephesus, now part of modern-day Turkey. It was the temple of Artemis, funded by the Greek king Croesus. It attracted more pilgrims than any other temple in the ancient world. What was its purpose? Why was it built? And what is the mystery surrounding the site of its construction? In the mid-19th century, archaeologist John Turtle Wood spent 20 years trying to find concrete evidence of an ancient female fertility cult said to have flourished here. But it was not until his wife ined him after he fell ill that a major breakthrough occurred. Mrs. Woods was in charge when workers struck a marble floor. It had taken a woman to unearth evidence of the ancient fertility cult. But the site was sacred long before a temple was built. In fact, it may have been chosen because of an extraterrestrial intruder. Ancient writings record that in the second millennium BCE, a meteorite plunged into the hills near the seaport of Ephesus. Instantly it became a revered object of worship. The grove of trees where the impact scorched the earth was declared a hallowed site. Over time, it became popular to many people. Centuries later, it was said that a warlike race of women from the southern reaches of Russia came to the area and established a settlement in the holy forest. The women were called the Amazons. For much of history, the Amazons and the mysterious cult they founded were thought to be pure legend. But recent archaeological excavations have discovered intriguing artifacts: warlike female figures in full battle dress. Ivory images found here are probably of Russian origin, the traditional homeland of the Amazons. Could the warrior women have been among the earliest inhabitants of the site? >> The Amazons play a big role in the art of the temple. A lot of reliefs and sculpture is made about the Amazons. The Amazons have to do with the Cimmerians, which are a tribe which came from southern Russia to Asia Minor in the seventh century BCE. And as we have found pieces in ivory, which is typical for these nomadic tribes. The female plays a big role in the Artemisium. The goddess itself is female, and we know by the offerings that there was a lot of female offerings, a lot of jewelry, and also tools of women have been offered to the goddess. >> Nimoy: During the earliest human occupation of the site, people worshipped a formless pagan deity that ruled over sexuality, childbirth, and nurturing. Then, in time, the deity began to acquire human features as worshippers merged primitive paganism with their belief in the Greek goddess Artemis. >> She is the great nurturer of human life as the protectress for women of nature, and the adherence to the worship of Artemis drew a tremendous amount of emotional energy. In many respects, to me, the temple of Artemis speaks of the deep religiosity, the deep sacredness, the deep feelings to this grand mother of humanity. >> Nimoy: As the fame of the Temple of Artemis spread, pilgrims brought offerings from distant lands, as far away as India, Persia, and Spain. The temple accumulated a vast treasure trove of precious metals and exotic jewelry. Even King Croesus, whose wealth was legendary, was granted a line of credit by the local priests. In return, he donated lavishly to the exquisite decoration of the temple. It was not long before the building and its contents were recognized as one of the wonders of the known world. But even that was not enough. To increase its stature, work was eventually begun on a lavish new temple destined to eclipse its predecessor by far. >> The columns alone were 60 feet high. That's not even counting the pediment on the top. So from ground level, you had a 10-meter podium, 60 feet of columns, then you get your pediment and your entablature and add another 20 to 30 feet, and it was the size of a football field. And yet it was so airy and so open. And it stood singularly within a beautiful deep bay. And you couldn't miss it when you came into Ephesus. You could see it from 5, 8 miles out at sea. It would just glimmer, especially when the sun switched over to the west when it starts to set. >> Nimoy: One of the temple's greatest mysteries was the way in which the goddess Artemis was depicted. For centuries, scholars have debated the meaning of her strange attire. What were these bulbous appendages? Were they multiple breasts, or were they dates or eggs or even bulls' testicles--all symbols of fertility? The rituals practiced within the temple were as mysterious as the goddess herself. >> Only a privileged few would have actually had access into the inner chamber of the temple itself. There was a complete hierarchy of priests and priestesses and dedicated virgins who had served time in the worship of the goddess Artemis. After all, classical religion was an affair of cult, and there were prescribed practices that had to be maintained to ensure the appropriateness of the sacrifice--that is, types of animals being worshipped, burned at the offerings, types of votive offerings placed in the shrine itself. >> Nimoy: In the sacred rituals, were only animals sacrificed to the goddess Artemis? Recent archaeological discoveries have raised the disturbing possibility that humans may have been slaughtered here. >> We have found a lot of animal bones in the Artemisium, which are the remains of the