The ancient wonders and how each was lost, UNESCO World Heritage, famous landmarks of every continent, and the treasures of Pakistan and South Asia.
Some structures are so large, so old or so beautiful that people have been naming them "wonders" for more than 2,000 years. This article tells the story of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, why only one survives, how UNESCO's World Heritage list came about, the great landmarks of each continent, and the treasures of Pakistan and South Asia, including Mohenjo-daro, Taxila, Rohtas Fort and the Lahore Fort. The 2007 "New Seven Wonders" vote has its own article, so here it gets only a short summary.
Wonders, landmarks and heritage sites · the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and how each was lost · the 2007 vote in brief · UNESCO World Heritage · landmarks of the world · the heritage of Pakistan and South Asia · myths corrected · four worked examples · key terms · practice questions and a quiz.
These three terms overlap but are not the same.
The idea of a list of "wonders" (in Greek, theamata, "things to be seen") comes from Greek writers of the Hellenistic era, among them the poet Antipater of Sidon and the engineer Philon of Byzantium, who noted the most impressive sights known to travellers around the Mediterranean and the Near East. The number seven was popular in the ancient world, and the list became fixed at seven. Only one of the seven survives.
Built for the pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) about 2560 BC, it is the oldest of the seven and the only one still standing. It was originally about 147 m high and is about 139 m today, because its smooth outer casing and the very top have been lost. It is estimated to contain about 2.3 million blocks of stone, and for roughly 3,800 years it was the tallest human-made structure in the world, until the spire of Lincoln Cathedral in England was completed in 1311.
Later writers described terraced gardens built by King Nebuchadnezzar II about 600 BC, but no archaeological remains have ever been confirmed, and ancient accounts disagree. Some scholars, such as the Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley, suggest the gardens described were actually in the Assyrian city of Nineveh, built by King Sennacherib. Historians still debate whether they existed as described.
A huge marble temple to the goddess Artemis, begun about 550 BC. It was burned down in 356 BC by a man named Herostratus who wanted fame, rebuilt on a grander scale, and finally destroyed, traditionally by the Goths in AD 262. Only the foundations and one re-erected column remain.
A seated statue about 12 m high made by the sculptor Phidias, around 435 BC, from ivory and gold over a wooden frame. It stood in the temple at Olympia, where the ancient Olympic Games were held. It was lost sometime in late antiquity, probably in the 5th century AD.
The tomb of Mausolus, ruler of the region of Caria, built around 350 BC. Its name gave us the word mausoleum. Earthquakes brought it down over the centuries, and in the 1400s the Knights of St John used its stones to build a castle at Bodrum.
A bronze statue of the sun god Helios, about 33 m high, completed about 280 BC to celebrate the island's survival of a siege. It was toppled by an earthquake around 226 BC, after standing for only about 54 years. Its broken pieces lay there for centuries.
Built on the island of Pharos about 280 BC, it was one of the tallest structures in the world, reaching about 100 m or more according to ancient accounts. It guided ships for centuries until earthquakes damaged it in 956, 1303 and 1323. In 1477 the Sultan of Egypt built Qaitbay Fort on the site, using stones from the lighthouse.
Question: Cleopatra died in 30 BC. Was she closer in time to the building of the Great Pyramid (about 2560 BC) or to the Moon landing (AD 1969)?
Step 1. From the pyramid to Cleopatra: 2560 − 30 = 2,530 years.
Step 2. From Cleopatra to the Moon landing: 30 + 1969 = 1,999, minus 1 because there is no year 0, so about 1,998 years.
Answer: She lived about 2,500 years after the pyramid, but only about 2,000 years before the Moon landing, so she was closer in time to the Moon landing.
In 2007 a private foundation called New7Wonders held a worldwide public vote and announced a new list: the Great Wall of China, Petra, the Colosseum, Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal and Christ the Redeemer, with the Great Pyramid of Giza as an honorary candidate. The vote was not run by UNESCO. The full story, with maps, timelines and each site in depth, is in our article The Seven Wonders of the World.
UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) adopted the World Heritage Convention in 1972, and the first sites were listed in 1978. Today the list has more than 1,200 sites in about 170 countries. Sites fall into three groups: cultural (such as temples and ancient cities), natural (such as national parks and coral reefs) and mixed. A site can also be placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger if it is threatened by war, disaster, neglect or development.
Being listed does not make a site belong to UNESCO. It remains the responsibility of the country where it is located, but listing brings international attention, expertise and sometimes funding for protection.
| Landmark | Where | Date | Why it is famous |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eiffel Tower | Paris, France | 1889 | Iron tower built for the 1889 World's Fair; about 330 m high with its antennas |
| Parthenon | Athens, Greece | 447–432 BC | Temple of Athena on the Acropolis |
| Stonehenge | Wiltshire, England | About 3000–2000 BC | Prehistoric circle of standing stones |
| Hagia Sophia | Istanbul, Türkiye | AD 537 | Built as a cathedral under Emperor Justinian, later a mosque, with a huge dome |
| Leaning Tower of Pisa | Pisa, Italy | From 1173 | A bell tower that began to lean during construction because of soft ground |
| Sagrada Família | Barcelona, Spain | From 1882 | Gaudí's basilica, still under construction |
| Great Sphinx | Giza, Egypt | About 2500 BC | A lion-bodied statue carved from a single outcrop of limestone |
| Abu Simbel | Southern Egypt | 13th century BC | Rock temples of Ramesses II, moved to higher ground in the 1960s to save them from flooding by the Aswan High Dam |
| Angkor Wat | Cambodia | Early 12th century | Vast Hindu-Buddhist temple complex, the largest religious monument in the world |
| Forbidden City | Beijing, China | 1406–1420 | Palace complex of Chinese emperors for about 500 years |
| Mount Fuji | Japan | Natural | Sacred volcano, 3,776 m |
| Burj Khalifa | Dubai, UAE | Opened 2010 | The world's tallest building, about 828 m |
| Statue of Liberty | New York, USA | Dedicated 1886 | A gift from France, designed by Bartholdi |
| Mount Rushmore | South Dakota, USA | 1927–1941 | Giant sculpture of four US presidents |
| Golden Gate Bridge | San Francisco, USA | 1937 | Suspension bridge over the entrance to San Francisco Bay |
| Sydney Opera House | Sydney, Australia | 1973 | Designed by Jørn Utzon; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007 |
| Uluru | Northern Territory, Australia | Natural | Huge sandstone rock, sacred to the Anangu people |
Question: The Burj Khalifa is about 828 m tall and the Great Pyramid is about 139 m tall today. How many times taller is the Burj Khalifa?
Step 1. Divide: 828 ÷ 139 ≈ 5.96.
Answer: About 6 times taller. Some very tall modern buildings are so much taller than ancient wonders that the pyramid held the "tallest" title for thousands of years, until about the 14th century.
Tap any wonder below for quick facts you can use to check your memory.
Tap a wonder above to see its key facts.
Pakistan has six UNESCO World Heritage Sites, all cultural.
| Site | Province | Listed | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro (Mohenjo-daro) | Sindh | 1980 | A planned city of the Indus Valley Civilisation, built about 2500 BC, with a street grid and drains |
| Taxila | Punjab | 1980 | An ancient city in the Gandhara region, with Buddhist monasteries and stupas, on trade routes between South and Central Asia |
| Buddhist Ruins at Takht-i-Bahi | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | 1980 | A hilltop Buddhist monastery complex from about the 1st century AD |
| Fort and Shalimar Gardens, Lahore | Punjab | 1981 | Mughal-era fort and a terraced garden laid out in 1641–42 |
| Historical Monuments at Makli, Thatta | Sindh | 1981 | One of the world's largest funerary sites, with tombs from the 14th to 18th centuries |
| Rohtas Fort | Punjab | 1997 | A huge fortress built by Sher Shah Suri, begun in 1541 |
Mohenjo-daro is among the best known. It was one of the largest cities of the Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilisation, which flourished in what is now Pakistan and north-west India about 4,500 years ago. Excavations began in the 1920s. Its straight streets, brick houses and covered drains show advanced town planning, and its writing has still not been deciphered.
