The Colossus of Rhodes: The World Wonder That Became History's Greatest Statue

Transcript
0:00 · this video is brought to you by
0:01 · squarespace whether it's your profession
0:03 · or just a lifelong passion
0:05 · start your journey to website glory with
0:07 · squarespace check out their amazing
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0:10 · the description below
0:11 · more on them in a bit
0:19 · the statue of liberty is easily the
0:20 · world's most famous statue lady
0:22 · liberty's visage is so iconic that it
0:24 · serves as short hands for not only new
0:26 · york city but
0:27 · america as a whole but where did the
0:28 · inspiration for this statue come from
0:30 · to find it you have to go back over 2
0:32 · 000 years to a similar statue
0:34 · also in a harbor and of a comparable
0:36 · size nothing like it
0:37 · had ever been seen in the ancient world
0:39 · and people traveled great distances just
0:41 · to see it
0:42 · the colossus of roads only stood for
0:44 · less than a century but the impact it
0:45 · had has continued to be felt even today
0:48 · but what exactly was the colossus of
0:50 · rhodes
0:51 · why was it built and why did it earn a
0:53 · place on the famed
0:55 · seven wonders of the ancient world list
0:57 · well
0:58 · today we're going to find out
1:00 · [Music]
1:05 · our story begins in 323 bc with the
1:08 · death of alexander the great and the
1:10 · city of babylon the macedonian king had
1:11 · conquered a massive empire unlike
1:13 · anything the world had ever seen before
1:15 · but he died before he could secure the
1:17 · position of his heir
1:19 · instead his generals tore his empire
1:21 · apart what followed was a long-running
1:23 · series of conflicts known as the wars of
1:25 · the successors
1:26 · as each of alexander's former lieutenant
1:28 · struggled to
1:29 · carve out a position of power for
1:30 · themselves eventually three major
1:32 · factions emerged
1:33 · egypt controlled by ptolemy the seleucid
1:35 · empire in persia
1:37 · and the antigone dynasty which ruled
1:39 · asia minor caught in the middle of all
1:41 · this term or quite literally was the
1:42 · island city-state of rhodes
1:44 · in greek mythology the island was said
1:46 · to be created by the sun god helios so
1:48 · that he had a place to rule since he
1:50 · missed the meeting where the gods drew
1:52 · lots to divide up the places of the
1:54 · earth
1:54 · it was named after his wife the nymph
1:56 · rhodos the capital city built in 408 bc
1:59 · was also named rhodes
2:00 · by the end of the 4th century bc rhodes
2:02 · was becoming a commercial maritime power
2:04 · it was situated at the conflux of the
2:06 · aegean and mediterranean
2:08 · seas 18 kilometers from the southern
2:10 · shore of asia mine are an ideal position
2:12 · to control the sea trade
2:13 · rhodes was an important waypoint for
2:14 · ships traveling between the cities of
2:16 · greece and those of asia and so
2:18 · roads grew exceptionally wealthy as the
2:20 · successor wars raged around
2:22 · them rhodes steadfastly maintained its
2:24 · own independence
2:25 · and neutrality but they formed a close
2:27 · association with ptolemaic egypt
2:29 · something
2:29 · that irked antagonist ptolemy's sworn
2:32 · enemy antigonus knew that if the
2:34 · powerful rhodian navy allied
2:36 · itself with egypt against him he'd be at
2:38 · a disadvantage he decided
2:39 · roads needed to be dealt with
2:47 · in 305 bc an army of forty thousand
2:49 · commanded by antigonus's son demetrius
2:52 · attacked rhodes attached to the antigone
2:54 · in force were
2:55 · swarms of pirate vessels who hoped to
2:57 · take advantage of the carnage to take
2:59 · plunder for themselves
3:00 · against them the rodians could only
3:02 · muster a force of 7000 but their city
3:04 · had strong fortifications
3:06 · and a well-defended harbour demetrius
3:08 · ravaged the surrounding countryside and
3:10 · put the city of rhodes under siege
3:12 · unable to capture the original harbour
3:14 · he
3:14 · built one of his own to house his fleet
3:17 · of 200 ships along with the large
3:18 · encampment that resembled a city itself
3:21 · though his troops surrounded the walls
3:22 · they were unable to prevent supply ships
3:24 · from entering the roadian harbor to keep
3:25 · the inhabitants from starving
3:27 · demetrius tried to take the city by
3:29 · storm and at one point breached the
3:30 · walls but the troops that
3:31 · made it into the city were all killed
3:33 · and the attack was rebuffed the rodians
3:35 · then quickly repaired the damage to the
3:36 · city walls demetrius now tried
3:38 · engineering his way to victory he
3:40 · ordered the construction of gargantuan