sacrifices. We have found bones of pigs, of cattle, of goats, of sheep, also of deer. But there's one strange thing: We have also found human bones, not very much, but they exist. The bones are cut--or some of the bones are cut. And so they must have something to do with sacrifice or something like that. And there's also one bone which comes from a children. >> Nimoy: In 356 BCE, two centuries after construction first began, the Temple of Artemis came to a fiery end. In what may have been one of history's most notorious cases of arson, a man named Herostratus was believed to have set fire to the complex. But even this incident is cloaked in uncertainty. Some experts argue that nature, not man, was to blame for the demise of the shrine. >> It was not Herostratus who set fire to the temple but lightning, a thunderstorm. And the thunderstorm and lightning which hits the roof of the temple easily can set fire to the beams. And, of course, the moment a grand fire starts up underneath a marble roof, even the marble would burn and burn down to chalk. >> Nimoy: For the worshippers of Artemis, the pressing question was why the goddess failed to protect her temple. The answer, they concluded, was that she was busy elsewhere. The night of the fire was the very night that Alexander the Great was born. Because the goddess had to preside over Alexander's birth in distant Macedonia, she was unable to prevent her temple from being reduced to ashes. Faced with the destruction of their goddess' sanctuary, the followers of Artemis performed an amazing act of devotion. Within a century, they rebuilt the vast marble temple to exactly the same specifications as its predecessor. It was this incarnation of the temple that was included on the list of the Seven Great Wonders of the Ancient World. It would stand, proudly, for another 600 years. >> "When I saw the sacred House of Artemis that towers to the clouds, the other wonders were placed in the shade, for the sun itself has never shone down upon its equal outside Olympus itself." --Antipater of Sidon, author, second century BCE. >> Nimoy: For as long as belief in the goddess Artemis flourished, the temple endured. But with the decline of the Roman Empire, invading barbarians eventually plundered the temple of its contents and tore down the building. The treasure was carried off by sea. But as fate would have it, storms sank all the vessels, and the fabulous riches were lost forever. They may still lie somewhere in the depths of the Aegean, a fortune still waiting to be found. >> Nimoy: Of all the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, there is one that inspires the belief that love may transcend death. It was the Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus in what is now southwestern Turkey, a structure so imposing that the name "Mausolus" has crossed the centuries; for since that time, all large tombs have been known as<i> mausoleums.</i> At the heart of the story lies the tale of two lovers locked in a desperate bid to preserve their immortality and their devotion to one another. He was Mausolus, the young king of Caria, a province of the Persian Empire in what is now modern-day Turkey. She was his lovely queen, Artemisia. The king and queen, husband and wife, were also brother and sister. Although such marriages were condemned throughout much of the ancient world, they were not uncommon in the province of Caria. >> This whole idea of sister-marriage is something that really seems to be just from this Carian dynasty, this one dynasty. Her other brother and sister were also married to each other. We don't know where this idea came from, if this was an explicitly Carian idea or if it was just to this one generation. Certainly incest of this type was looked upon very negatively by their contemporaries, just as we do today. >> Nimoy: King Mausolus was a man with a dream. He envisioned ruling a utopian multicultural society without crime or poverty where he would be worshipped as a god. >> He is the architect of a new empire, a new state, and a state that must indeed have the appropriate physical monuments to show that it can rank with the great civilizations that it was contemporary with. The other side of his rule is a rule of extreme taxation, of extortion, of forced acculturation, people being picked up and moved from their old ancestral homes to populate his new city at Halicarnassus. And as a new city, it was a city with very few monuments. A grand building program was initiated immediately, and therefore taxation was high. >> Nimoy: The enormous financial resources required to design his new metropolis caused great dissent among his people, earning Mausolus their hatred. He imposed heavy taxes on his subjects, and occasional attempts were made on his life, but all failed. Included in his vision was a plan for a tomb to hold his body and that of his sister, Queen Artemisia. It was by far one of the largest tombs ever conceived. But the exact appearance of this ancient structure has long been a mystery, challenging the imagination of generations of scholars and artists. It is believed to have been an extravagant combination of architectural styles and cultural influences. The base of the structure, containing the burial chamber, was in the Persian style. It was here that the