The name conferred on a select group of ancient works of art which had obtained pre-eminence among the sight-seers of the Alexandrian era. The earliest extant list, doubtless compiled from the numerous guide books then current in the Greek world, is that of the epigrammatist Antipater of Sidon (2nd century B.C.). A second and slightly divergent list from the hand of a Byzantine rhetorician has been incorporated in the works of Philo of Byzantium. The monuments are as follows: (r) the pyramids of Egypt, (2) the gardens of Semiramis at Babylon, (3) the statue of Zeus at Olympia (see PHE1DIAS), (4) the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, (5) the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (see Mausoleum), (6) the Colossus at Rhodes, (7) the Pharos (lighthouse) of Alexandria, or the Walls of Babylon.
See "Philo" De septem mundi miraculis (ed. Hercher, Paris, 1858).
1858).