3:42 · siege weapons including a battering ram
3:44 · and catapults
3:45 · the biggest of these was a siege tower
3:46 · known as the halepolis this wooden tower
3:49 · was unlike anything the world had ever
3:50 · seen before standing over 40 meters high
3:52 · and 20 meters wide and weighing 160 tons
3:55 · the structure was covered in iron plates
3:56 · to make it fireproof and bristled with
3:58 · weaponry
3:59 · 16 catapults and all it required a crew
4:01 · of 3 400 men to push it into place
4:04 · surely against such a goliath as the
4:06 · helepolis the city of rhodes
4:08 · didn't stand a chance only it didn't
4:10 · quite work out that way there are
4:12 · differing accounts about what happened
4:14 · when demetrius tried to use the siege
4:15 · tower in battle
4:16 · one story says the defenders damaged
4:18 · enough of the iron plating that the
4:20 · general ordered it removed from the
4:21 · battlefield so that they couldn't set it
4:23 · on fire another account says the rodians
4:24 · flooded the ground the helepolis was to
4:27 · advance upon the night before
4:28 · and the huge siege engine got stuck in
4:30 · the mud and couldn't be moved whatever
4:32 · happened
4:32 · the city still held out a year after the
4:35 · siege began when
4:36 · a relief force sent by ptolemy arrived
4:38 · demetrius outmaneuvered and knowing that
4:40 · the siege was growing ever more
4:41 · unpopular at home
4:43 · was forced to sue for peace his army
4:44 · left and the city of rhodes was saved
4:47 · [Music]
4:52 · when demetrius's army departed it left a
4:54 · lot of equipment behind
4:56 · including the siege engines the rodians
4:58 · deciding there was no point in letting
4:59 · it all go to waste gathered it all up
5:01 · and sold it for scrap they dismantled
5:03 · the abandoned helipolars and melted down
5:05 · its iron plating the total amount of
5:06 · money they received after
5:08 · selling the equipment amounted to 300
5:09 · talents of silver
5:11 · amount worth around 6.4 million dollars
5:13 · in today's money so
5:14 · what do they do with all the money well
5:16 · the rodians wanted to give thanks to
5:17 · their patron god
5:18 · helios who they believed had favored
5:20 · them by sparing their city and even back
5:22 · then people knew the best way to honor
5:24 · someone was to build a statue of them
5:25 · this couldn't just be any ordinary
5:27 · statue though it had to be big
5:29 · huge in fact bigger than any statue the
5:32 · world had ever seen
5:33 · something as big as the helepolis to
5:36 · build their mammoth statue the people of
5:38 · rhodes turns to the best sculptor on the
5:40 · island
5:41 · a man named chares of lindos charis have
5:44 · been mentioned by a man named
5:46 · lisipos the personal sculptor of
5:48 · alexander the great whose crowning
5:49 · achievement was the building of a 22
5:51 · meter high statue of zeus in the city
5:53 · of terrence construction on the statue
5:55 · of helios began in 292 bc on a hilltop
5:58 · overlooking the city and harbor of roads
6:01 · later depictions of the statue being in
6:03 · the harbor or even straddling the
6:05 · way so ships would have to pass between
6:07 · its legs to enter it
6:08 · a fantasy concocted in medieval times
6:11 · the first thing to be built was a
6:12 · 15-meter tall white marble pedestal on
6:15 · which the statue would stand on top of
6:17 · this was constructed an iron framework a
6:19 · skeleton onto which molded bronze plates
6:21 · would be affixed to it to
6:23 · form the statue's skin charles built a
6:25 · massive casting bit to mold the bronze
6:27 · pieces he needed for the statue
6:28 · larger than any pit ever constructed for
6:30 · this purpose before as the statue grew
6:32 · taller stone blocks were placed inside
6:34 · the interior to act as further support
6:36 · for the iron framework it soon became
6:37 · clear that normal scaffolding wasn't
6:39 · going to be enough for the statue not as
6:41 · its height continued to grow
6:43 · it was becoming too difficult to move
6:44 · the bronze pieces into place using the
6:46 · technology of the time period
6:48 · so shars decided to build a massive
6:50 · earthen ramp around the statue
6:52 · to allow workers to access it this also
6:54 · had the effect of obscuring the statue
6:56 · from public view
6:57 · no one but the designer was going to
6:59 · know what it looked like until it was
7:01 · finished
7:01 · finally after 12 years of work the
7:02 · earthen mound was removed and the statue
7:04 · was finished
7:05 · the finished statue stood at 70 cubits
7:07 · high or 32 meters
7:09 · together with the pedestal it towered
7:10 · over the city and harbour of roads from
7:12 · its hilltop