remains of the king and queen would rest. On the next level, a Greek-influenced colonnade. Above that, surmounting the structure, an Egyptian-style stepped pyramid. Although culled from seemingly disparate elements, the sum total was an amazingly harmonious design unlike anything ever seen before. >> The mausoleum was especially famous for its statues. It had about 250 statues. Some of them were more than life-size--great big statues-- and brightly painted, and they were arranged in tiers around the structure. The structure itself consisted of a tower-like building with a pyramid on the top as the roof and a colonnade beneath, and then there were these steps with the tiers of statues arranged around them. The whole thing was built of marble and so would have been a mixture of gleaming white marble and brightly painted statue and brightly painted friezes as well. It would have been a really-- a tour de force of sculpture. >> Nimoy: Artemisia commissioned the foremost artists of the time to create a multitude of statues to adorn the tomb. Though only fragments of them now survive, it was the larger-than-life marble figures and the evocative reliefs that elevated the monument to the stature of a world-renowned wonder. Mausolus did not live to see the tomb completed in its full and final glory. When he died in 353 BCE, his queen, Artemisia, ordered a lavish funeral in his honor. After he was cremated, she mingled the still-warm ashes of her beloved brother and king with spices and wine, and drank the mixture from a golden goblet. The purpose was to mingle his flesh with her own so that they could be united even after death. But this was not the only bizarre ritual that took place at the funeral. Archaeological excavations have revealed gruesome evidence of massive animal sacrifice on an almost unimaginable scale. [goat bleats] [cuts] The discovery of a pool of congealed blood on steps leading to the burial chamber as well as piles of dismembered bones indicate that hundreds of animals were slaughtered in honor of the king. [fire crackling] Fate would soon intervene in the story of Artemisia and her beloved king. She would live only two more years following his death. After she died, the mausoleum sculptors continued with their work even though the kingdom had fallen on lean times. The royal treasury was empty, and none of the laborers would be paid. Why they persevered without payment remains a mystery. Did they somehow sense that their work would be renowned for all time? Perhaps they believed it would imbue them, like their rulers, with the gift of immortality. We may never know. But the mausoleum stood proudly for more than 1,000 years before natural weathering and a devastating earthquake took their toll. 1,900 years after it first took shape, when the Knights Hospitalar, among the last of the crusaders, first laid eyes on the ruins, they were awed by what remained. Nevertheless, the knights needed to reinforce their nearby fortress, the Castle of Saint Peter, against their enemy, the Turks. Thus they began to demolish the tomb stone by stone, statue by statue. >> We have some commentary from some of the knights themselves, in terms of manuscripts, that they marveled at the scenes that they saw, scenes--hunting scenes and scenes of individuals fighting, animated scenes-- fighting in terms of conflict-- Greeks and Persians, and Amazons and Greeks, and Lapiths and centaurs. And they make notes of the wonderful scenes that they see. And then they toss the fragments, they break them down into smaller pieces, and they burn them to extract the lime to make cement. They literally removed almost all of the architectural structure. Columns and friezes went into the construction of the Castle of Saint Peter. >> Nimoy: Though its towering walls are long gone, the story of the tomb of Mausolus preserves the memory of the romantic passion that led to the creation of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. >> Nimoy: The island of Rhodes, with its deep and inviting harbor. Since ancient times, this has been a main intersection on the primary trading routes to the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The people of this sun-drenched island were prosperous, proud, and grateful. To demonstrate their gratitude to their trading partners and their gods and in commemoration of an earlier military victory, they decided to build a statue of unprecedented proportions. And so for a short period during the third century BCE, the harbor became the sight of the tallest and most ambitious statue the ancient world had ever seen, the Colossus of Rhodes. An idea of what this legendary monument may have looked like comes down to us through images depicted on a few coins that survive from the era. Accounts from eyewitnesses, chroniclers, and storytellers tell of a truly amazing and enormous statue. Dedicated to the sun god Helios, the Colossus was made of bronze. It was believed to have stood over 110 feet high, nearly as tall as the statue of liberty. Descriptions from the time speak of a naked man proudly facing east to the rising sun, torch in one hand and spear in the other. For ships arriving at the port of Rhodes, the sight must have been truly breathtaking. >> If you can imagine sailing into the harbor of Rhodes, from quite a