Free Republic

1:05 - Chapter 1 - The crossroads of the ancient world2:45 - Chapter 2 - An epic siege4:55 - Chapter 3 - An offering to the gods7:30 - Mid roll ads9:00 - Chapter 4 - The standing statue10:20 - Chapter 5 - Collapse12:00 - Chapter 6 - LegacyThe Colossus of Rhodes: The World Wonder That Became History's Greatest Statue | 15:31Geographics | 1.05M subscribers | 272,360 views | May 26, 2021

Archeologists say they have traced the origins of the first Christmas to be celebrated on 25 December, 300 years before the birth of Christ. The original event marked the consecration of the ancient world's largest sun god statue, the 34m tall, 200 ton Colossus of Rhodes. It has long been known that 25 December was not the real date of Christ's birth and that the decision to turn it into Jesus's birthday was made by Constantine, the Roman Emperor, in the early 4th century AD. But experts believe the origins of that decision go back to 283 BC, when, in...

More than two millennia after it was toppled by an earthquake, the Colossus of Rhodes - one of the seven wonders of the ancient world - is to rise again. Instead of standing astride the venerable port of Rhodes town, however, the 100ft bronze figure will tower over the island's downmarket resort of Faliraki, infamous for the drunken antics of thousands of British tourists who go there every year. Faliraki, about five miles south of Rhodes town, boasts a strip of bars and clubs a third of a mile long, where cut-price alcohol lures hordes of tourists on drinking binges...

Nickel's evidence includes newly translated ancient records that tell a fantastic tale of giant statues that "appeared" in the far west, inspiring the first emperor of China to duplicate them in front of his palace. This story offers evidence of early contact between China and the West, contacts that Nickel says inspired the First Emperor (which is what Qin Shi Huangdi called himself) to not only duplicate the 12 giant statues but to build the massive Terracotta Army along with other life-size sculptures. Before the First Emperor's time, life-size sculptures were not built in China, and Nickel argues the idea...

Until an earthquake in 226 BCE knocked it down, the Colossus of Rhodes, a 98-foot-high iron and bronze statue of the Greek god Helios, sat near the harbor of Rhodes, Greece, for 54 years. Now, a plan put forth by a small team of scientists seeks to rebuild the ancient statue and boost tourism and local jobs in the process. The plan calls for a a new statue that's way taller than the ancient one. At 400 feet tall, the new Helios would be nearly four times the height of the original. The proposal also includes an interior library, museum,...

But the team stresses they do not want to build a replica of the original bronze structure of a warrior standing over the entrance of the ancient city’s harbour. Instead, they want to construct a 150-metre tall “reimagining” of the wonder, based on the ambitions and vision of the original 2200-year-old monument. They want to crowdsource its funding through the internet. It will still be a colossal statue. It will still be a lighthouse. But it will we sheathed in a bronze-coloured skin that doubles as solar panels. The team says they aim to “put back on the map the...

It may not straddle the port as its predecessor once did, but in terms of sheer luminosity and eye-catching height the new Colossus of Rhodes will not disappoint. Nor will it fall short of the symbolism that once imbued the ancient monument. Twenty-three centuries after craftsmen carved the legendary statue that has inspired legions of painters, poets, playwrights and politicians, a new world wonder, built in the spirit of the original Colossus, is about to be born on the Aegean island. After decades of dashed hopes, the people of Rhodes will fulfil a long-held dream to revive one of the...