7:13 · to describe it the greeks had to invent
7:14 · a new word
7:16 · colossus which literally means giant
7:18 · statue
7:19 · so the finnish structure became known as
7:21 · the colossus of rhodes
7:23 · [ad text redacted]
8:57 · bizarrely enough though there are plenty
8:59 · of contemporary accounts of how large
9:01 · the colossus was how it was built and
9:03 · how amazed people were by it there are
9:05 · no surviving accounts depicting what the
9:07 · statue actually looked like so
9:09 · historians have no idea many later
9:12 · illustrators showed helios holding a
9:13 · torch loft like the statue of liberty
9:15 · but there's no evidence that this is the
9:17 · case
9:17 · a sculpture in a nearby temple has a
9:19 · depiction of helios shielding his eyes
9:20 · with one hand like a person would when
9:22 · shielding their eyes from the sun
9:24 · and it's possible that this is how
9:25 · colossus looked what is known
9:27 · is that in the years after it was built
9:28 · people came from all over the ancient
9:30 · world to view the colossus
9:31 · it was an early form of tourism that
9:33 · allowed learned men or at least men with
9:35 · sufficient means to travel around
9:36 · viewing the great sites known to them at
9:38 · the time these sites became known
9:39 · as wonders and as early as the second
9:41 · century bc chroniclers were writing
9:43 · about what wonders they had seen and
9:45 · were encouraging other people to see you
9:47 · might call the creation of the concept
9:48 · of the seven wonders of the world as
9:50 · an early attempt at a tourist guidebook
9:52 · the colossus built to celebrate the city
9:54 · of rhodes soon came to
9:56 · define the place's existence people from
9:58 · rhodes became known
9:59 · as coliseums and tourist revenue from
10:02 · people coming to view it only propelled
10:03 · the city's growth further rhodes became
10:05 · known as a cultural as well as a
10:07 · commercial center becoming home to
10:08 · famous centers of learning in the arts
10:10 · but unfortunately for rhodes mother
10:12 · nature ensured that the good times
10:14 · wouldn't last forever
10:21 · in 226 bc 54 years after the colossus
10:25 · had been built
10:25 · a massive earthquake rocked roads the
10:27 · island sits on a boundary between two
10:29 · tectonic plates that are pushing against
10:31 · each other
10:32 · making the area prone to large
10:33 · earthquakes the quake of 226 bc caused
10:36 · large amounts of destruction
10:38 · destroying many buildings earthquake
10:40 · proof construction was an unknown
10:41 · concept at the time people
10:42 · simply didn't understand the forces at
10:44 · work and the colossus
10:46 · as tall as it was just didn't stand a
10:48 · chance the statue snapped off at the
10:50 · knees and fell over breaking into pieces
10:51 · when it hit the ground
10:52 · contemporary accounts give no figure for
10:54 · the number of people killed
10:55 · but we can infer that they were high
10:58 · office of aid came in from all over the
10:59 · mediterranean to help the rodians
11:01 · rebuild their city this included their
11:03 · famed colossus pharaoh ptolemy iii of
11:05 · egypt offered to help
11:06 · finance its reconstruction at the time
11:07 · however natural disasters were viewed as
11:09 · a sign of god's disfavor and
11:11 · the people of rhodes worried that they'd
11:12 · displeased helios in some way
11:14 · and he had sent the earthquake to smite
11:16 · them they constructed the oracle at
11:18 · delphi who cautioned them against
11:19 · rebuilding the statue the rodians with a
11:21 · heavy heart agreed and
11:23 · no attempt was made to rebuild the
11:24 · colossus neither were the remains of the
11:26 · statue removed from where they fell they
11:28 · were just
11:28 · left there still so large and imposing
11:31 · that people continued to visit them for
11:32 · another 800 years
11:34 · one writer described how visitors would
11:35 · struggle to wrap their arms around the
11:37 · thumb of the fallen statue and
11:39 · remarking on how the fingers were longer
11:41 · than most statues were tall in 653 a.d
11:44 · the island of rhodes was conquered by
11:45 · the forces
11:46 · of the umayyad caliphate and the statue
11:48 · was melted down and
11:49 · sold as part of the spoils of war the
11:51 · bronze was supposedly hauled away
11:53 · on over 900 camels
11:57 · [Music]
12:01 · no trace of the colossus remains today
12:03 · outside of records and contemporary
12:04 · accounts leaving experts to struggle
12:06 · with a question of
12:07 · where the statue was located and what it
12:08 · looked like a lot of artistic liberty
12:10 · was taken in the following centuries as
12:12 · stated before a common misconception was
