Life: The Seven Wonders of the World Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

round the second century B.C., in the Palestinian city of Sidon, there was a man named Antipater. He was the Baedeker of antiquity, as he compiled a list of must-sees for the travelers of old. He settled on the sacred number of seven as a good parameter for his list. He did not discriminate geographically: one of his wonders was in Europe, three in Asia, two in Africa and one on an island in the sea. Their construction spanned nearly 3,000 years, and they were all, indeed, constructions.