Other 7th Wonder?

Factual Questions
1

Over in GD, we were talking about the Pyramids & such. I brought up two queries which are really GQ.

  1. I know there were two slightly different ancient lists of the “7 Wonders” and they differed by one item. I think the better known list had the hanging gardens, whilst the other list had some Temple or other. Anyone?

  2. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man made structure until about a hundred years ago (the Eiffel tower)- or was the Lighthouse- Pharos at Alexandria taller while it was up?

2
  1. that’s tough. I would think that the great wall of China is what is on some lists and missing from some others. The list was originally made by the Greeks back in the day, and as far as I know, they didn’t know about the Great Wall, but it was later added? Can’t cite that for sure, but this was discussed in a book I’m currently reading: “Don’t Know Much About Geograpy”
    (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?cds2Pid=1480&isbn=0380713799)
  2. The pyramid was taller than the lighthouse, I’m pretty sure
3

Well, since the Original list were compiled by the Ancient Greeks, I doubt the Great Wall woudl have been there. But I’ll admit I am stymied.

4

Wikipedia says the original seventh wonder was the walls of Babylon, and the Lighthouse was a medieval addition. The list was compiled by Antipater of Sidon.

It also mentions some earlier lists from Herodotus and Callimachus of Cyrene which have not survived.

5

ok, here goes.
The list from that book I was mentioning:

Pyramids of Giza (built 4600 years ago and 482 feet, now eroded to 450)
Hanging Gardens of Babylon (built 4000 years ago at 328 feet)
Zues at Olympia (built about 435 B.C and 40 feet tall, made of ivory and gold)
Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus (built about 323 B.C.)
Tomb of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus (I’ve never really heard of this one before… but says it was built around 353 B.C.)
Colossus of Rhodes (built in 312 B.C. was rumored to be big enough to sail boats between it’s legs, but that’s not true. 105 feet)
Pharos Lighthouse (270 B.C. at 440 feet)

According to the book, those are the orignal wonders.

He mentions that equally great wonders at the time were the Great Wall of China and the Persian capital of Persepolis.

6

This may have been true in the 19[sup]th[/sup] century but it wasn’t true in the 16[sup]th[/sup]; The spire at Lincoln Cathedral was 524ft high and blew down in a great storm of 1548.

SF worldbuilding at
http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html