12:13 · that the colossus straddled the entrance
12:15 · of
12:15 · rhodes's harbor and held a torch aloft
12:18 · in some accounts the torch is even lit
12:20 · meaning the colossus also acted as a
12:21 · lighthouse these depictions are almost
12:23 · certainly fictional as historians have
12:25 · concluded that there was no way a statue
12:27 · could have been built like that using
12:28 · the techniques of the time period
12:30 · without
12:30 · collapsing under its own weight further
12:32 · proof that the statue wasn't located in
12:34 · or near the harbour is the fact that the
12:35 · remains of the statue were visible for
12:37 · hundreds of years after it fell over
12:39 · which would have been impossible had the
12:40 · statue fallen into the water
12:42 · from which it would have been impossible
12:43 · for the rodians to retrieve regardless
12:45 · the fictional positioning of the
12:47 · colossus became so influential that it
12:49 · is the basis
12:49 · upon which the statue of liberty was
12:51 · built on a stone pedestal
12:53 · in the harbor of a major maritime city
12:55 · holding a torture loft
12:56 · emma lazarus famous poem about the
12:58 · statue of liberty describes it
13:00 · as the new colossus rhodes wasn't able
13:02 · to maintain its independence forever
13:03 · any mores and they could keep their
13:05 · colossus afloat the city fell to the
13:07 · romans
13:07 · along with all of the successor kingdoms
13:09 · and much of the known world after the
13:11 · roman empire split into
13:13 · rhodes was ruled by the eastern empire
13:15 · renamed the byzantine empire for a
13:17 · thousand years
13:18 · except for brief periods when the island
13:20 · was occupied by invading forces in 1306
13:22 · the knights hospital captured roads and
13:24 · ruled it for over 200 years until they
13:26 · were forced out by the ottoman empire in
13:27 · 1522 eventually
13:29 · moving their base of operations to the
13:30 · island of malta italy seized control of
13:32 · the island during the italo-turkish war
13:34 · of 1912 and the germans occupied the
13:36 · island during world war ii
13:37 · capturing it from the italian garrison
13:39 · who wanted to surrender it to the
13:40 · british
13:41 · after the war the island was given to
13:42 · greece who have governed it ever since
13:44 · today about a hundred thousand people
13:45 · live on roads not counting the tourists
13:47 · and
13:48 · the island is one of europe's most
13:49 · popular vacation spots they come to see
13:51 · the beaches and
13:52 · the medieval and ancient architecture as
13:54 · well as to partake in the many mineral
13:56 · springs on the island that have
13:58 · purported healing properties to boost
14:00 · tourism many investors have proposed
14:01 · building a new colossus of roads on the
14:03 · site of the original
14:04 · or even in its fictional location within
14:06 · the harbour but
14:07 · none of these plans has ever gotten off
14:09 · the ground meaning that the colossus
14:10 · still exists only
14:12 · within our imaginations but the very
14:14 · fact that the colossus of roads existed
14:16 · at all continues to fascinate us it was
14:18 · a remarkable feat of engineering a
14:19 · statue as large as the statue of liberty
14:21 · being built entirely by hand without the
14:23 · aid
14:24 · of any of the powered tools and devices
14:26 · so essential
14:27 · in construction work today it was so big
14:29 · for its time period that language itself
14:31 · needed to be changed to accommodate it
14:33 · something that still impacts us today
14:35 · after all from the word colossus
14:37 · came the word colossal which can be used
14:39 · to describe anything extremely large
14:41 · it's also a term in sculpture referring
14:43 · to a statue that is at least twice
14:45 · life-size which
14:46 · definitely applied to the colossus its
14:49 · design
14:49 · inspired countless other statues and
14:51 · monuments over the following centuries
14:53 · the most famous of which sits in new
14:55 · york harbor and though there was always
14:57 · some debate among
14:58 · contemporary greek writers about what
14:59 · exactly constituted the seven wonders of
15:01 · the world
15:02 · the present list wasn't established
15:03 · until the renaissance the colossus of
15:05 · rhodes
15:06 · was included from the very beginning
15:07 · when these lists were first being
15:09 · created
15:09 · and what more could be said about it
15:11 · than that being considered
15:13 · a wonder of the world truly a colossal
15:16 · compliment
15:17 · so i really hope you enjoyed this video
15:19 · thanks again to squarespace who
15:20 · sponsored it link to them below
15:22 · and thank you for watching
15:31 · [Music]
