Colossus Of Rhodes essays

Colossus Of Rhodes essays In 408 B.C. the city of Rhodes was built, on the island, of Rhodes. The city was made to fit well with the best natural harbor on the island. It was an important economic center in the ancient world. Located just off the southwestern tip of Asia Minor, about where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean. In 357 B.C. it was conquered by Mausolus of Halicarnassus, whose tomb is also one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. In 340, it fell into Persian hands. Alexander the Great conquered it in 332 B.C. When he died, many men wanted to be king, but one was never really chosen. Soon after Alexanders death, Demetrius attacked the city with an army of 40,000 men; more than the entire population of Rhodes. He had 2 great super towers made to destroy the city army of Rhodes. But they defeated Demetrius by flooding a trench outside the walls, which stuck the heavy tower in the mud. To celebrate this victory, they decided to make a huge statue of the god Helios. They melted bronze from Demetrius war machines. They used the super tower Demetrius had left behind as the scaffolding for the project. According to a noted historian the Colossus took 12 years to build. Some other historians place the start of the work in 304 B.C.. The statue of the god Helios, was one hundred and ten feet high, and stood on a pedestal that was fifty feet high. Its been popularly pictured spanning the harbor entrance so that ships passed beneath it. This of course, is not correct, it was actually posed in a traditional Greek matter; nude, wearing a spiked crown, shading his eyes with his right hand, and holding a cloak in his left. If it were spanning the harbor, they would have been forced to close the harbor to make it, which would shut down their economy. Some people call the Statue of Liberty, the New Colossus. There IS a reason to this, the statue of Helios, and the Statue of Liberty, are the same size. The Statue of Liber...