I am married to my beautiful wife Venus and have a precoscious 'almost five year old' called Daniel...
I am married to my beautiful wife Venus and have a precoscious 'almost five year old' called Danielle. I enjoy travel, and apart from spending alot of time in my wife's home town of Philadelphia I try and vacation as much as possible.
Member since:16.09.2005
Reviews:22
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The colossus of Rhodes was a huge bronze statue around 110 feet in height that stood at the entrance of Rhodes harbour.
Rhodes is one of the three largest greek islands and is located a mere 12 miles off of the coast of Turkey where the Aegean sea meets the Mediterranean.
Being of significant strategic importance the island sparked the interest of many and in 357BC was conquered by Mausolus of Halicarnassus and remained in hs hands until 340BC when it was captured by Persians and captured from them by Alexander the Great in 332BC.
After Alexanders death his vast empire was divided up amongst three of his victorious generals after they all fought visciously amongst themselves for a piece of his massive kingdom.
The Rhodian people supported Ptolemy which angered Antigous, (another of Alexanders generals) who sent his son Demetrius to captere Rhodes for him. One epic battle and siege later and Ptolemy was victorious, (not surprising as he ended up being a competent enough general to take Egypt also).
It was to celebrate this victory that the colossus of Rhodes was constructed. The Rhodians melted down all the bronze from the defeated invaders numerous war machines to build the statue itself and used the timber from giant siege engines to use as scaffolding.
The statue was 110 feet high and stood upon a 50 foot pedestal and was a depiction of the Helios the greek sun god and stood at the entrance to the harbour. A popular misconception which is assisted by modern tourist wares is that the statue straddled the entrance to the harbour; whereas it was actually a more traditional upright standing figure wearing a gold crown and shielding its eyes from the sun.
Unfortunatley this massive statue was destroyed by an earthquake a mere 12 years after its construction and although the Rhodian people were offered by the Egyptian king to pay for its reconstruction; they refused fearing that the statue had somehow offended the god Helios who destroyed it himself with the earthquake.
The Arabs conquered Rhodes during the 7th century BC, broke the remaining pieces of the colossus up and sold it for scrap.
Nothing remains of the colossus on the original site now, but the area is absolutley worth a visit. And if you have a glance at my review of Rhodes medeivel city you will see exactly why you must visit this beautiful historic place.
(Please read my review of the fabulous medeivel city of Rhodes)
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i have always thought that the statue straddles the harbour x
gayna1979 29.10.2005 14:10
Hi, good review. I adore Rhodes, and loved the old city. Hope to be visiting again sometime soon. Gayna xx
a-true-ben 29.10.2005 11:06
This is interesting, but it's the background that could easily be found on the internet or in books - it gives no indication whether you've even visited personally, much less how you found it today. Ben
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