What would you see if you could time travel to ancient days and sail down the Aegean Sea?

In ancient times Colossus was a gigantic bronze statue on a small Greek island named Rhodes. It stood beside the harbor at Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. It was approximately 118 feet high, and was a marvel to the Greeks.

If a man could have climbed to the top of Colossus, he would have been able to see far across the sea. Myth has the statue straddling the entrance of the harbor, but historians say this is highly unlikely.

In 305 B.C., Rhodes was under siege by their enemy, Demetrius Poliorcetes (one of Alexander The Great's successors). All the people who lived at Rhodes had to fight for their island including women. Ptolemy, a friend of Rhodes came to the rescue with a fleet of ships and saved the day.

The people of Rhodes were so grateful for their victory, they built a huge sun god -Helios (Apollo) to honor their triumph. A Rhodian sculptor, Charles of Lindos, designed the statue, taking twelve years to complete

Many years passed, and the great bronze monument stood overlooking the port. The people of Rhodes  believed the idol protected their island. Wayfarers came to Rhodes to see the famed image, and poets wrote about the statue, Colossus. Today, it is known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

In 226 B.C., a great earthquake hit Rhodes.  Colossus came crashing down, and broke into pieces, with many sections going into the sea. Unable to put the image back together again the citizens of Rhodes decided to leave it where it fell.

Still, people came to see the broken pieces of Colossus. Legend tells that in 653 A.D., Moabiah, first Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty of the Arabic world, carried away the relics and sold it to a Jewish merchant. For over eight hundred years, Mother Nature slowly buried all the remains quietly into the earth.

Today, pieces of Colossus are found buried. The much-talked about beauty of Colossus of Rhodes has inspired artist down through time, including Auguste Barthold, the French sculptor who created the Statue of Liberty. At present, artists have been invited to Rhodes to recreate a modern day Colossus. It is due to be completed by 2004 in time for the Olympic games in Athens.

Bib:
The Golden Book Ency.Wisc.
Lexicon Univ. Ency.New York.

©1999 jpinkerton