The historian Herodotus (484 BC–ca. 425 BC),
and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca 305–240 BC) at the Museum of
Alexandria, made early lists of "seven wonders" but their writings have
not survived, except as references. The earliest extant version of a list of
seven wonders was compiled by Antipater of Sidon, who described the structures
in a poem around 140 BC:
I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon
on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the
hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high
pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis
that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I
said, 'Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.'
