NEWS: Colossal Erection

CULTURE: Colossal Erection

The Colossus at Rhodes in Greece was one of the Ancient Wonders of The World. It was approximately the same size as the modern Statue of Liberty, guarded the entrance to the harbor at Rhodes, and stood for 56 years until an earthquake toppled it. Since 225 B.C.E., various leaders from Rhodes debated whether they should rebuild the statue. Currently, the mayor of the island wants to begin to rebuild the statue for 100 million euros.

The Colossus wouldn't move me as much as a recreation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.



And it wouldn't surprise me if the MGM Grand in Las Vegas erected a larger version of the Colossus over the Strip before the Greek island got its act together. Let's just hope for stone and not fiberglass.

you're right, the hanging gardens of babylon would be amazing. wasn't there some dispute over weather the hanging gardens actually existed?
i vaguely remember seeing some show on the discovery channel saying it was most likely a exaggerated fable because there was no way it could have been done out there in the desert.

guilty as charged

Now I have this mental picture of a 33 metre tall brass phallus sitting at the entrance to the harbour..
Thanks people.

On the other hand.. it may not be a bad tourist attraction..
people could rub it for good luck.. send postcards to JWB claiming they met his doppleganger..hmmm..
"hey George! we finally saw a bigger dickhead than you!!"



Spellcheck edit

[Edited on Feb 14, 2005 5:19AM]

Me thinks you spellcheck missed something is it supposed to be GWB?

Hey what the...? Where's the hot cock pictures?

i got to "various leaders from Rome debated..." and really thought it would continue with "...whether or not the Colossus had a massive boner"

if u ask me, the article turned out to be a lot less interesting

Hey it was way too early in the morning ok? Yes it was.. dammit ..
Thx. Me fixink now...

Scientists have often claimed that there was "no way" that some ancient/primitive people could possibly have achieved some task, only to be proven wrong. For example, there were decades of debate regarding whence the peoples of the Pacific islands came from. Western scientists and navigators refused to believe that people could navigate against the wind (that is, from Asia toward South America) without compasses and sextants and whatnot.
There were all these tenuous theories about how the original inhabitants just let the wind carry them from South America to the islands. Later, pottery evidence conclusively fixed Asia as the point of origin. As the West sat down and talked with some of the navigators, we realized that they could navigate without tools and had been doing it for generations.

i know that, but in this particular case they meant that the hanging gardens of babylon were simply impossible, even with current technology it would be near impossibly to pump thousands and thousands of gallons of irrigation water up into those gardens in the middle of the desert.

And how the hell did those pyramids get built, anyway?!?

But seriously, I've always wondered what exactly was meant by "hanging" gardens. That sounds like an engineering/horticultural nightmare for anyone lacking sophisticated hydroponic and anti-gravity technology, frankly.

Maybe you should check out Las Vegas before you close the book on getting significant amounts of water to a place in the desert. And Babylon was situated on the Euphrates river, so it's not hard to imagine that there was some water in the area.

Either way, your particulars don't in any way demonstrate that the scientists who claim that they could not have existed are infallible. I'm not saying we should toss out the doubts cast by science; I'm just saying that historical evidence has usually proven to be more reliable than "there's no way they could have done that, because I can't think of a way they could have done that".

[Edited on Feb 14, 2005 by threejane]

i'd much rather believe something as fantastical as the hanging gardens of babylon really existed anyway, it's just too cool not to.

Rhodes is already pretty nice. Check out the leather shop with the handmade sandals hanging out front. He is cool. also try to clear waters in the bay. very nice.

If it helps the people sure but I hope there is no more half assed american inspired political graffiti. I saw "fuck the police" on a thousand year old wall. Come on people. And there is no reason to spray paint "free mumia" in Athens.

Also, let us not forget that the middle east and norther africa were once verdant jungle.

Who said anything about a pump? They had 1,000s of slaves. Same kind of resources that built the pyramids, or any other impressive endeavor of ancient times.

Me too, I feel like a Big Dick.

Agreed. First thing I thought of.

Added to the fact that the Euphrates basin, like the Nile delta, was a very different place during this period. It's the excessive agriculture of the Babylonian and Egyptian cultures that may have been a primary factor behind these areas being so arid in modern times. We don't really like to consider how quickly the world around us changes, especially due to our own actions.

Sorry to act like a consistent archaeological naysayer, but recent findings have very strongly suggested that the majority of pyramids (including the Giza monuments) were not built by slaves at all, but by contracted workers. It's worth noting that these and other large ancient structures took up so much time and resources to construct that it's difficult to see how they would have been completed had not the majority of a society been behind their completeion. This would contradict the traditional 'slaves built everything' view.

After the original fell over in an earthquake, an Egyptian king offered to repair and re-erect the Colossus. But the people of Rhodes consulted an Oracle than warned against it. Putting up a new Colossus would be an slap in the face of the Gods.

The Gods people!!!