distance seeing this gleaming bronze statue holding a torch, a torch of freedom, over the harbor--of a monument so grand, so beautiful and bold, inspiring one to sail in and to take refuge under the aegis of the sun god Helios on the island of Rhodes. It must have been a tremendous feeling of awe, of inspiration, of direct communication with the god of the sun. >> Nimoy: Visualizations of later artists through the ages have depicted the Colossus as being so vast that it straddled the harbor, legs wide apart. Even Shakespeare used the image as a metaphor commemorating heroic greatness. >> "Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about." <i> --The History of Julius Caesar</i> by William Shakespeare, 1599. >> Nimoy: Is it really possible that the Colossus could have been so large? Even today, constructing such a figure would be an extremely difficult feat. Could the ancients possibly have accomplished it? >> I think you have to bear in mind that it did manage to withstand strong winds, tempests, storms, and so on. A strong legend developed in the Middle Ages that the statue had straddled the harbor, and you see this in early engravings which purport to show what it would have looked like. In fact, that's impossible. It would never have been big enough to have stood across the harbor mouth. Most likely it stood on one side of the harbor entrance. >> Nimoy: Because many believed the Colossus was too extravagant to have been constructed with the available technology, doubt grew that it had ever existed at all. Then, in recent years, new evidence came to light in and around the harbor of Rhodes. Experts have found carved stones dating back to the time of the Colossus. These were later used to build the fort that now stands at the entrance to the harbor. It is believed that these were the very stones which earlier formed the base of the giant statue. The Colossus itself was so large that it could not have been constructed entirely from stone. The citizens of Rhodes had therefore turned to the sculptor Chares of Lindos, a master in the art of casting bronze. Vast amounts of the metal were required--enough, it was said, to tax the bronze resources of the entire known world. >> "The artist expended as much bronze on it as to cause a severe dearth in the mines. The casting of the statue was an operation in which the bronze industry of the whole world was concerned." --Philo of Byzantium, second century BCE. >> Nimoy: Bronze would also come from an unlikely source. [horse whinnies] At the end of the fourth century BCE, the people of Rhodes had successfully beat back a yearlong siege by a large invading army from Macedonia. It was decided to fashion the Colossus from the bronze weapons of their defeated invaders. A captured giant enemy siege tower some nine stories in height played a vital part in the construction process. Working inside the siege tower, the sculptor and his team of workers created a framework of iron to which they attached the bronze panels. >> So that gives us another clue, then, that it was columnar in shape, that it was not straddling the harbor, but it was like a shaft within the wooden structure of the nine-story siege tower. An ancient author says that a human could barely wrap their arms around one finger. And that gives us a real picture of how big those hands must have been. The thigh was 11 feet in width, in breadth, the ankle, 5 feet in breadth. >> Nimoy: The Colossus of Rhodes enjoyed only a brief period of life before fate intervened. It stood for a mere 56 years before a massive earthquake destroyed not only much of the town but caused the statue to break off at the knees and topple down in pieces. It is unclear why the people of Rhodes chose not to rebuild it. Perhaps they believed that it had been struck down by Helios, the sun god himself. Or they may have felt that no man-made creation could adequately capture his likeness. An oracle warned that the Colossus should never be rebuilt. Though it lay in ruins, thousands still came and were astounded by it. >> "Even as it lies, it excites our wonder and imagination. Few men can clasp the thumb in their arms. The fingers alone are larger than most statues. Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast, dark caverns can be seen yawning in the interior." --Pliny the Elder, 50 CE. >> After it had fallen, the pieces remained on the ground, remained lying where they'd fallen. And people came to look at them and said that they tried to put their arms around the fingers to see how big they were and so on of this fallen statue, and that suggests it was on dry land. If it had been at the harbor mouth and had fallen, you'd expect it to fall in the sea. So perhaps it was dragged onto the dry land. Perhaps it was a navigational hazard. >> Nimoy: The statue lay untouched for another 900 years, until the Arab invasion of Rhodes in the year 654. The bronze, which was still a highly prized commodity, was sold. Nearly 1,000 camels and dozens of ships were required to carry the sections away. [fire spitting] Thus, the bronze which had been used to the point of exhausting the world's supply was returned to whence it originally came to be melted down as coins, as tools, as religious artifacts, and as weapons. Undoubtedly, some of it survives to this day in one