15:31 · you

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Transcript
0:00	·	this video is brought to you by
0:01	·	squarespace whether it's your profession
0:03	·	or just a lifelong passion
0:05	·	start your journey to website glory with
0:07	·	squarespace check out their amazing
0:08	·	all-in-one platform through the link in
0:10	·	the description below
0:11	·	more on them in a bit
0:19	·	the statue of liberty is easily the
0:20	·	world's most famous statue lady
0:22	·	liberty's visage is so iconic that it
0:24	·	serves as short hands for not only new
0:26	·	york city but
0:27	·	america as a whole but where did the
0:28	·	inspiration for this statue come from
0:30	·	to find it you have to go back over 2
0:32	·	000 years to a similar statue
0:34	·	also in a harbor and of a comparable
0:36	·	size nothing like it
0:37	·	had ever been seen in the ancient world
0:39	·	and people traveled great distances just
0:41	·	to see it
0:42	·	the colossus of roads only stood for
0:44	·	less than a century but the impact it
0:45	·	had has continued to be felt even today
0:48	·	but what exactly was the colossus of
0:50	·	rhodes
0:51	·	why was it built and why did it earn a
0:53	·	place on the famed
0:55	·	seven wonders of the ancient world list
0:57	·	well
0:58	·	today we're going to find out
1:00	·	[Music]
1:05	·	our story begins in 323 bc with the
1:08	·	death of alexander the great and the
1:10	·	city of babylon the macedonian king had
1:11	·	conquered a massive empire unlike
1:13	·	anything the world had ever seen before
1:15	·	but he died before he could secure the
1:17	·	position of his heir
1:19	·	instead his generals tore his empire
1:21	·	apart what followed was a long-running
1:23	·	series of conflicts known as the wars of
1:25	·	the successors
1:26	·	as each of alexander's former lieutenant
1:28	·	struggled to
1:29	·	carve out a position of power for
1:30	·	themselves eventually three major
1:32	·	factions emerged
1:33	·	egypt controlled by ptolemy the seleucid
1:35	·	empire in persia
1:37	·	and the antigone dynasty which ruled
1:39	·	asia minor caught in the middle of all
1:41	·	this term or quite literally was the
1:42	·	island city-state of rhodes
1:44	·	in greek mythology the island was said
1:46	·	to be created by the sun god helios so
1:48	·	that he had a place to rule since he
1:50	·	missed the meeting where the gods drew
1:52	·	lots to divide up the places of the
1:54	·	earth
1:54	·	it was named after his wife the nymph
1:56	·	rhodos the capital city built in 408 bc
1:59	·	was also named rhodes
2:00	·	by the end of the 4th century bc rhodes
2:02	·	was becoming a commercial maritime power
2:04	·	it was situated at the conflux of the
2:06	·	aegean and mediterranean
2:08	·	seas 18 kilometers from the southern
2:10	·	shore of asia mine are an ideal position
2:12	·	to control the sea trade
2:13	·	rhodes was an important waypoint for
2:14	·	ships traveling between the cities of
2:16	·	greece and those of asia and so
2:18	·	roads grew exceptionally wealthy as the
2:20	·	successor wars raged around
2:22	·	them rhodes steadfastly maintained its
2:24	·	own independence
2:25	·	and neutrality but they formed a close
2:27	·	association with ptolemaic egypt
2:29	·	something
2:29	·	that irked antagonist ptolemy's sworn
2:32	·	enemy antigonus knew that if the
2:34	·	powerful rhodian navy allied
2:36	·	itself with egypt against him he'd be at
2:38	·	a disadvantage he decided
2:39	·	roads needed to be dealt with
2:47	·	in 305 bc an army of forty thousand
2:49	·	commanded by antigonus's son demetrius
2:52	·	attacked rhodes attached to the antigone
2:54	·	in force were
2:55	·	swarms of pirate vessels who hoped to
2:57	·	take advantage of the carnage to take
2:59	·	plunder for themselves
3:00	·	against them the rodians could only
3:02	·	muster a force of 7000 but their city
3:04	·	had strong fortifications
3:06	·	and a well-defended harbour demetrius
3:08	·	ravaged the surrounding countryside and
3:10	·	put the city of rhodes under siege
3:12	·	unable to capture the original harbour
3:14	·	he
3:14	·	built one of his own to house his fleet
3:17	·	of 200 ships along with the large
3:18	·	encampment that resembled a city itself
3:21	·	though his troops surrounded the walls
3:22	·	they were unable to prevent supply ships
3:24	·	from entering the roadian harbor to keep
3:25	·	the inhabitants from starving
3:27	·	demetrius tried to take the city by
3:29	·	storm and at one point breached the
3:30	·	walls but the troops that
3:31	·	made it into the city were all killed
3:33	·	and the attack was rebuffed the rodians
3:35	·	then quickly repaired the damage to the
3:36	·	city walls demetrius now tried
3:38	·	engineering his way to victory he
3:40	·	ordered the construction of gargantuan
