Peter Weaver, age 8, of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, for his question:
WHAT ARE THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD?
Although all of the leading world's travelers don't agree with the full list, the following are listed as the official Seven Modern Wonders of the World: (1) Suez Canal; (2) the Dneproges Dam on the Dnepr River in Russia; (3) Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, England; (4) Alcan Highway; (5) Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; 6) Eiffel Tower in Paris, and (7) the Empire State Building in New York City.
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are all man made objects that are especially notable because of their size and unusual quality. Here's the list:
1 The Pyramids of Egypt, especially the three largest at Giza. They were built as tombs for ancient Egyptian kings and are the best preserved of all the ancient wonders.
2 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, probably built by King Nebuchadnezzar II for one of his wives between 605 and 562 B.C. No positive traces of the gardens remain, but they were described in 200 B.C. by a Babylonian priest named Berossus. A massive brick wall surrounded Babylon and water was lifted from the Euphrates River by slaves turning giant screws.
3 The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was built about 550 B.C. and was one of the largest and most complicated temples in ancient Greece. Made of marble, it was 377 feet long and 180 feet wide with a double row of 106 columns around it. It burned in 356 B.C., was rebuilt in about 262 A.D. but only the foundation remains today.
4 The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece, was made about 435 B.C., stood 40 feet high and was decorated in gold and ivory.
5 The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, in what is now Turkey, was a 135 foot marble building. A long colonnade, 36 columns and a carved frieze made the building famous. Only pieces of the building and its decorations remain today.
6 The Colossus of Rhodes was a huge bronze statue 120 feet tall that stood near the harbor of Rhodes on the Aegean Sea. It took 12 years to build in the early 200s B.C. It was sold for scrap in A.D. 653.
7 The Lighthouse of Alexandria was built in Egypt about 270 B.C. Standing 440 feet high, it was designed by the Greek architect Sostratos.
The list of the Seven Natural Wonders includes the following:
(1) Mt. Everest; (2) Victoria Falls on the Rhodesia Zambia border; (3) the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River; (4) Great Barrier Reef of Australia; (5) the caves of France and Spain; (6) Paricutin, a volcano in Mexico, and (7) the Harbor at Rio de Janeiro.
These natural wonders are often put on the list: California's giant sequoias; Rainbow Natural Bridge in Utah; Yellowstone Falls; Crater Lake and Wizard Island in Oregon; and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.