Top ten wonder in the world

Top Ten Wonder in the in the World............

1-The Great Wall of China

No one The Great Wall of China spans 6,000km across China and is without a doubt one of the most stunning achievements of mankind. Construction of the Great Wall began in the fifth century BC during the Warring States period. It continued to be expanded and strengthened up to the sixteenth century. Chinese states had walled their cities early on and these fractured walls became the starting point for the Great Wall when the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang who unified the Chinese empire, joined these loose structures into what would become the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall Marathon takes place on the Huanyaguan section of the Great Wall in Ji County, in the province of Tianjin, north of Beijing China.

2-Petra Jordan

Petra (from the Latin word 'petrae', meaning 'rock') lies in a great rift valley east of Wadi 'Araba in Jordan about 80 kilometers south of the Dead Sea. It came into prominence in the late first century BCE (BC) through the success of the spice trade. The city was the principal city of ancient Nabataea and was famous above all for two things: its trade and its hydraulic engineering systems. It was locally autonomous until the reign of Trajan, but it flourished under Roman rule. The town grew up around its Colonnaded Street in the first century CE (AD) and by the mid-first century had witnessed rapid urbanization. Following the flow of the Wadi Musa, the city-center was laid out on either sides of the Colonnaded Street on an elongated plan between the theater in the east and the Qasr al-Bint in the west. The quarries were probably opened in this period, and there followed virtually continuous building through the first and second centuries.

3-Christ the Redeemer

Cristo Redentor or Christ the Redeemer is a colossal 32m gigantic statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It sits at the top of the 710m (2330ft) Corcovado mountain, in the Tijuca Forest National Park, overlooking Rio de Janeiro.The idea to put a giant statue at the top of Corcovado can be traced back to the mid 1850s, but was dismissed when Brazil became a republic in 1889, and a law was put in place separating the church from the state.It wasn’t until 1921 that the idea of building a statue was revisited. This time, it was spearheaded by the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, which organised a fund raising for it.Donations came mostly from the Brazilian Catholic community. Among the designs proposed included a cross, a statue of Christ holding a globe, and a pedestal representing the world. Eventually the design of Christ with open arms was chosen. As with many structures from the 1920′s, the statue was designed in the Art Deco style which was all the rage then.Christ the Redeemer statue was sculptured by French sculptor Paul Landowski. Engineer Heitor da Silva Costa oversaw the project. The team of engineers and technicians decided to construct the statue of reinforced concrete, and clad its outer layer in soapstone, which has high resistance to extreme weather. The stones came from Limhamn, in Malmö, Sweden.In October 2006, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the statue, the Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro Cardinal Eusebio Oscar Scheid consecrated a chapel under the statue so that Catholics can hold baptisms and weddings there. The chapel can accommodate 150 people at any one time.

4-Taj Mehal of Agra

Like Taj its history is also very famous. It took around 21 years and 20,000 labors to get Taj Mahal completed. Tajmahal is purely made up of White Marble and variety of ornaments and semi precious stones from all around Asia. Artisit, Sculptors, Calligraphers, Stone cutters were called from Bukhara, Syria, Persia and Baluchistan. It is said that after the construction was over Shahjahn ordered to amputate the hands of the laborers so that they won’t be able to construct any other beautiful site like Tajmahal.At the entrance of Tajmahal is a big building made up of red sandstones called Darwaaza-I- Rauza(Gateway of Tajmahal).As you enter the gate there is a garden called Mughal garden with a long reflecting pool in the center. Generally people have to pass this garden to enter Tajmahal.  Tajmahal is an explicit example of Persian and Mughal architecture. The building is built up on a big wide square base with four minars (minarets) on each side, like in all Persian structures. All these minars are 130ft tall. There are many rooms in Tajmahal and one of the rooms has the grave of Mumtaz Mahal.

