Start hereAntipater of Sidon saw six famous sights, then the Temple of Artemis, and wrote that the others lost their brilliancy. Today little remains of that temple. So what is left of the rest?
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were famous buildings and statues on lists made by ancient Greek writers. Only one still stands: the Great Pyramid of Giza. A few of the others have pieces in museums or on their old sites. Two are known to us only from what ancient writers said about them.
Who made the list
There was never one fixed list: ancient writers named different wonders.
For example, think of a “best places to visit” list today. Everyone agrees on the idea, but the entries change from writer to writer.
One of the first known lists was made by Antipater of Sidon, in a short poem kept in the collection known as the Greek Anthology. His list starts with the walls of Babylon, the statue of Zeus by the river Alpheus and the hanging gardens. Then come the colossus of the Sun, the pyramids, the tomb of Mausolus and the temple of Artemis. There is no lighthouse in his poem.
Later, the walls of Babylon were replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria, and that version became the standard list. The seven cards below follow that standard list.
What about an eighth wonder? No ancient list we read had a fixed eighth. Later Christian writers added their own wonders, such as Noah’s Ark, the Temple of Solomon and the Hagia Sophia. According to Livius, the joke that a building ought to be called “the eighth wonder” was first made by Cassiodorus, in the sixth century, who called the whole city of Rome one wonder. Livius adds that the poet Martial had already called Rome’s Colosseum the world’s one truly amazing building.
Our reading: if you have seen a list of eight, the extra one may be the walls of Babylon, from Antipater’s older list, or a later writer’s favourite.
How sure: Strong Antipater’s poem survives, and his list is not the standard one.
The one you can still visit
Only the Great Pyramid can still be seen standing.
1. The Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid is the only ancient wonder still standing.
UNESCO calls the Great Pyramid of Khufu “the only surviving wonder of the ancient world”. It is part of the World Heritage Site called Memphis and its Necropolis.
Not every ancient writer was impressed by it. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder called the pyramids “idle and frivolous pieces of ostentation” by the kings of Egypt. Even so, he wrote that the renown of the three pyramids by the Nile “has filled the whole earth”.
Our reading: a wonder was a matter of taste, even for ancient writers.
How sure: Strong the pyramid is still there to see.
Gone, but with pieces you can see
Four wonders are gone, but stones, statues or a workshop from each can still be seen or studied.
For example, it is like finding the foundations of an old house. You cannot walk in, but you can see where it stood.
2. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The Mausoleum was a grand tomb, and its name gave us the word “mausoleum”.
Pliny says the tomb was built by Artemisia in honour of her husband Mausolus, “a petty king of Caria”. He names four sculptors, one for each side: Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus and Leochares. He adds that Artemisia died before they finished, and that they stayed on to complete it for their own fame. In his telling, it was through these artists that the tomb came to be counted among the Seven Wonders.
A huge seated statue from the Mausoleum is in the British Museum, which says it “may be Maussollos himself”. The museum’s record says it was excavated by Charles Thomas Newton. Archaeology magazine says the tomb now lies in ruins in modern Bodrum, with meagre blocks scattered where it once stood.
Our reading: the tomb no longer stands, but its sculptures survive, and so does its name. A note in the translation we read explains that our word “mausoleum”, meaning a splendid tomb, comes from this one.
How sure: Strong for the sculptures and the word. Who the big statue shows is less certain: the museum says it “may be” Mausolus.
3. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
The temple Antipater liked best of all is now almost entirely gone.
Antipater wrote that when he saw the house of Artemis, “those other marvels lost their brilliancy”. Pliny says it took 120 years to build, with all of Asia joining in. He says a marshy site was chosen so that it would not suffer from earthquakes.
The temple also had a famous fire. The Greek geographer Strabo says an earlier temple was set on fire by a man called Herostratus, and that the citizens then built “another and better one”. Plutarch says the temple of Artemis burned on the day Alexander the Great was born. He passes on a joke by the writer Hegesias of Magnesia: no wonder it burned, since the goddess was busy bringing Alexander into the world. Cicero tells the same story, writing that everybody knew the temple burned on the night Alexander was born. Strabo, citing an earlier writer called Artemidorus, says Alexander later offered to pay for the temple if his name went on the inscription, and the Ephesians said no.
Today, UNESCO says, “little remains” of the temple. Our reading: the most admired wonder is one of the least visible now. More stories about Alexander, set beside the sources, are on our page Alexander the Great: What the Ancient Sources Say About 10 Famous Stories.
How sure: Strong that little is left. Moderate for the stories: both were written down long after the events, and of the writers we read, only Strabo, citing Artemidorus, tells of the offer.
4. The Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Lighthouse is gone, but thousands of stone blocks lie on its site in the harbour.
Strabo describes a tower of white marble, with many storeys, on the island of Pharos. He says it was an offering by Sostratus of Cnidus “for the safety of mariners”. Pliny says its cost was eight hundred talents, “they say”. He says its fires at night warned ships of the shoals nearby.
Its remains are still being studied under water. A press release from the French research agency CNRS says the lighthouse dominated the Mediterranean for nearly 16 centuries, rose to about 103 metres and withstood 18 earthquakes. It says underwater digging began in 1995, and that 4,896 stone blocks have been recorded on the lighthouse site, 4 to 9 metres down. In June 2025, it says, the team lifted some of the largest blocks out of the harbour.
Our reading: the blocks on the site are real and counted, while the height comes from the team’s reconstruction. The city’s famous library has its own page: The Library of Alexandria Was Not Destroyed in One Fire.
How sure: Strong for the blocks on the seabed. Moderate for the height, which is a reconstruction, not a measurement.
5. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The statue does not survive, but the workshop where it was made has been found.