form or another, an enduring link to that ancient time when the Colossus was one of the Seven Wonders of the world. When w >> Nimoy: Babylon. For a brief moment in the sixth century BCE, it was reputed to have been the most magnificent city in the world. Located in what is now Iraq, it sprawled alongside the mighty Euphrates River. The fabled city was constructed in a giant square, each side of which was 12 miles in length. Its walls were at least 10 feet thick and, according to Herodotus, in places they towered 300 feet high. The crowning glory of the entire complex was said to be the famous Hanging Gardens. This earthly paradise was originally built by King Nebuchadnezzar. He was saddened by the homesickness of his favorite wife, a princess from a kingdom in the mountains to the northeast. She desperately craved the cool streams and lush trees of her distant homeland. So Nebuchadnezzar ordered that a magnificent garden be built to shield her from the harsh summer sun of the Babylonian desert. [water rushing] >> "The paths are full of scent. The waterfalls sparkle like the stars of heaven in this garden of pleasure. The pomegranate trees, which are clothed with clusters of fruit like vines, enrich the breezes with their fragrance." --King Ashurnasirpal II, ninth century BCE. >> Nimoy: Later chroniclers visiting the gardens almost a thousand years after they were created wrote glowing reports of the overall impact made on the beholder. >> "Numerous lofty trees afford a grateful shade above the city. The trees are 12 feet in circumference, 50 feet in height. A distant spectator of these shaded groves might suppose them to be forests growing on a magnificent wooded mountain." --Quintus Curtius, writer. first century CE. >> Nimoy: For centuries, historians have tried to imagine what the gardens looked like. Some believe that Herodotus, the Greek father of history, reported a magnificent garden somewhere in the region during the fifth century BCE, but his writings do not mention it. Most accounts describe a structure 30 stories high. The gardens were apparently built on a series of terraces. There was a profusion of exotic flowering plants meticulously arranged and tended, all growing far above the city throngs. [water rushing] Eventually the relentless forces of nature prevailed, and the entire city, including the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, succumbed to the encroaching desert sands. [wind blowing] The legend of the Hanging Gardens, like the Garden of Eden, has always captured the popular imagination, but for a long time in many ancient writings cast serious doubt on their possible existence. If they did exist, some argued, perhaps they were constructed elsewhere and not actually within Babylon. In the 19th century, German archaeologist Robert Koldewey discovered what he believed was evidence that proved the Hanging Gardens had existed. The first clue was a number of stone arches that could easily have supported the massive weight of trees, earth, rocks, and water viaducts. Then he found a shaft descending from rooftop level deep down into the ground. Could this have been a well from which water for the gardens was drawn? Further research revealed that the area directly beneath the roof was used for some form of storage. Could this have been a water reservoir? If so, how was water transported all the way up to rooftop level centuries before the invention of the pump? Careful examination of ancient Greek texts provided the answer. >> "To get water to the very top of the roof of the garden, there are special spiral screws. The task of these screws is to continually bring up water from the Euphrates and to disseminate it throughout the gardens for the purpose of refreshing the garden." --Strabo, historian writer, first century BCE. >> Nimoy: Though a new technology at the time, in later centuries the rotating screw pump would become known as the Archimedes' screw. With its ability to deliver large quantities of water with great efficiency, it was eventually to revolutionize agriculture throughout the world. Strangely, though, none of the ancient texts specifically mention this type of pump in Babylon itself. It was used, however, by another ruler, Sennacherib, king of Assyria. His capital was at Nineveh on the River Tigris northwest of Babylon. >> Sennacherib made some enormous engineering works to divert the water from mountain streams and bring it together along a huge aqueduct across the valley to Nineveh. The people of Assyria were used to large gardens in cities because previous kings had done something like what Sennacherib did. And Sennacherib says in his own inscriptions that the gardens and his palace were a wonder for all peoples. So I suppose he hoped that people would come and admire them, and there's no doubt he was very proud of the technical innovation which made his garden different from that of his predecessors. >> Nimoy: New studies of the location of Nineveh place Sennacherib's gardens close to the entrance of his palace on the bank of the river Tigris. Have the intervening centuries obscured this fact, inadvertently recording the garden as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? >> I'm now fairly happy with the idea that the gardens did really exist but at Nineveh rather than