3:42	·	siege weapons including a battering ram
3:44	·	and catapults
3:45	·	the biggest of these was a siege tower
3:46	·	known as the halepolis this wooden tower
3:49	·	was unlike anything the world had ever
3:50	·	seen before standing over 40 meters high
3:52	·	and 20 meters wide and weighing 160 tons
3:55	·	the structure was covered in iron plates
3:56	·	to make it fireproof and bristled with
3:58	·	weaponry
3:59	·	16 catapults and all it required a crew
4:01	·	of 3 400 men to push it into place
4:04	·	surely against such a goliath as the
4:06	·	helepolis the city of rhodes
4:08	·	didn't stand a chance only it didn't
4:10	·	quite work out that way there are
4:12	·	differing accounts about what happened
4:14	·	when demetrius tried to use the siege
4:15	·	tower in battle
4:16	·	one story says the defenders damaged
4:18	·	enough of the iron plating that the
4:20	·	general ordered it removed from the
4:21	·	battlefield so that they couldn't set it
4:23	·	on fire another account says the rodians
4:24	·	flooded the ground the helepolis was to
4:27	·	advance upon the night before
4:28	·	and the huge siege engine got stuck in
4:30	·	the mud and couldn't be moved whatever
4:32	·	happened
4:32	·	the city still held out a year after the
4:35	·	siege began when
4:36	·	a relief force sent by ptolemy arrived
4:38	·	demetrius outmaneuvered and knowing that
4:40	·	the siege was growing ever more
4:41	·	unpopular at home
4:43	·	was forced to sue for peace his army
4:44	·	left and the city of rhodes was saved
4:47	·	[Music]
4:52	·	when demetrius's army departed it left a
4:54	·	lot of equipment behind
4:56	·	including the siege engines the rodians
4:58	·	deciding there was no point in letting
4:59	·	it all go to waste gathered it all up
5:01	·	and sold it for scrap they dismantled
5:03	·	the abandoned helipolars and melted down
5:05	·	its iron plating the total amount of
5:06	·	money they received after
5:08	·	selling the equipment amounted to 300
5:09	·	talents of silver
5:11	·	amount worth around 6.4 million dollars
5:13	·	in today's money so
5:14	·	what do they do with all the money well
5:16	·	the rodians wanted to give thanks to
5:17	·	their patron god
5:18	·	helios who they believed had favored
5:20	·	them by sparing their city and even back
5:22	·	then people knew the best way to honor
5:24	·	someone was to build a statue of them
5:25	·	this couldn't just be any ordinary
5:27	·	statue though it had to be big
5:29	·	huge in fact bigger than any statue the
5:32	·	world had ever seen
5:33	·	something as big as the helepolis to
5:36	·	build their mammoth statue the people of
5:38	·	rhodes turns to the best sculptor on the
5:40	·	island
5:41	·	a man named chares of lindos charis have
5:44	·	been mentioned by a man named
5:46	·	lisipos the personal sculptor of
5:48	·	alexander the great whose crowning
5:49	·	achievement was the building of a 22
5:51	·	meter high statue of zeus in the city
5:53	·	of terrence construction on the statue
5:55	·	of helios began in 292 bc on a hilltop
5:58	·	overlooking the city and harbor of roads
6:01	·	later depictions of the statue being in
6:03	·	the harbor or even straddling the
6:05	·	way so ships would have to pass between
6:07	·	its legs to enter it
6:08	·	a fantasy concocted in medieval times
6:11	·	the first thing to be built was a
6:12	·	15-meter tall white marble pedestal on
6:15	·	which the statue would stand on top of
6:17	·	this was constructed an iron framework a
6:19	·	skeleton onto which molded bronze plates
6:21	·	would be affixed to it to
6:23	·	form the statue's skin charles built a
6:25	·	massive casting bit to mold the bronze
6:27	·	pieces he needed for the statue
6:28	·	larger than any pit ever constructed for
6:30	·	this purpose before as the statue grew
6:32	·	taller stone blocks were placed inside
6:34	·	the interior to act as further support
6:36	·	for the iron framework it soon became
6:37	·	clear that normal scaffolding wasn't
6:39	·	going to be enough for the statue not as
6:41	·	its height continued to grow
6:43	·	it was becoming too difficult to move
6:44	·	the bronze pieces into place using the
6:46	·	technology of the time period
6:48	·	so shars decided to build a massive
6:50	·	earthen ramp around the statue
6:52	·	to allow workers to access it this also
6:54	·	had the effect of obscuring the statue
6:56	·	from public view
6:57	·	no one but the designer was going to
6:59	·	know what it looked like until it was
7:01	·	finished
7:01	·	finally after 12 years of work the
7:02	·	earthen mound was removed and the statue
7:04	·	was finished
7:05	·	the finished statue stood at 70 cubits
7:07	·	high or 32 meters
7:09	·	together with the pedestal it towered
7:10	·	over the city and harbour of roads from
7:12	·	its hilltop
7:13	·	to describe it the greeks had to invent