The Greek writer Pausanias describes the god sitting on a throne, made of gold and ivory. He says Zeus held a Victory in his right hand, with an eagle sitting on his sceptre. Strabo names the maker as Pheidias of Athens. He reports a criticism: the seated Zeus almost touched the roof, so that if he stood up he would “unroof the temple”. Archaeology magazine says the statue was moved to a palace in Constantinople in the early fifth century AD, and that a fire destroyed it there in AD 475.
Pausanias also mentions a building outside the sanctuary called “the workshop of Pheidias”, where the statue was made piece by piece. At that site, archaeologists found moulds and tools, and a cup bearing Pheidias’ name.
Our reading: no one can see the statue now, but we know where it was made.
How sure: Strong for the workshop and its finds. Limited for how the statue was lost: we read it in one magazine account and did not trace the older sources behind it.
Known only from writers
Two wonders left nothing we can point to, so everything we know comes from what people wrote.
For example, it is like knowing a famous meal only from old reviews: you can compare the descriptions, but you cannot taste it.
6. The Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus fell in an earthquake, and only descriptions remain.
Pliny says it was a statue of the Sun by Chares of Lindus, seventy cubits tall. He passes on a report that it took twelve years and three hundred talents to make. He says an earthquake threw it down fifty-six years after it was put up. Even lying on the ground it amazed people: few could get their arms round its thumb.
Strabo says it broke at the knees, and that the people did not raise it again because of an oracle.
Did it stand with its legs across the harbour? Both ancient descriptions we read place it at Rhodes, but neither says where in the city it stood, or how it stood. They give its maker, its size and its fall.
How sure: Strong that it fell in an earthquake, since both writers say so. Limited on its pose and exact spot, because the texts we read do not describe them.
7. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
No trace of the Hanging Gardens has been found at Babylon, and scholars disagree about where they were, or whether they existed at all.
In William Whiston’s translation, Josephus quotes the Babylonian writer Berosus: King Nabuchodonosor built “very high walks” and “a pensile paradise” in his palace. Berosus says he did it to please his queen, who had been brought up in Media. The Greek historian Diodorus tells a different story: the garden was built “not by Semiramis, but by a later Syrian king to please one of his concubines”.
The scholar Stephanie Dalley writes that, because the Greek accounts came centuries later, some scholars thought they were fiction. She notes that Herodotus described Babylon without mentioning the garden. She adds that only one author, Josephus, names Nebuchadnezzar as the builder. She argues that the accounts may have mixed up Nebuchadnezzar with Sennacherib, an Assyrian king who ruled around 700 BC, and Babylon with his city of Nineveh. Her book on the question was published in 2013.
Archaeology magazine reports that scholars have found no trace of the garden in Babylon’s ruins or in the cuneiform texts found there. It also describes an aqueduct and canals from Sennacherib’s reign near Nineveh as further evidence for Dalley’s argument that the garden may have been there.
Our reading: the ancient accounts do not agree on who built it, and the place is still argued over.
How sure: Unsettled the old accounts disagree, and Dalley’s Nineveh idea is her own argument.
Where to learn more
- Our page The Library of Alexandria Was Not Destroyed in One Fire, for the other famous sight of the same city.
- Our page Alexander the Great: What the Ancient Sources Say About 10 Famous Stories, for more stories set beside Plutarch and Arrian.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, for the sites at Giza, Ephesus and Olympia today.
- The Perseus Digital Library, where Pliny and Pausanias can be read free in English.
- LacusCurtius, for Strabo, Plutarch and Diodorus in English.
Quick answers
Was there an eighth wonder of the ancient world?
No ancient list we read had a fixed eighth. Antipater's list has the walls of Babylon, which later lists replaced with the Lighthouse of Alexandria, and later writers praised other places as further wonders. Livius says Cassiodorus, in the sixth century, called the whole city of Rome one wonder.
Which of the Seven Wonders still exists?
Only the Great Pyramid of Giza still stands. UNESCO calls it the only surviving wonder of the ancient world.
What is left of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus?
Sculptures from it survive, including a huge seated statue in the British Museum, which says it may be Mausolus himself. The tomb also gave us the word "mausoleum".
Where were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?
No trace of them has been found at Babylon. Berosus, as quoted by Josephus, credits King Nabuchodonosor, Diodorus credits a later Syrian king, and the scholar Stephanie Dalley argues that they may have been Sennacherib's, at Nineveh.
Use this
Our suggestion: three things to try the next time you meet a list of wonders.
Who listed it, and what is left?
Quick quiz
Nothing is scored or saved. Recalling it once now is what makes it last.
1. Which wonder is still standing?
Answer: The Great Pyramid of Giza.Read it again ↑
2. What does Antipater of Sidon's list have instead of the Lighthouse?
Answer: The walls of Babylon.Read it again ↑
3. What was found at the site of the workshop of Pheidias?
Answer: Moulds, tools and a cup bearing his name.Read it again ↑
How we checked this · Last checked November 2026
- We read the ancient writers in older English translations that are free to read online: Pliny and Pausanias on the Perseus Digital Library, Strabo, Plutarch, Cicero and Diodorus on LacusCurtius, Josephus on Project Gutenberg and Antipater's poem in W. R. Paton's translation.
- For what survives today we used UNESCO's World Heritage pages, the British Museum's record of the Mausoleum statue and a CNRS press release on the Lighthouse, which is in French; the English wording is ours.
- For what is left of the Mausoleum, how the statue of Zeus was lost and the search for the Hanging Gardens, we also read the series Secrets of the Seven Wonders in Archaeology magazine (November/December 2025).
- The Library of Alexandria and Alexander the Great have their own pages, so we link to them rather than repeat them.