Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages:
Today we’re discussion on the seven wonders of the world.we covered what are considered the ancient wonders, all based around Greece and Turkey and the Mediterranean.
Today, we’re diving into seven wonders of the quote unquote middle ages. Some of these may be very ancient as well but it wasn’t until people began to actually travel the world that this list could be compiled. There isn’t a single author of this list but these are the seven wonders from this era that are mostly represented on various lists.
We begin in Rome, with the Colosseum, builtin around 70 AD. This giant amphitheater could hold around50 to 80 thousand spectators at once, for all sorts of entertainment. It was known for gladiator contests and mockbattles that were almost like a theater performance.
Occasionally they’d also hold executionsor other spectacles for mass audiences. The name Colosseum came from the Colossusof Rhodes, for its immense size. Colossal is still used today as an adjectivein this way. While the colosseum has been wrecked by earthquakesover the years, most of it still stands and it is one of Rome’s most popular touristattractions. Also in Italy, we head to the city of Pisato visit the Leaning Tower.
This 185 foot tall (or 55 meter tall) bell tower was not intended to be leaning but as the construction progressed, soft soil led tothe foundation sinking. They corrected what they could but ultimately the tower was left leaning at a 5 degree angle. It’s unproven who actually built the tower but continual efforts are being made to maintain the tower and restore its exterior. It’s even open to the public now that you can climb the interior staircase, for a small fee. We now head to China, for the Great Wall.
This massive fortification runs about 13,000 miles from end to end, though not all of it is still standing, many sections have fallena part. Why was the wall built? Some sections were especially focused on protectionagainst raids and attackers, though later sections were built as almost border controls,to be able to control who was entering and leaving the country when trade and commerce world wide became possible.
This is a massive undertaking and it took about 2,000 years for the entire thing to be completed, though empires built it little by little, with huge gaps in between. The latest sections were built in the 1600s. Contrary to popular belief, the Great Wallis not visible from space though it is still quite impressive to see in person.
China has a second world wonder, the PorcelainTower of Nanjing. This pagoda was about nine stories tall andwas planned to be built larger but the original tower was mostly destroyed during the Taiping-rebellion in the 1800s. It was built with white porcelain bricks that reflected sunlight. While the original was destroyed, there isa life-size replica that stands today in Nanjing, built because of a donation of $156 millionin US dollars.
This was donated by one single donor and is the largest single donation in Chinese history. We now travel to Instanbal, Turkey to discussthe Hagia Sophia. This building was originally built as a churchand cathedral and for a long time was the largest cathedral in the world, for nearly 1,000 years. It’s said to have changed the history of architecture forever and people still flock to it to take it all in.
Over the course of time, it’s also changed purposes many times from Christian and Catholic church to mosque and back again, based onwho was ruling the region. It now stands as a museum for all to enterand enjoy, no longer serving any religious purpose. Not everyone is happy about this though, drawing protests and petitions from people that want it rededicated as a church and those that want it rededicated as a mosque. For this next wonder, we go back to Egypt,to the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa.
This series of tombs, also called a necropolis,is from after the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman worlds collided, as all three cultures influencethe statues and decorations of this space. It was seemingly meant for only one family and slowly expanded to include other families and even animals, including an entire roomfor the bones of horses that faithfully served their master, the Emperor Caracalla in 215AD.
These catacombs are still being excavatedand researched, some of it being inaccessible and some being under water. Our last wonder for this list takes us to England, where we find Stonehenge. This monument features 13 foot high statues arranged in a circle. It was believed to be built as early as 3000BC, meaning it’s stood now for over 5,000 years. “Why isn’t this on the ancient wonder list?”
you ask. Again, that list was created by the Mediterranean people and consisted of only regional land marks, so they wouldn’t know of other monuments like this one. In terms of the site’s purpose, it’s mostly believed to be a burial site and place for celebration of the dead. Many researchers have studied this site and the various steps in its creation, down to indentations in the ground and remnants of stones and trees that no longer exist. Some restoration has been done in the last hundred years, helping to right stones that have fallen and put things back into their supposed places. As a tourist, you can visit the stones and look from afar or you can try to schedule a special access tour that allows very small groups to cautiously walk amongst the site itself. And that is it for our seven wonders of the middle ages!