7:14	·	a new word
7:16	·	colossus which literally means giant
7:18	·	statue
7:19	·	so the finnish structure became known as
7:21	·	the colossus of rhodes
7:23	·	[ad text redacted]
8:57	·	bizarrely enough though there are plenty
8:59	·	of contemporary accounts of how large
9:01	·	the colossus was how it was built and
9:03	·	how amazed people were by it there are
9:05	·	no surviving accounts depicting what the
9:07	·	statue actually looked like so
9:09	·	historians have no idea many later
9:12	·	illustrators showed helios holding a
9:13	·	torch loft like the statue of liberty
9:15	·	but there's no evidence that this is the
9:17	·	case
9:17	·	a sculpture in a nearby temple has a
9:19	·	depiction of helios shielding his eyes
9:20	·	with one hand like a person would when
9:22	·	shielding their eyes from the sun
9:24	·	and it's possible that this is how
9:25	·	colossus looked what is known
9:27	·	is that in the years after it was built
9:28	·	people came from all over the ancient
9:30	·	world to view the colossus
9:31	·	it was an early form of tourism that
9:33	·	allowed learned men or at least men with
9:35	·	sufficient means to travel around
9:36	·	viewing the great sites known to them at
9:38	·	the time these sites became known
9:39	·	as wonders and as early as the second
9:41	·	century bc chroniclers were writing
9:43	·	about what wonders they had seen and
9:45	·	were encouraging other people to see you
9:47	·	might call the creation of the concept
9:48	·	of the seven wonders of the world as
9:50	·	an early attempt at a tourist guidebook
9:52	·	the colossus built to celebrate the city
9:54	·	of rhodes soon came to
9:56	·	define the place's existence people from
9:58	·	rhodes became known
9:59	·	as coliseums and tourist revenue from
10:02	·	people coming to view it only propelled
10:03	·	the city's growth further rhodes became
10:05	·	known as a cultural as well as a
10:07	·	commercial center becoming home to
10:08	·	famous centers of learning in the arts
10:10	·	but unfortunately for rhodes mother
10:12	·	nature ensured that the good times
10:14	·	wouldn't last forever
10:21	·	in 226 bc 54 years after the colossus
10:25	·	had been built
10:25	·	a massive earthquake rocked roads the
10:27	·	island sits on a boundary between two
10:29	·	tectonic plates that are pushing against
10:31	·	each other
10:32	·	making the area prone to large
10:33	·	earthquakes the quake of 226 bc caused
10:36	·	large amounts of destruction
10:38	·	destroying many buildings earthquake
10:40	·	proof construction was an unknown
10:41	·	concept at the time people
10:42	·	simply didn't understand the forces at
10:44	·	work and the colossus
10:46	·	as tall as it was just didn't stand a
10:48	·	chance the statue snapped off at the
10:50	·	knees and fell over breaking into pieces
10:51	·	when it hit the ground
10:52	·	contemporary accounts give no figure for
10:54	·	the number of people killed
10:55	·	but we can infer that they were high
10:58	·	office of aid came in from all over the
10:59	·	mediterranean to help the rodians
11:01	·	rebuild their city this included their
11:03	·	famed colossus pharaoh ptolemy iii of
11:05	·	egypt offered to help
11:06	·	finance its reconstruction at the time
11:07	·	however natural disasters were viewed as
11:09	·	a sign of god's disfavor and
11:11	·	the people of rhodes worried that they'd
11:12	·	displeased helios in some way
11:14	·	and he had sent the earthquake to smite
11:16	·	them they constructed the oracle at
11:18	·	delphi who cautioned them against
11:19	·	rebuilding the statue the rodians with a
11:21	·	heavy heart agreed and
11:23	·	no attempt was made to rebuild the
11:24	·	colossus neither were the remains of the
11:26	·	statue removed from where they fell they
11:28	·	were just
11:28	·	left there still so large and imposing
11:31	·	that people continued to visit them for
11:32	·	another 800 years
11:34	·	one writer described how visitors would
11:35	·	struggle to wrap their arms around the
11:37	·	thumb of the fallen statue and
11:39	·	remarking on how the fingers were longer
11:41	·	than most statues were tall in 653 a.d
11:44	·	the island of rhodes was conquered by
11:45	·	the forces
11:46	·	of the umayyad caliphate and the statue
11:48	·	was melted down and
11:49	·	sold as part of the spoils of war the
11:51	·	bronze was supposedly hauled away
11:53	·	on over 900 camels
11:57	·	[Music]
12:01	·	no trace of the colossus remains today
12:03	·	outside of records and contemporary
12:04	·	accounts leaving experts to struggle
12:06	·	with a question of
12:07	·	where the statue was located and what it
12:08	·	looked like a lot of artistic liberty
12:10	·	was taken in the following centuries as
12:12	·	stated before a common misconception was
