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Colossus Guide
The story of the Colossus began in 305BC and it was built for the sun
God Helios by the Greek architect Charles of Lindos. The Colossus is considered
one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world and the statue made from bronze from the
island of Rhodes itself.
In 305 BC he had his son Demetrius Poliorcetes, also a general,
invade Rhodes with an army of 40,000; however, the city was well defended, and Demetrius
had to start construction of a number of massive siege towers in order to gain access
to the walls.
The first tower was mounted on six ships, but these capsized in a storm before they
could be used. He tried again with a larger, land-
With all the back luck and a lack of progress Demetrius gave up and left Rhodes leaving
all the siege equipment behind which the defenders of Rhodes quickly sold for a huge
amount of money. With this money they decided t built the Colossus in dedication
to their patron God who protected them from the invaders.
The Colossus
Due to the time it was built there are varying dispute son where the
Colossus actually stood, some people say the colossus stood astride Mandraki harbour,
but back then it would of been impossible to build and would have been a very weak
statue. The most plausible place that the Colossus could of stood was on the hill
behind the town of Rhodes. Here it was easy to build and maintain, and as the Colossus
stood at over 30 metres tall it seems to be the most logical explanation for its
placement.
The Colossus was said to have been built with an iron frame and bronze
and brass plating. It was built by mounding the earth around the statue as work
continued over the years, stones and rocks were filled into the hollow legs to provide
stability.
Sadly the Colossus doesn't exist in the modern world, it actually stood
for 67 years before being destroyed by a terrible earthquake which rocked Rhodes
in 226 BC. Its is though that the earthquake would have rocked the rivets and joints
in the legs, causing the statue to topple under its own weight and break.
Ptolemy
III offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but the oracle of Delphi
made the Rhodian's afraid that they had offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild
it. The ruined statue lay broken but mainly intact for a further 800 years and it
was said that few people could even wrap their arms around the statues fingers, this
is how big it was.
In 654 the Turks captured the island of Rhodes and the leader of
the ottoman army had the statue broken up into small pieces and sold as scrap to
a Jewish Merchant known as Edassa. This cannot be confirmed and there are many stories
and myths to account for the disappearance of this fine and great statue.
Modern Influences
The
design, posture and dimensions of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour are based
on what the Colossus was thought by engineers in the late 19th century to have looked
like. There is a famous reference to the Colossus in the poem "The New Colossus"
by Emma Lazarus, written in 1883 which sits inside the statue of Liberty.
There is
much talk of rebuilding the colossus as a tourist attraction which would no doubt
be an economic boost for the island of Rhodes but the cost of rebuilding such a giant
statue is high.
Although as recently as November 2008, it was announced that the
Colossus of Rhodes was to be rebuilt. According to Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas, who is
heading the project in Greece, rather than reproducing the original Colossus, the
new structure will be a, "highly, highly innovative light sculpture, one that will
stand between 60 and 100 metres tall so that people can physically enter it." The
project is expected to cost up to €200m. The new Colossus will sit on an outer pier
in the harbour area of Rhodes, where it will be visible to passing ships.
When work
begins we will be bringing you pictures and updates of the build.
Some
information for this article was taken from Wikipedia
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