Other famous buildings in Pakistan include the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore (built 1671–73 under the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb), the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore, which commemorates the 1940 Lahore Resolution, and the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, completed in 1986, whose four 90 m minarets make it one of the most recognisable modern buildings in the country.
| Site | Country | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Taj Mahal and Agra Fort | India | Mughal buildings, both World Heritage Sites since 1983 |
| Ajanta and Ellora Caves | India | Rock-cut Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples; some from over 2,000 years ago |
| Red Fort Complex, Delhi | India | Mughal fortress-palace built in the 1600s |
| Sundarbans | Bangladesh | The world's largest mangrove forest and home of the Bengal tiger |
| Sigiriya | Sri Lanka | A 5th-century rock fortress and palace |
| Lumbini | Nepal | Traditional birthplace of the Buddha |
Question: If Mohenjo-daro was built about 2500 BC, about how many years ago was that, in 2026?
Step 1. Add the BC year to the current year: 2500 + 2026 = 4,526.
Step 2. Subtract 1, because there is no year 0 between 1 BC and AD 1: 4,525.
Answer: About 4,500 years ago, nearly as old as the Great Pyramid.
A very popular story told to tourists in Egypt.
The fix: Drawings of the Sphinx made decades before Napoleon's arrival in 1798 already show the nose missing. Medieval writers described its damage, and some accounts blame a 14th-century religious zealot. Napoleon's troops did not cause it.
This idea appears in films and popular books.
The fix: Archaeologists have found the remains of a workers' town near the Giza pyramids, with bakeries, housing and tombs. Evidence suggests the builders were organised Egyptian labour teams who were fed and cared for, and some were buried near the pyramids with honour. The exact organisation is still being studied.
They appear on every list of the ancient wonders.
The fix: No archaeological remains of the gardens have ever been confirmed in Babylon, and the ancient descriptions were written long after they were supposed to exist. Some historians think the gardens are a real place described incorrectly, perhaps in Nineveh, and others think they are partly legend.
Question: If the Great Pyramid has about 2.3 million blocks and took about 27 years, how many blocks were placed per year, and per day?
Step 1. Per year: 2,300,000 ÷ 27 ≈ 85,200.
Step 2. Per day: 85,200 ÷ 365 ≈ 233.
Answer: About 85,000 blocks a year, or more than 230 a day, on average. (These are estimates, because both the number of blocks and the building time are uncertain.)
When a heritage site is damaged, for example by an earthquake, flood or war, the world often helps to rebuild it. The 1960s rescue of the Abu Simbel temples, which were cut into blocks and moved to higher ground before the Aswan High Dam flooded the valley, helped inspire the creation of UNESCO's World Heritage Convention.
The word "mausoleum" comes from the name of Mausolus, the ruler for whom the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was built. We still use his name for any grand tomb, including the Taj Mahal.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Wonder | A structure named on a famous list of remarkable works |
| Landmark | An easily recognised structure or place that identifies a city or country |
| World Heritage Site | A place listed by UNESCO as having outstanding value for all humanity |
| Mausoleum | A grand building made as a tomb |
| Necropolis | A large cemetery or "city of the dead" |
| Stupa | A dome-shaped Buddhist shrine |
| Indus Valley Civilisation | The Bronze Age urban civilisation of the Indus basin, also called the Harappan civilisation |
Try each question first, then tap it to reveal the answer.
The Great Pyramid of Giza.
An earthquake, about 226 BC.
Mausoleum.
Any three of: Mohenjo-daro, Taxila, Takht-i-Bahi, Lahore Fort and Shalimar Gardens, Makli, Rohtas Fort.
Sher Shah Suri, beginning in 1541.
Drawings made before Napoleon's arrival in 1798 already show the nose missing.
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Suggested activities: have students build a card for each ancient wonder showing what it was, when it was built, and how it was lost; locate Pakistan's six World Heritage Sites on a map; make a classroom model of Mohenjo-daro's street grid. Discussion prompts: Why do old structures disappear? What should countries do to protect their heritage? Dates for ancient structures are approximate and sometimes disputed, so the article uses "about" and "traditionally". This article is general education for students up to age 18.
10 questions. Select an answer for each, then submit to see your score instantly.