Seven Wonders of the World Table
| List | Wonder | Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient | Great Pyramid of Giza | Egypt | still standing - the only survivor |
| Ancient | Hanging Gardens of Babylon | Iraq (claimed) | legendary - never located archaeologically |
| Ancient | Temple of Artemis at Ephesus | Turkey | destroyed - arson 356 BC, ruins remain |
| Ancient | Statue of Zeus at Olympia | Greece | destroyed - lost in a fire after moving to Constantinople |
| Ancient | Mausoleum at Halicarnassus | Turkey | destroyed - ground down by earthquakes |
| Ancient | Colossus of Rhodes | Greece | destroyed - earthquake 226 BC, stood just 54 years |
| Ancient | Lighthouse of Alexandria | Egypt | destroyed - earthquakes, last traces gone by the 1400s |
| New | Great Wall of China | China | New7Wonders, 2007 |
| New | Petra | Jordan | New7Wonders, 2007 |
| New | Christ the Redeemer | Brazil | New7Wonders, 2007 - the only one built in the modern era (1931) |
| New | Machu Picchu | Peru | New7Wonders, 2007 |
| New | Chichen Itza | Mexico | New7Wonders, 2007 |
| New | Colosseum | Italy | New7Wonders, 2007 |
| New | Taj Mahal | India | New7Wonders, 2007 |
| New | Great Pyramid (honorary status) | Egypt | named an honorary eighth after the 2007 vote |
The original Seven Wonders was a Greek tourist canon, not a monument registry: Hellenistic guidebook writers (Antipater of Sidon's poem is the earliest surviving version) listed the most awe-inspiring sights a traveler around the eastern Mediterranean could visit. The list's irony is built in - it is famous mostly for being destroyed. Six of the seven were ruins within antiquity or the Middle Ages: two fell to earthquakes (the Colossus of Rhodes in 226 BC after just 54 years standing; the Lighthouse of Alexandria in a string of quakes through the 1300s), one to arson and mob sackings (the Temple of Artemis), one to a fire in a city it had been moved to (the Zeus statue, carried off to Constantinople), one to medieval quarrying (the Mausoleum), and one - the Hanging Gardens of Babylon - may never have existed at all, since no Babylonian source describes it and its site has never been identified.
The new list is a different animal entirely: a Swiss foundation's media project, announced on 07/07/2007 in Lisbon after a global vote of roughly 100 million internet and SMS ballots - UNESCO pointedly kept its distance, noting a popular vote does not make a heritage canon. The Great Pyramid didn't compete; it received honorary status, which tells you the scale difference between the two lists. The new seven span four continents and fifteen centuries of building (the Great Wall to Christ the Redeemer, 1931), and every one of them still stands - the first wonder list in history that can say so.
Reading the two lists together is the point: the ancient wonders were destinations you could visit, and their table is a ledger of losses; the new wonders are images you already know, and their table is a ledger of survivals. The status column carries the whole story - 'still standing' appears exactly twice across fourteen rows, and once is honorary.
How to use
- Filter by the List column: seven ancient rows (all Mediterranean-Middle East, all pre-medieval) and eight rows for the new list - the seventh new wonder plus the Pyramid's honorary row, which keeps both lists honest in one table.
- Read the status column as the fate ledger: earthquake kills three ancient wonders, fire two, human quarrying one - and 'never located' makes the Hanging Gardens the only entry on either list whose existence is unproven.
- Answer the classics from the rows: the Colossus stood only 54 years; the Lighthouse was the last ancient wonder to disappear (1400s); the Great Pyramid is the oldest wonder by two millennia and the only survivor; Christ the Redeemer is the only modern-era build (completed 1931).
Frequently asked questions
What are the seven ancient wonders of the world?
The Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Only the Great Pyramid still stands; the Gardens are the one wonder archaeologists have never located.
What are the new seven wonders, and who chose them?
The Great Wall, Petra, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, the Colosseum and the Taj Mahal - announced 7 July 2007 by the Swiss New7Wonders Foundation after a global popular vote of about 100 million ballots. UNESCO officially had no part in it and distanced itself from the result.
Why does the Great Pyramid appear on both lists?
It is the only ancient wonder still standing, so when the new list was voted, the Pyramid was excluded from the competition and granted honorary status - effectively the eighth new wonder. No other site bridges both lists.
Did the Hanging Gardens of Babylon really exist?
Possibly not - at least not in Babylon. Greek and Roman texts describe them vividly, but no Babylonian record mentions them, no convincing ruins have been found at Babylon, and some scholars argue the legend grew from a real garden at Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. The table marks it 'never located', the only such entry.