Category: Ancient Wonders
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Ancient Wonders: The Mahabodhi Temple
Today we return to our Ancient Wonders series where we look to Bihar state in India and the Mahabodhi Temple. The temple is around 2,200 years old, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major site of Buddhist pilgrimage – so let’s explore Mahabodhi Temple’s fascinating history! The origins of the Mahabodhi Temple lie with…
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Ancient Wonders: The Gavrinis Passage Tomb
For the latest in our Ancient Wonders series, we look to France over 5,000 years ago. On a small island in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany lies the Gavrinis Passage Tomb. The uninhabited island is formed from granite rock but is a tourist attraction for it holds the region’s most impressive Neolithic site. The…
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Ancient Wonders: The Colossus of Rhodes
So far in the Ancient Wonders series we have looked at The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Colosseum, Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. We now return to the original list of the Seven Wonders of the World, compiled in the 2nd century BC, by investigating the Colossus of Rhodes. The Colossus has captured…
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Ancient Wonders: The Great Wall of China
Three years ago, I visited Beijing and by far the best thing I did there was visit the Great Wall of China. The scale of the Wall and the amount of time it has lasted, as well as the huge number of visitors it attracts every year are all reasons that I decided this should…
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Ancient Wonders: Stonehenge
For English people, as monuments go, Stonehenge is one of the most famous. Some people don’t necessarily get the big deal about it – I mean, it is just a bunch of rocks after all – but for others this ancient monument evokes great passion. Not only is it still a place of worship, but…
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Ancient Wonders: The Colosseum
As this blog post has been delayed because I took a trip to Rome, I thought it only fair I return to writing with a Rome-themed post, and as the Colosseum is so emblematic of Rome and the Roman Empire, I thought it fitting. The Colosseum fits my theme of “Ancient Wonders” as although it…
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Ancient Wonders: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
We tend to have a juxtaposed view of the ancient past: that people were simultaneously less advanced than us, with archaic views on women, people of different races, and little technology, but also great forefathers in maths, science, democracy, and capable of creating wondrous feats of engineering that even today we’re not quite sure how…
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