Fun Facts about Wonders of the World
There are many breathtaking wonders of the world, both ancient and modern as well as natural and man-made ones. We have specially compiled this list based on the masterpiece of the skill and handwork of the people of that era in constructing these structures. Keep reading to uncover some of the most fascinating things you may or may have not heard of.
1. Built 4000 years ago, the Great Pyramid, is the only wonder of the ancient world that is still standing today.
2. At the time of its construction, the Colosseum had the capacity to host about 80,000 spectators and 80 entrances.
3. The Colosseum bore witness to a lot of brutalities; sea battles, animal hunts, executions, and mythological dramas were just some of the public spectacles held at the Colosseum.
4. The Great Wall of China was not just a wall but a kind of fortification with watchtowers and trenches, built at intervals as protection from enemy forces.
5. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was supposedly built by the biblical King Nebuchadnezzar, around 600 BC.
6. There is no firsthand evidence that the Hanging Gardens ever existed, although Greek historians Strabo and Diodorus claim to have witnessed it.
7. The burning down of the temple of Artemis is usually described as an act of arson by a man named Herostratus, who set fire to the wooden roof beams, seeking fame at any cost; thus the term the ‘herostratic fame’.
8. The Ephesians had Herostratus sentenced to death and even forbade anyone from mentioning his name.
9. The world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled caldera is the Ngorongoro Crater which is located in Tanzania.
10. The table Mountain that is located in Cape Town, South Africa is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and is known to have awe-inspiring views of Cape Town at the top.
11. Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia is the deepest lake in the world and it is bigger by volume than all the Great Lakes of America combined. The lake is so deep that you could stack three Empire State Buildings on top of the other and it will not still come out of the surface.
12. Pompeii in Italy is one of the world’s wonders that have a sorrowful background. It has been lost for almost 1,700 years after Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79.
13. Mount Everest in Nepal is widely known as the world’s tallest mountain. It is of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and is over 60 million years old.
14. Stonehenge in England is a British wonder that is mystical at the same time. There is still an unsolved mystery of how the giant stones came to be transported to the Salisbury Plains.
15. In Greek and Roman historical tradition, the destruction of the temple of Artemis coincided with the birth of the Macedonian King, Alexander the Great.
16. When Alexander the Great offered to rebuild the temple of Artemis, the Ephesians rejected the offer and claimed that a god cannot build a temple for another god.
17. The Great pyramid of Giza houses the tomb of Khufu, the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh.
18. The Great Pyramid was the tallest building in the world for 3,800 years and was originally 146.6 meters in height but it is now 138.8 meters.
19. Jeju Island is a volcanic island located off the coast of the Korean Peninsula that has outstanding natural assets, which include the finest lava tube system on the planet.
20. The Sahara Desert is the largest desert on Earth, covering a large area that is roughly equivalent to the size of the USA.
21. The stones used to build Machu Picchu protected the place from earthquakes and would ‘dance’ if the earthquakes came and then fall back into place once the tremors subsided.
22. Half of the city of Petra, Jordan is carved into a rock that is pink in color, giving the place its nickname, Rose City.
23. The statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is the largest sculpture of the art deco style in the world.
24. Couples can wed in the chapel at the base of the Christ the Redeemer statue as it was declared a sanctuary in 2006 by the Catholic Church.
25. The official length of the Great Wall of China is 21,196.18 km. However, nearly one-third of the Great Wall has disappeared over time.
26. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was a tomb built for Mausolus, a Persian Governor, and his sister-wife, Artemisia II.
27. The beauty of the Mausoleum was not only in the structure itself but in the decorations and statues that adorned the outside at different levels on the podium and the roof.
28. It has been estimated that around 400,000 workers who had died building the Great Wall of China were buried in its very foundation.
29. In Venezuela, there is a waterfall known as Angel Falls which is the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world at 3,212 feet.
30. The Terracotta Warriors of Xi’an, China is an archeological wonder that is made up of 2,200-year-old terracotta figures found in 1974, lying buried near the tomb of the first emperor of China.
31. The Grand Canyon of Arizona, USA is North America’s greatest natural wonder and it measures 277 miles long and 18 miles in width.
32. There is a huge sacred site for Anangu Aboriginals who were the custodians of Australia known as Uluru in the Northern Territory of Australia.
33. Instead of cement or sand, the workers building the Great Wall used a batter made of rice flour to bind the blocks and bricks.
34. The Taj Mahal monument is regarded as the epitome of love and was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
35. It took 17 years, 22,000 laborers, stonecutters, painters, embroidery artists, and 1000 elephants to complete the Taj Mahal.
36. The construction of the Taj Mahal temple cost the equivalent of US$827 million today.
37. Most of the wonders of the Ancient world were actively constructed, built, and rebuilt by Greeks.
38. The second Sino-Japanese war between China and Japan was fought during the late 1930s near the Great Wall. It is said that certain sections of the wall still have bullet holes from the war.
39. There are watch holes and shooting holes in the wall, which allowed archers to shoot at the enemies strategically.
40. The Great Wall eventually did little to defend the Ming dynasty. The Manchu dynasty crossed the Great Wall and laid conquest on Beijing in the mid17th century, thus marking the end of the Ming dynasty.
41. Alexandria, the city where the lighthouse of Pharos is located, was named after Alexander the Great who conquered the area and made this city an important part of his empire.
42. Pharos became the etymological origin of the word “lighthouse” in Greek and other Romance languages.
43. Julius Caesar, in his book “Civil War” (Part III, 111–112), describes the Pharaohs and their strategic importance: as gaining control of the lighthouse helped him subdue Ptolemy XIII’s armies.
44. The Sphinx is a formidable creature, with the body of a lion and the head of a woman; famously known for guarding the pyramids of Egypt.
45. As an act of jealousy as a result of the devotion of the Egyptian peasants towards the Great Sphinx, Sa’im al-Dahr destroyed the nose of the Sphinx in 1378 CE and was executed for vandalism.
46. The Colossus at Rhodes was the tallest statue ever seen in ancient times and was a depiction of the Greek sun god, Helios. It was made from iron and bronze.
47. The Colossus statue only lasted a short time of 54 years and snapped at the knees after an earthquake.
48. The structure of the Chichen Itza consists of 91 steps on each side which when totaled with the final step of the temple, equals the number of days in one year, i.e., 365 days.
49. The Yellowstone National Park in northwestern Wyoming, United States, is famous for its incredible geothermal features including more than 10,000 geothermal sites in the park.
50. The Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is a mythical landscape and is believed to be a place where dragons came here to protect the people from marauding armies.
51. The Northern Lights of Norway are caused by activity on the surface of the sun and this rare wonder starts out as a milky color before deepening into greens and sometimes even pinks and purples in the sky.
52. The Sydney Opera House, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia is a man-made world wonder which is a multi-venue performing arts center that is designed to look like the sails of a boat.
53. The desolate and arid yet beguilingly beautiful Namib Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world that is famed for its vivid red and orange sand dunes and white salt pans.
54. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is the world’s tallest building and is truly a modern world wonder with a height of 828 meters and 163 floors (the highest number of floors in the world).
55. The world-famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is the most famous wrought iron structure and symbol of Paris and welcomes around seven million visitors each year.
56. The Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco, California, USA is one of the world’s most photogenic bridges and was the longest bridge in the world until 1964.
57. The Niagara Falls of Canada and the USA is a geological wonder that marks the border between Ontario in Canada and New York in the United States.
58. The Victoria Falls of Zambia and Zimbabwe is another famous geological wonder which is classed as the largest waterfall in the world at 5,604 feet wide.
59. St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City is the cradle of Catholicism and one of the largest churches in the world. It was built upon the burial site of Saint Peter who was the first Pope and one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ.
60. The Statue of Liberty which is located in New York City, United States is a symbol of freedom and a beacon of hope and was received from the people of France in 1886 as a gift.
61. The Bagan in Myanmar is known to have an otherworldly beauty and history and is the most concentrated area of Buddhist religious structures in the world.