From his appearance before the destruction took only 56 years old. Still, Colossus has taken its place among other landmarks. "Even being located on the ground, it is a miracle," said Pliny the Elder. Colossus of Rhodes was not only a giant statue. He was a symbol of unity of people living on this Mediterranean island - Rhodes. This was a historic monument at the entrance to the harbor of the Mediterranean in Greece.
Ancient Greece consisted of city - states, whose power did not extend beyond them. On the small island of Rhodes were three of them: Yalosos, Kamiros and Lindos. In 408 BC. er. These policies were combined into one - Rhodes. The city thrived commercially and had strong economic ties with their main ally, Ptolemy Soterom from Egypt.
Went 305 per year. BC is natural. Talents of gold, languishing in idleness in the city treasury Rhodes asked in the case, and a reason to spend them in soon presented itself. In 304 BC. er. army ruler of Asia Minor and Syria, Demetrius Poliorketa suddenly attacked the island of Rhodes. Macedonian (not the one that Alexander) took the city was under siege, but protorchav under the walls of a year old and never having visited Rhodes, left in peace.
Grateful Rhodians rewrote his victory at the expense of the god Helios, and to celebrate, have decided to build for him something original. God this was not just an abstract itself - it was believed that Helios has erected his own island in his honor, so that the choice can be considered quite reasonable. Bash for bash - Rhodians island, Helios - a statue.
The money was obtained through the sale of a variety of siege weapons abandoned during the retreat of the enemy. Among them was and has brought considerable revenue geleopolida - a miracle of military equipment, a huge siege towers, equipped with a battering ram, catapult, platforms to accommodate storm troopers, change-over bridges.
The construction of the Colossus hired Hares, eminent sculptor, who is already come across a lot of "divine" figures of every size around the city. Approving the project, Hares once again took up the waste of budget money. Like a miracle was built, it looked and where there was, chroniclers, and all writing in those days the brethren in the records carefully sidestep, to give the heirs of food for the imagination. One thing is clear - the height of it was somewhere between 30 and 36 meters.
On an artificial hill Hares set three stone pillars - two of them were secured bronze parts, depicting his legs and torso of a giant - the third part the cloak. "Assembly" of the statue was carried from the bottom up - first formed by the feet, then calves, etc. As the consolidation of parts of their covered with earth, thus creating a platform for working at a higher level. Only when the statue was fully prepared, the hill was hidden.
The base was made of white marble, were first set foot statue, and then the statue itself. The bronze form was fortified with iron deities and stone structures. His head was decorated with a crown in the form of diverging rays of the sun, his left hand he kept flowing cloak, and the right hand, bent at the elbow, covered his eyes, staring at the sea gave.
Above the figure of Helios is usually depicted with his hand stretched forward. At this time, the sculptor gave her a different position: the calculations showed that broke some other hand would be under its own weight. According to the testimony of the Roman scholar and writer Pliny the Elder, who studied part of the destroyed statues, not everyone is able to clasp the thumb of the giant.
The people of Rhodes longingly looking at the man-made earthen hill on which the swarming minions Hares, tyagaya zhelezyaki. Mount all grew up with her expenses, and confusing all to be seen. And only when the embankment was removed after 12 years of construction, it became clear that 20 tons of metal (for the manufacture of grandiose monument took 500 talents of bronze and 300 iron talent (respectively about 13 and about 8 tons)). the land are gone and not gone in vain - the beauty opened indescribable. Of beauty know firsthand, because those same historians, do not bother detailing the appearance, with enthusiasm transferred oohs, ahs on paper.
Perhaps the ancient Rhodians were smarter and more prosaic than we think - after the construction of one more or less in the money people wanted her to look at two of the Colossus and simultaneously recharge the local treasury of precious metals, so that income from tourism quickly repelled the construction costs, and then went to the net profits.
And this has not prevented even the fact that after 56 years of standing Colossus flopped to the ground - and in this form it continued to attract onlookers from around the world, dragging the ends of the earth only in order to embrace the thumb of a giant. Local oracle poshushukavshis with otherworldly inhabitants, rebuilding the banning.
Bronze parts of the body of the god of the sun for centuries rested on the ground, giving rise to many legends. Thus, in one of them tells that a ship bound for the harbor, sailed between the legs of a giant.
In 977 AD. er. Arab viceroy, who ruled the island, sold the remaining part of the statue. In order to transport it took 900 camels. It seemed as if she disappeared forever in smelters. Recently, however, archaeologists found at the bottom of the ancient harbor of the right hand of the god of the sun. This is all that remains of the last of the seven wonders of the world created in the ancient period
The success of this enterprise has infected many of the bacillus of megalomania, and the Colossi of different heights are the fruit like mushrooms after the rain - the size differed only tugostyu purse is building, but, of course, they are not nearly live up to the Rhodes miracle. In the modern followers not subsided - a statue in New York and Rio de Janeiro proof. And besides - in 2008 came the specter of the idea of "build" a Colossus by laser and all the light rays. While the idea was estimated at 200 million euros. I wonder how many euros original cost Rhodians?.
Although we do not know the true shape and the history of the emergence of the Colossus, modern reconstruction of the statue standing upright are more accurate than the earlier figures. Although it is a miracle, and disappeared, it is inspired by contemporary artists such as French sculptor August Bartholdi, known for his work "The Statue of Liberty."