5-Hagia Sohipa

Is a great architectural beauty and an important monument both for Byzantine and for Ottoman Empires. Once a church, later a mosque, and now a museum at the Turkish Republic, Hagia Sophia has always been the precious of its time. The mystical city Istanbul hosted many civilizations since centuries, of which Byzantium and Ottoman Empires were both the most famous ones. The city today carries the characteristics of these two different cultures and surely Hagia Sophia is a perfect synthesis where one can observe both Ottoman and Byzantium effects under one great dome.

6-The Hung's Garden of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was located in the east bank of Euphrates, South of Baghdad in Iraq. King Hammurabi was the most famous king of the Babylonian kingdom. Under his rule, the entire kingdom flourished. His son Nebuchadnezzar was the one who built the Hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven marvels of world. Some stories have it that the Hanging Gardens went hundreds of feet into the air, but archaeological explorations have proved it wrong. The gardens did not really hang on the roof using cables or ropes. But derives this name from the fact that it was built on the roof top. According to the popular notion, Nebuchadnezzar built it to alleviate his wife's homesickness. He was married to Amyitis, daughter of the king Medes who seems to have had a passion for mountainous surroundings. Babylon's flat desert-like landscape made her pine for the mountains of Media where she was brought up. So the king decided to build an artificial, terraced hill lushly cultivated with trees and flowering plants. However some attribute this wonder to the Assyrian Queen Semiramis.According to Herodotus, the outer walls of the garden were 80 feet thick, 320 feet high, and 56 miles in length. He said that it was wide enough for a four-horse chariot to turn. Inside the inner walls there were fortresses and temples containing immense statues of solid gold. The Greek geographer Strabo, describes it as , "the garden consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow Hanging garden of Babylon trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt."

However getting the water to the top and also avoiding the wreckage of the foundation once the water was released, posed a serious problem. Devising a workable watering system was more of a challenge than erecting the gardens. Babylon was an arid country and water from the Euphrates River had to be used to irrigate it. A chain pump was used to lift water to each level. A chain pump is two large wheels on top of each other. Buckets are hung on a chain that connects the wheels. The bucket goes into the water then comes up and goes into a new pool. The empty buckets go back into the water to be refilled. The water at the top is then emptied through into a channel gate that is like a artificial stream to water the gardens. Special care had to be taken while watering the garden because the garden ran the risk of collapsing if water were absorbed by the brick columns and foundation supporting the gardens.The ancient accounts on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are scarce. Although several ancient Greek writers describe them, none ever saw them. And, "hanging gardens" was never mentioned on any of the numerous clay-tablet records that archeologists excavated from Babylon. What remains of the famed marvel is red brick rubble. Its estimated lifespan was only a century or so. The chief cause of its destruction was the lack of maintenance.

7-Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria was the first lighthouse in the world. Construction began in 290 BC and took twenty years to complete. When it was done it was the tallest building in the world at the time, except for the Great Pyramid. It was built on the island of Pharos, to help guide trade ships into its busy harbor at Alexandria, Egypt. The lighthouse was damaged by several earthquakes and eventually became an abandoned ruin. In 1994 some of the remains of the lighthouse were discovered by French archaeologists in Alexandria's Eastern Harbor. The Lighthouse at Alexandria is also known as the Pharos of Alexandria.

The city Alexandria was named by Alexander the Great. It was one of 17 cities that he named after himself, but Alexandria was one of the few to survive. It is still a prosperous city today.

Alexander the Great Died in 323 BC. The Lighthouse at Alexandria was built beginning in 290 BC, many years after Alexander the Great's death.

Ptolemy Soter was the ruler of Egypt who decided to build the lighthouse to guide sailors into the port.

In today's money it would have cost about three million dollars to build. In 290 BC it cost 800 talents (the form of money in this time).

It is thought to have been constructed of limestone blocks.

The lowest level of the lighthouse was 100 feet square and 240 feet high. The second level had eight sides and was about 115 feet tall. The third level was a 60 foot high cylinder that had an opening at the top to allow a space where the fire burned to light the way for sailors in the night. On top of this was a statue in honor of Poseidon, the god of the sea.

The Lighthouse at Alexandria was approximately 450 feet tall.

Inside the lighthouse there were stairs that allowed people to climb to the beacon chamber.

It was reported that there was a large mirror inside, possibly made of polished bronze. The purpose of the mirror was to project a beam of light from the reflection of the fire.

It was damaged by three earthquakes. After the last earthquake it was abandoned and fell to ruins. This allowed sailors to see the beam at night. The smoke from the fire was important during the day as it guided sailors during the day. Both the beam of light and the smoke could be seen as far as 100 miles away.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the longest surviving of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The second is the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Lighthouse of Alexandria was the third longest to survive.

In 1480 the last the lighthouse's remaining stone was used to build the Citadel of Qaitbay by the sultan of Egypt Qaitbay. The citadel was built on the same island where the lighthouse once stood.

Julius Caesar mentions the Lighthouse of Alexandria in his writings.

Today the city of Alexandria uses the symbol of the lighthouse on the flag of the Alexandria Governorate as well as on their seal. It also appears on the seal of Alexandria University.

8-Temple of Artemis

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, also known as the Artemesium, was constructed in the mid 6th century BC. It was located in Ephesus (modern Turkey), and was considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Antipater of Sidon included it on his definitive list of monuments, partly because of its size and grandeur, but also because of its location. Its location on the rim of the Greek world helped to provoke admiration to non-Greeks of the vastness of the Greek world.

The Artemesium was built to honor the Greek goddess Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt, by King Croesus of Lydia. The classic Ionic temple was designed and built by Cherisiphron, an architect from Crete, along with his son Metagenes. The location of the temple in Asia Minor was at a commercial crossroads, and therefore attracted a great variety of visitors, with varying religious beliefs. It is because of this that the cult of Artemis that was worshipped here also incorporated elements of worship of other deities, such as Cybele, an earth-mother goddess of the region around Turkey. In fact, the cult statue within the temple was likely reminiscent of this Near-Eastern goddess, featuring several breasts (a symbol of fertility), and portrayed in statuary with legs closed, tapering as a pillar or a sarcophagus.

9-Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls present a spectacular sight of awe-inspiring beauty and grandeur on the Zambezi River, forming the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was described by the Kololo tribe living in the area in the 1800’s as ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ – ‘The Smoke that Thunders’. In more modern terms Victoria Falls is known as the greatest curtain of falling water in the world.Columns of spray can be seen from miles away as, at the height of the rainy season, more than five hundred million cubic meters of water per minute plummet over the edge, over a width of nearly two kilometers, into a gorge over one hundred meters below. The wide, basalt cliff over which the falls thunder, transforms the Zambezi from a placid river into a ferocious torrent cutting through a series of dramatic gorges.Facing the Falls is another sheer wall of basalt, rising to the same height, and capped by mist-soaked rain forest. A path along the edge of the forest provides the visitor prepared to brave the tremendous spray, with an unparalleled series of views of the Falls.One special vantage point is across the Knife-edge Bridge, where visitors can have the finest view of the Eastern Cataract and the Main Falls as well as the Boiling Pot, where the river turns and heads down the Batoka Gorge. Other vantage points include the Falls Bridge and the Lookout Tree, both of which command panoramic views across the Main Falls.

10-Valley of Love-Lost Wonder of the World

This ancient valley is one of the lost wonders of the earth. Valley of love is a mile wide and high. Many controversies revolves revolve around it. It is believed that the valley remained hidden from the eyes of world for many centuries and was built by a mysterious race that now lives in a remote area of Ireland. This valley is more than 3000 years older than the pyramids of Egypt. The only intact structure in this valley referred as ‘Memorial of joy’ is awe inspiring.  This fantastic stone structure has an equally flabbergasting interior which is fully functional to this day.