The Seven Wonders of the World are lists of
the seven most amazing things on Earth- as in, things mankind has created that are considered examples of our greatest feats. Can be considered as
Real Life listings of humanity’s
Crowning Moments. Of course,
Your Mileage May Vary whether they are and if so, which ones. Many of the Wonders have become iconic images across the World today and so show up often in fiction as well; they are often destroyed, animated or stolen. Some can even be considered to be
Trope Makers on their own.
Why seven things? It's
just tradition; the first one, made thousands of years ago, had seven items. Some lists have
"honorary mentions" making them actually longer.
The first lists are now referred to as the Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World one, compiled by
Herodotus (484 – ca. 425 BCE), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca. 305 – 240 BCE) at the Museum of Alexandria. The original term was actually Seven Sights of the World. No copy of either of their writings on these lists have survived, but they were referenced by many other figures in the Middle Ages, allowing us to know to this day the monuments that figured on the lists. They listed the following:
- The Great Pyramid of Giza
- The Hanging Gardens of Babylon*
Their existence are a point of debate in historians, as there are no contemporary accounts or archaeological evidence of the gardens' existences. Multiple theories regarding the origin of the legends have been offered, including that the gardens were confused with the gardens of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (reigned 705 – 681 BC) for his palace at Nineveh, and misattributed to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar II
- The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
- The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
- The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
- The Colossus of Rhodes
- The Lighthouse of Alexandria / The Ishtar Gate*
The earliest lists had the gates. The later, more well known one replaced them with the lighthouse.
Of these,
only The Great Pyramid still stands today. The Ishtar Gate was excavated in 1902 and it has been partially rebuilt at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
It's not rare in fiction (or
Real Life) for something to be declared great by being given the title of "Eighth Wonder of the World". Though, if one were to get technical, the eighth spot is already taken by the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Also note that the lists are not in order of importance.
There are many other examples. Making up Lists of Seven Wonders of (whatever) with real or fictional items, is popular in itself. Many groups and organizations have formed lists of Seven Wonders of the Medieval/Modern/Natural world, though none of them are held as "official" the way the list of Wonders of the Ancient World is.
The Other Wiki has a compilation of
various famous lists of wonders
.
Related Tropes:
