When was colossus of rhodes destroyed

If the statue had been built with Helios' legs straddling the harbour, the harbour would have had to be closed for the 12 years of construction. It would also have blocked the harbour when it fell. Charles of Lindos was the architect of the Colossus of Rhodes. His teacher was Lysippus, a sculptor who had previously created a 60 foot tall statue of Zeus. The Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed in an earthquake in BC, but pieces of the statue lay where it fell for centuries afterwards.

The Rhodians refused. They believed that Helios himself was angered by the statue and caused the earthquake that destroyed it. The Rhodians were conquered by the Arabs in the 7th century A.

The Arabs dismantled what was left of the Colossus and sold it as scrap metal. Rhodes lies along the southeastern rim of the Aegean Islands. Its port, also named Rhodes, is located on the northern tip. At the time the Colossus was built, the port was an important stop on the trade routes linking Greek cities in Asia Minor—such as Miletus—with the wealth of Egypt, ruled by the Greek Ptolemies.

In the third century B. Rhodes had close links with Alexandria, founded a century before by Alexander the Great. At the end of the fourth century B. Formidable sailors and skilled diplomats, the Rhodians would not renounce their ties with the Egyptians.

Antigonus did his utmost to persuade them to take his side, and when they refused, he decided to use force. Antigonus sent his son Demetrius to subdue Rhodes in B. Protected by metal plates and armed with catapults, this fearsome weapon failed to bring victory to Demetrius. Rhodes stood strong, and Demetrius withdrew after an unsuccessful, yearlong siege. Rhodes and Macedonia agreed that the Rhodians would back Antigonus against his enemies except Ptolemy.

In exchange, they would remain politically and economically autonomous. In gratitude for withstanding the siege, the inhabitants of Rhodes decided to build an extraordinary statue in honor of Helios. In Greek mythology, Helios was one of the Titans, the gods who ruled over Greece before the Olympians.

Lord of the sun, Helios drove his chariot across the sky each day. The island of Rhodes was sacred to him, and he its patron deity. To build the massive statue, Rhodes needed bronze, and a lot of it. Chares of Lindos, a Rhodian sculptor, was commissioned to construct the monument. Respected across the Greek world, he was a pupil of the famous sculptor Lysippus, a favorite artist of Alexander the Great.

Chares may have conceived his commission with a great statue of Zeus in mind: Sculpted by Phidias for the temple of Zeus at Olympia, this statue was massive, described as being seven times larger than life. Working from to B. Many questions remain as to what exact methods he employed to build it. Work began at the bottom, and the feet were put in place first. However, Philo was writing more than years after the Colossus had been built.

Modern art historians do not know what sources he relied on to gather his information, and many dispute the methodology described in his text. Despite marveling at its size, however, neither source describes what it looked like and where exactly it stood in the port city, omissions that have frustrated historians ever since. What is indisputable is that the Colossus was magnificent.

Most sources agree that when the statue fractured, it broke at the knees. Although Ptolemy III Euergetes of Egypt offered funds and labor to rebuild it, Strabo tells us the Rhodians did not dare to do so as an oracle advised them against it, so the pieces were left where they fell.

Ptolemy III even represented himself as Helios on a coin, wearing a crown denoting rays of the sun. Lying on the ground, the vast remains of this giant were admired for centuries. Lucian of Samosata joked that the Colossus of Rhodes, just like the Pharos of Alexandria, could be seen from the moon. Time eventually ran out for travelers wishing to admire what remained of the great figure of Helios, even in its fallen state. By the middle of the seventh century, the Umayyad Muslims captured much of the eastern Mediterranean.

When their general and future caliph, Muawiyah, conquered Rhodes in A. His forces collected the bronze and sent it to Syria, where it was purchased by a scrap merchant. According to Byzantine sources, more than camels were needed to carry it all away. During the third millennium B. An alloy made of 90 percent copper and 10 percent tin, bronze was easier to cast and stronger than pure copper.

Early Greek bronze statues were simple designs made by separately hammering sheets of the metal into shape and riveting them to one another. By the fifth century B. Bronze-smiths, like those depicted on this fifth-century B. Ptolemy's offer was declined. For almost a millennium, the statue lay broken in ruins. In AD , the Arabs invaded Rhodes. They disassembled the remains of the broken Colossus and sold them to a Jew from Syria. It is said that the fragments had to be transported to Syria on the backs of camels.

Let us clear a misconception about the appearance of the Colossus. It has long been believed that the Colossus stood in front of the Mandraki harbour , one of many in the city of Rhodes, straddling its entrance. Given the height of the statue and the width of the harbour mouth, this picture is rather impossible than improbable.

Moreover, the fallen Colossus would have blocked the harbor entrance. Recent studies suggest that it was erected either on the eastern promontory of the Mandraki harbour, or even further inland. In any case, it never straddled the harbor entrance. Although we do not know the true shape and appearance of the Colossus of Rhodes, modern reconstructions with the statue standing upright are more accurate than older drawings.

Although it disappeared from existence, the ancient World Wonder inspired modern artists such as French sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi, best known by his famous work, the 'Statue of Liberty' in New York. Today, the Colossus is regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World and a masterpiece of art and engineering.

Helios was the god of the Sun, offspring of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. While it was not specifically the subject of a widespread cult across Greece, many people, including Socrates, would greet the Sun and offer prayers each day, as we are informed by Plato's Symposium and other works. Helios was particularly worshiped in Rhodes. The choice of bronze, an alloy between copper and iron was chosen with care to build the Colossus. Stronger than iron, it can resist extreme weather conditions.

It is therefore well suited to manufacture statues to be exposed to the elements outside, and in particular to sea air laden with salt. In order to build the Colossus, the military equipment abandoned on the ground by Demetrios Poliorketes , after he was defeated, was sold. Undoubtedly other funding had to be found as well, but it is not known in what proportion it was or who contributed it.

Gadouras Dam: solving the important and crucial water supply problems of the wider Rhodes urban area. Until the major part of the island of Rhodes was supplied with water from a network of wells.

The overuse and excessive exploitation of water resources has resulted in a severe drop of groundwater levels and very soon led to brackish water inflow in several areas of the island.