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If this wonder were remaining, this
would have been one of the tallest
artifacts in the world. This wonder of
the world was
erected to commemorate the victory of
Rhodians against the Antagonids. Location:
This statue was located in the Harbor of the Mediterranean island Rhodes
in Greece. The Island of Rhodes is
located at the Southwestern tip of the
Asia Minor, where the Aegean sea meets
the Mediterranean.
Details:
This
is a statue of the Sun god, Helios. On
the Island of Rhodes 3 cities Ialysos,
Kamiros and Lindos formed a unified city
with their capital as Rhodes. During the
period around 408 BC they had strong
economic and commercial alliance with
Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt.
In 357 B.C. this island was captured by
Mausolus of Halicarnassus. It was
then captured by Persians in 340 B.C.
Then it fell into the hands of Alexander
the Great in 332 B.C. After Alexander's
death, 3 of his generals succeeded in
dividing the kingdom for themselves.
They are Ptolemy, Seleucus and Antigous.
After this Rhodians supported Ptolemy
which angered Antigous.
Antagonids in 305 BC, wanted to break their alliance and tried invading
Rhodes and found this city to be
impenetrable. Antagonids were fighting
for almost one full year. By this time
the support for Rhodes have started
coming in from Egypt. So Antagonids
started withdrawing their forces and
fled, leaving behind lots of their arms
and ammunitions, which lead to the
construction of one of the seven wonders
of world.
Rhodians sold some of those equipments and to celebrate their victory,
erected a statue for their Sun God,
Helios. Lot of the metals used in this
construction came from the left off
belongings of Antagonids. This is the
Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven
wonders of world.
The construction took 12 years and the stature was erected in 282 BC.
During the earthquake at about 226 BC,
this
Colossus of Rhodes (statue) was damaged and fell down.
When they planned to rebuild it, the
idea was dropped because some Oracle
said the city will face misfortune if
this statue is rebuilt. That was the
final chapter to the story of this
wonder of the world.
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