Babylon. I think until this new theory was developed in the last few years, I was beginning to think that they were just a flight of romantic imagination. >> Nimoy: Meanwhile, ancient Babylon in Iraq continues to be restored by archaeologists. Perhaps someday it will be possible to confirm the true location of the real Hanging Gardens. >> Nimoy: The Mediterranean Sea has always beckoned the traveler with the lure of adventure, trade, and wealth, but in the ancient world, as now, the life of the seafarer was often shadowed by danger and death. [rain pours] Waters could easily turn hostile. The weather could become treacherous. Deadly submerged rocks could easily tear through a ship's hull. Navigational aids did not exist. By day, mariners followed visible landmarks. By night, they relied upon the stars. What sailors feared most was the flat and undistinguished coastline of northern Egypt. Here perilous currents and invisible sandbanks were a death trap for the unwary. Many ships and many lives were lost. This was the sight of one of the Seven Wonders of the world, the Pharos Lighthouse at the Port of Alexandria. Nothing of the structure remains today, but the city's Qaitbay Fortress stands on what is believed to be the foundations of the lighthouse, the most powerful artificial light in the ancient world. The Pharos not only warned ships away from the dangerous coastline but was a welcome beacon for weary travelers. It was a symbol of promise, of safety, and of survival. It stood guard outside the busy port of Alexandria, the world's first city of more than a million inhabitants. Constructed of white marble, the lighthouse towered 440 feet or over 30 stories high, enclosing an extensive interior network of corridors, ramps, and stairways. It was an unmistakable landmark. >> The lighthouse was a real skyscraper. It seems to have been built of marble or faced with marble at least. And it was in several stages with a lantern on the top. It would have been the largest roofed building before the skyscrapers started to be built in American cities early this century. >> Nimoy: By day, mirrors reflected sunlight from the top of the tower. By night, however, the lighthouse became a true wonder to behold. A flame was lit, producing a beam of light of extraordinary power. But how did the light work? What kind of fuel did it use? >> I don't think that they could use timber, because timber was imported in Egypt, but we don't know exactly the source of energy. We don't know if it was wood or oil again. And so we have no precise indications, only suppositions. >> Egypt has always had a shortage of timber, and so wood was unlikely to be in great supply. They may have used something else, like animal dung. We don't know how the light was created. We do know that it was intensified by the use of a mirror in some way, probably a sheet of polished bronze or brass. One ancient writer, who may well be near the truth, tells us that it could be seen 30 miles out at sea. Then you get other writers who begin to exaggerate and start telling us it could be seen from 300 miles away or even further. >> Nimoy: Storytellers provided fantastic accounts about the qualities and nature of the light. Tales were told of a beam so intense that it could incinerate a ship 30 miles out at sea. The larger-than-life legend of the light burned brightly in the minds of all who knew of it. It shown for nearly 1,700 years before it was extinguished by a series of violent earthquakes during the 14th century. Most of the structure collapsed into the sea. Scholars believe some of the original building material can still be found in the walls of the military fortress that now guarded the entrance to Alexandria. Recent diving expeditions to the harbor floor have brought up pieces of statuary, providing a tantalizing hint of what may still lie beneath the waves. Meanwhile, the Pharos Lighthouse, like all the Seven Ancient Wonders, continues to exert a mesmerizing hold. >> Why the Seven Wonders of the ancient world still fascinate us today is the fact that they're all created by human beings. They are human creations of such imagination, of such breadth of scale, of such vision, and of such artistic and technical competence that we can appreciate them even some 2,000 to 3,000 years later. >> Why they have survived in our imagination is because, in some respects, there's a vestige of what it is to be human. It's that inquisitive spirit to constantly go back to the past to understand what our forbearers had indeed achieved. All ancient societies were contemporaries, and they do say something. Their monuments, be them grand to the point of being wonders of the ancient world or being miniscule and miniature, all say something about those societies of the past, if we let the stones and the art and the architecture and the daily utensils of life speak to us. And if we do allow them, those objects, to speak to us, basically what we have is that there is--the past and the present are but one and the same. >> Nimoy: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is a remarkable list that has transcended the ages. It has survived human conflicts and natural disasters. It remains an open portal to the ancient world, granting us a vision of the best the human creative spirit can achieve.