12:13	·	that the colossus straddled the entrance
12:15	·	of
12:15	·	rhodes's harbor and held a torch aloft
12:18	·	in some accounts the torch is even lit
12:20	·	meaning the colossus also acted as a
12:21	·	lighthouse these depictions are almost
12:23	·	certainly fictional as historians have
12:25	·	concluded that there was no way a statue
12:27	·	could have been built like that using
12:28	·	the techniques of the time period
12:30	·	without
12:30	·	collapsing under its own weight further
12:32	·	proof that the statue wasn't located in
12:34	·	or near the harbour is the fact that the
12:35	·	remains of the statue were visible for
12:37	·	hundreds of years after it fell over
12:39	·	which would have been impossible had the
12:40	·	statue fallen into the water
12:42	·	from which it would have been impossible
12:43	·	for the rodians to retrieve regardless
12:45	·	the fictional positioning of the
12:47	·	colossus became so influential that it
12:49	·	is the basis
12:49	·	upon which the statue of liberty was
12:51	·	built on a stone pedestal
12:53	·	in the harbor of a major maritime city
12:55	·	holding a torture loft
12:56	·	emma lazarus famous poem about the
12:58	·	statue of liberty describes it
13:00	·	as the new colossus rhodes wasn't able
13:02	·	to maintain its independence forever
13:03	·	any mores and they could keep their
13:05	·	colossus afloat the city fell to the
13:07	·	romans
13:07	·	along with all of the successor kingdoms
13:09	·	and much of the known world after the
13:11	·	roman empire split into
13:13	·	rhodes was ruled by the eastern empire
13:15	·	renamed the byzantine empire for a
13:17	·	thousand years
13:18	·	except for brief periods when the island
13:20	·	was occupied by invading forces in 1306
13:22	·	the knights hospital captured roads and
13:24	·	ruled it for over 200 years until they
13:26	·	were forced out by the ottoman empire in
13:27	·	1522 eventually
13:29	·	moving their base of operations to the
13:30	·	island of malta italy seized control of
13:32	·	the island during the italo-turkish war
13:34	·	of 1912 and the germans occupied the
13:36	·	island during world war ii
13:37	·	capturing it from the italian garrison
13:39	·	who wanted to surrender it to the
13:40	·	british
13:41	·	after the war the island was given to
13:42	·	greece who have governed it ever since
13:44	·	today about a hundred thousand people
13:45	·	live on roads not counting the tourists
13:47	·	and
13:48	·	the island is one of europe's most
13:49	·	popular vacation spots they come to see
13:51	·	the beaches and
13:52	·	the medieval and ancient architecture as
13:54	·	well as to partake in the many mineral
13:56	·	springs on the island that have
13:58	·	purported healing properties to boost
14:00	·	tourism many investors have proposed
14:01	·	building a new colossus of roads on the
14:03	·	site of the original
14:04	·	or even in its fictional location within
14:06	·	the harbour but
14:07	·	none of these plans has ever gotten off
14:09	·	the ground meaning that the colossus
14:10	·	still exists only
14:12	·	within our imaginations but the very
14:14	·	fact that the colossus of roads existed
14:16	·	at all continues to fascinate us it was
14:18	·	a remarkable feat of engineering a
14:19	·	statue as large as the statue of liberty
14:21	·	being built entirely by hand without the
14:23	·	aid
14:24	·	of any of the powered tools and devices
14:26	·	so essential
14:27	·	in construction work today it was so big
14:29	·	for its time period that language itself
14:31	·	needed to be changed to accommodate it
14:33	·	something that still impacts us today
14:35	·	after all from the word colossus
14:37	·	came the word colossal which can be used
14:39	·	to describe anything extremely large
14:41	·	it's also a term in sculpture referring
14:43	·	to a statue that is at least twice
14:45	·	life-size which
14:46	·	definitely applied to the colossus its
14:49	·	design
14:49	·	inspired countless other statues and
14:51	·	monuments over the following centuries
14:53	·	the most famous of which sits in new
14:55	·	york harbor and though there was always
14:57	·	some debate among
14:58	·	contemporary greek writers about what
14:59	·	exactly constituted the seven wonders of
15:01	·	the world
15:02	·	the present list wasn't established
15:03	·	until the renaissance the colossus of
15:05	·	rhodes
15:06	·	was included from the very beginning
15:07	·	when these lists were first being
15:09	·	created
15:09	·	and what more could be said about it
15:11	·	than that being considered
15:13	·	a wonder of the world truly a colossal
15:16	·	compliment
15:17	·	so i really hope you enjoyed this video
15:19	·	thanks again to squarespace who
15:20	·	sponsored it link to them below
15:22	·	and thank you for watching
15:31	·	[Music]
15:31	·	you