Seven Wonders of the Modern Era:
This list is much more about changing the way the world works and technical innovation, as opposed to art or beauty.
This list was compiled in 1994 by the American Society of Civil Engineers, a world wide organization and expert in ground breaking civil engineering. I’ve decided to use their list to focuson today. We begin our tour in Panama, with the Panama Canal. Before this invention, ships had to travel around the tip of South America and it was dangerous traveling.
Several countries contributed to building an artificial water way that cut through Panama, starting with the French in the late 1800s. It is said that over 20,000 men died in this attempt from disease and accidents. United States President Roosevelt led the charge of taking over the venture, which was then seen by some as an act of war on Colombia, who controlled Panama at the time.
There’s a lot of story here that I won’t cover but even tually the canal opened in 1914 and is considered the largest construction effort ever by the United States, costing over $9 billion dollars in today’s currency. The canal runs roughly 50 miles and includess everal artificial lakes and locks that can be used to adjust water levels and to allow travel through.
This under water tunnel connects the United Kingdom with northern France and travels for 31 miles underwater. It was finished in 1994, after many many years of debate. Surveying for this tunnel began back in themid 1800s but there were always concerns, including how enemy forces could use tunnels like this for invasion.
With the invent of air travel, those concernsd windled with time. Instead of distance, let’s start looking at height. We first go to Toronto, Canada and look atthe CN Tower. It was the world’s tallest tower until 2009,when it was just recently over taken. It stands at 1,813 feet high or 553 meters. Today it’s the third tallest tower and the tallest in the western hemisp here.
The tower is lit extensively, often matching up with holidays and other significant events. The function of the tower is to broadcast various things, such as radio and television signals. More recently, cell phone providers have also begun using the tower as well. There are two modern era wonders in the United States itself.
The first being the Empire State Buildingin New York City, standing at 1,250 feet, or 380 meters. The construction required about 3,000 workers at a time and took only a few years but it resulted in the first building in the world with over 100 stories. 85 of these stories are commercial and office space that is rentable, the above stories are the observation decks and the hollow inside of the spire. Visiting this observation deck is almost required viewing for New York visitors.
We now head to the other side of the country to San Francisco in California, for the Golden Gate Bridge. This bridge, when it opened, was the longestand tallest suspension bridge in the world. It took about five years to build but is still being continuously renovated and repainted.
The bridge has also recently been out fitted with moveable barriers that can help manage traffic during peak hours, changing which lanes are dedicated to which directions. The bridge also unfortunately is known fora high amount of suicides so there are suicide barriers being installed to catch potential jumpers, which will take around 4 years to install and $200 million. We now venture down to the barrier of Brazil and Paraguay, to the Itaipu Dam.
This massive hydroelectric power plant createsa massive amount, breaking records in 2016 and producing the most energy out of all the hydroelectric dams in the world. About 3,000 employees work at the dam, whichproduces 103 million megawatt hours in 2016. The dam started running in 1984 but a massive expansion in 2007 allowed for more capacity. On the down side, over 10,000 families living in this area were displaced when the dam was constructed.
Our last wonder of the modern era takes usto the Netherlands. There was a historic problem of flooding,with many areas with low coastlines. Two projects were undertaken, the Delta Worksand the Zuiderzee Works. These projects hoped to solve the flooding problems by building dams and by creating new land masses, called Polders, where they would dam an area and then remove the water.
This complex process through out the Netherlands resulted in a unique way to control flooding and remove some serious risks. The Zuiderzee Works began first in the 1920s and lasted through the 60s, while the Delta Works process began in the 1950s and the last project concluded in the 1990s. And that's it! Our look through the seven wonders of the world, through both ancient world, middle ages, and then today's modern era. So we've covered a lot and hope fully you found this interesting.
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