Welcome to Spotlight.
I'm Joshua Leo.
And I'm Rina Dam.
Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
How many can I name?
The Pyramids of Giza.
The Lighthouse of Alexandria.
And the Colossus of Rhodes.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
You may have heard of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but could you name them?
Did you know that only one of the seven wonders is still standing today?
Today's Spotlight program is on those seven famous structures, the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The seven wonders of the world were structures in the lands around the east of the Mediterranean Sea.
They were in the countries that are now Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Iraq.
Ancient people had built them.
The seven wonders of the world were important because of their size, their beauty or because they had some other unusual quality.
The people of ancient Greece loved to make lists of the great structures in their world.
When we think of the seven wonders of the world today, we think of one list.
But there were several lists written by different ancient Greek writers.
The list of seven wonders that people use today is a collection of these old lists.
At that time, the Greek people did not know about many places in the world.
They only knew of the areas of their empire.
That is, the area around today's Middle East.
The ancient Greeks chose the seven most wonderful places that they knew about.
Sadly, only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world is still standing today.
That is the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
The Pyramids of Giza are large stone buildings pointed at the top.
They were built over 4,000 years ago.
Ancient Egyptian kings built them as burial places.
There are three pyramids in Giza, but only the largest pyramid is on the list of the seven wonders.
For centuries, it was the tallest building in the world.
It is 145 meters tall.
This great pyramid is a mystery to many people.
Even today, experts are not sure how the pyramids were built.
The other six wonders of the world are gone.
But we do have reports about what they looked like.
One of them was also in Egypt, in the city of Alexandria.
It was a large lighthouse.
The lighthouse was 110 meters tall.
It had a fire at the top.
The lighthouse was important for sailing ships.
The light showed sailors the place of the land.
It was built more than 2,000 years ago.
It was made of large, beautiful white stones.
Experts say that an earthquake destroyed the lighthouse nearly 700 years ago.
Another of the seven wonders of the world was on the Euphrates River.
Today, this area is in Iraq.
King Nebuchadnezzar II built a large structure.
This structure was covered with gardens full of beautiful plants, flowers, and trees.
It was called the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Experts believe that the king built the gardens for his wife.
They believe she may have desired to be back in her home in the mountains.
Travelers were always surprised by the hanging garden's beauty.
Now we travel to the modern country of Turkey.
Two of the seven wonders used to be here.
Both were built around 2,300 years ago.
The first was the large Temple of Artemis in the ancient city of Ephesus.
In this temple there were great statues.
The best artists of that time made these beautiful statues.
People once said that this temple was the most beautiful structure on earth.
It was made of marble, a beautiful rock for such a building.
The other wonder in Turkey was the mausoleum at Halikarnassus in modern Bodrum.
Like the pyramids in Egypt, this structure was a place where a king was buried.
It was made out of alabaster, a valuable white rock.
Life-size statues of animals and people covered the outside of the building.
The mausoleum survived for about 1,500 years.
But earthquakes finally destroyed it, hundreds of years ago.
Two of the seven wonders stood in parts of modern-day Greece.
One was on an island of Rhodes.
It was a huge statue, 32 meters high.
It was called the Colossus.
It was at the edge of the sea.
Some ancient reports say that the statue's left foot stood on one side of the city's port and the right foot stood on the other side.
It was said that the statue was so big that ships could sail through its legs.
But most experts today agree that the Colossus stood only on one side of the port, not across its opening.
The Colossus only existed for 56 years.
It fell down in an earthquake.
But during the time that it was standing, it was one of the most amazing structures in the world.
The ancient Greeks loved the statue so much that they left its broken pieces lying on the ground for 900 years.
The last of the seven wonders of the world was at Olympia on mainland Greece.
It was also a beautiful statue.
The statue was of the Greek god Zeus.
This statue sat in a large temple.
Its head almost touched the top of the temple.
It was covered with gold and it was 13 meters tall.
Beautiful stones and rare wood decorated the statue.
Kings from many countries came to visit the statue and place beautiful objects on and around it.
The seven wonders of the ancient world were beautiful places in the ancient Greek empire.
They were wonderful to people of the ancient world because of their beauty or size.
Today, people continue to make lists of wonders in the world.
Wonderful places, both ancient and modern, natural and man-made.
What places would you add to the list?
What are the wonders of your country?
Several years ago, an international project attempted to make a new list of seven wonders.
Listen for another program about that project and share your ideas on the Spotlight website.
The writer of this program was Joshua Leo.
The producer was Michio Ozaki.
The voices you heard were from the United States.
You can listen to this program again and read it on the internet at www.radioenglish.net.
This program is called, Seven Wonders of the World.
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We hope you can join us again for the next spotlight program.
Goodbye.
