Has anyone seen the seven wonders of the world?
 

Just curious. Has anyone seen any or all of the seven natural wonders of the world or the seven wonders of the ancient world? I always thought I would make a point of seeing them all at some point in my life. If you've seen any or all of them, what were your impressions?<BR><BR>The seven natural wonders are:<BR><BR>Mount Everest in Nepal<BR>Victoria Falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe <BR>Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA <BR>Great Barrier Reef in Australia <BR>Northern Lights <BR>Paricutin volcano in Mexico <BR>Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil<BR><BR>The seven wonders of the ancient world are:<BR><BR>The Great Pyramid of Giza <BR>The Hanging Gardens of Babylon <BR>The Statue of Zeus at Olympia <BR>The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus <BR>The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus <BR>The Colossus of Rhodes <BR>The Lighthouse of Alexandria

I thought some of the ancient wonders had disappeared completely?

The ones at Babylon, Rhodes, and Alexandria have disappeared completely, I believe, and not much is left of the others, except of course for the Pyramid (which also happens to be the most ancient of the ancient wonders).

In Rhodes at the entrance to the old docking area is, as I understand it, where the Colossus of Rhodes stood with a foot on each side. Now there is a state of a deer on each side. A postcard illustrating both was given to me by a gentleman in a book store after I inquired about the Colossus. He seemed pleased that I was interested and gave me the card.<BR><BR>Visiting Ephesus is a wonderful experience. It is one of the finest Roman ruins we have visited.

Obvious not a "state" of a deer but, of course, a statue.<BR><BR>j

I haven't seen a single one, natural or ancient. When I was a kid I had a viewmaster disk with depictions of the seven wonders of the ancient world. I would gaze at them for hours. What a great theme for a dream round the world trip! Obviously, you wouldn't be able to see the colossus at Rhodes, since it no longer exists, but you could visit Rhodes. And I suppose ancient Babylon (Iraq) would be out of the question. But you could go pretty far! :-)

Ess: Thanks for the memory. I had that same viewmaster disk. It was incredible! :) Contenting myself now with a quest for natural wonders. There are many noteworthy ones not on the list.

It's obviously possible, at least in theory, to travel to the sites of any of the Ancient Wonders, but the only one that's left to actually be seen is the Great Pyramid.

The closest I've been is in<BR>Olympia, Greece. The "Statue of Zeus" is long gone and destroyed. But the "Temple of Zeus" where it was housed still remains, in ruins but still very interesting. Go to http://www.richmond.edu/academics/a&...s/olympia.html Click-on these pictures "Temple of Zeus" and the one directly below it titled "Olympia" which is the front entrance/steps and the "Toppled Columns of the Temple of Zeus". Also photos of the pediment sculptures and metopes in the Olympia Museum. And the British Museum has some sculptures from the "Mausoleum of Halicarnassus" and the "Temple of Artemis". Regards, Walter

I flew over the Grand Canyon a few years ago...but that probably doesn't count, does it? :~)<BR><BR>Hope you mind, Vita, but, reminded by your thread, I thought I'd take the opportunity to repost a link to National Geographic Traveler's "50 Places of a Lifetime" (from their 15th Anniversary issue), including their ten "World Wonders." (Of those ten, I've only visited two: The Vatican City & Cyberspace.)<BR><BR>http://www.nationalgeographic.com/me...ler/intro.html

Ooops! I meant *don't* mind. :~)

Hi, Capo. <BR><BR>Unbelievably, I have been to 8 of the 10 "World Wonders" of the ones listed in National Geographic. I feel amazingly lucky.<BR><BR>Out of the wonders listed above:<BR><BR>--Mt Everest -- beautiful (flew over it when flying between Kathmandu and Delhi; I choose to count the flyover on that one, since I don't foresee climbing it!) and forbidding.<BR><BR>--Grand Canyon -- so incredible that you cannot believe what you are seeing, that it is so huge and actually exists.<BR><BR>--Great Pyramid of Giza -- does it sound terrible to say that it was smaller than I thought it would be? When you see the IMAX movies of Egypt, they always come at it from the desert side, rather than the Cairo side. Still amazing, just different from expectations.<BR><BR>--Temple of Artemis at Ephesus -- A spectacular ruin. All of Ephesus, actually.<BR><BR>--Rhodes and Alexandria -- was where these things used to be; does that count?

yeah, it counts. By the way, whos's keeping score?

Well, these places aren't part of the "Official" lists, but boy do they made an impression.... The Colosseum in Rome and Mount St. Michel in Normandy, and Diamond Head in Waikiki.

Re the ancient wonders, have visited the following:-<BR><BR>The Great Pyramid of Giza (inside)<BR>The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (seen ruins of temple where it stood)<BR>The Colossus of Rhodes (seen where it stood)<BR>The Lighthouse of Alexandria (been near where it stood - actually underwater now).<BR><BR>Of the modern wonders, I've only seen the Northern Lights. Have never heard of that Mexican volcano. <BR>

Cool, Maira. I have been to your top three and must agree. I have long been in awe of Mont St. Michel, its setting, its history. It's amazing. <BR><BR>Northwestern Glacier in Alaska on a clear day and Denali (fly-over) are also incredibly magnificent.

In the mid-80's the Iraqi's started to rebuild Babylon and actually were doing a pretty good job of it. They'd rebuilt the outer Ishtar gate, part of the hanging gardens (using theory), processional walkway, tower and some of the walls, although new walls weren't as wide as the originals. Inside of this newbuild were the original remains. I don't normally like rebuilding of ancient sites, but this had been done very well. <BR><BR>

Wow, guys. I'm really enjoying your comments. I guess I didn't really think the whole ancient wonders thing through.<BR><BR>Capo, Of course I don't mind if you include other fascinating wonders to discuss. I'm glad to have the info.<BR><BR>I guess I was just interested in knowing if these sites met people's expectations. Sometimes you anticipate something so much, you get your hopes up and can be disappointed. Conversely, something can be very awe-inspiring, but it's just sensory overload. You've seen it and there's nothing left to do so that's it.<BR><BR>I'm not sure how official this is, but I just found this Web site that lets you vote for seven new wonders of the world. It seems to be an interesting site anyway:<BR><BR>www.new7wonders.com<BR><BR>So far as my experiences go, I've been to Olympia but was sick as a dog that day. (Four hour busride from Sparta following a night involving way too much retsina, uh!)

Ginger, how interesting about the Iraquis rebuilding Babylon. There are two smallish panels from the original Ishtar gate in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (their ancient near eastern art section is amazing, incidentally, and not as crowded with visitors as some other sections), and there's also a huge section of the Ishtar Gate in a museum in Berlin, which I would love to visit some day. I wonder whether the Iraqui government would like to have them back, sort of like the Elgon (sp?) marbles in the British museum?

For Naturaly Wonders:<BR><BR>I have seen the Grand Canyon (3 times) and feel so lucky to have seen it. I have also seen the Northern Lights twice. The first time was at Girl Scout camp. The second was when I was on the plane last year when flying from east coast to Detroit and the pilot was kind enough to invite everyone to look outside.<BR><BR>Finally, I would like to include Niagra Falls as some type of "wonder". It was very beautiful.

I don't mean to sound like a dolt, but I was under the impression that the Colossus of Rhodes was still there, just under the water. Perhaps one could dive to see it? I'm not sure.<BR><BR>I've seen the Northern Lights from South Dakota. They were faint but they were cool!<BR><BR>Mary :)