In ancient mythology the island Of Rhodes, off the coast of Turkey,
was the island of Helios, the sun of god. After successfully defending their
island againts invasion in 340 B.C., the people of Rhodes built an enormous
statue of Helios in Lindos, the main harbour of Rhodes, to thank their
god for protecting them. No one knows exactly where the statue stood or
why it looks like that. Some people believe it is stood astride the entrance
to the harbour, so that ships could sail between its leg. It is more likely,
however, that the statue was built in the city, overlooking the harbour.
Rhodes was a city, the capital of the Greek island Rhodes and the Colossus was a huge
bronze statue of Helios, the sun god. The statue was almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty
in New York Harbor. The statue stood on a promentory overlooking the city. Erected in
about 280 BC by the citizens of Rhodes and was said to be 105 feet high. Legend has it that
it straddled the entrance to the harbour, but it probably stood to one side. The Greek
sculptor Chares worked for 12 years on the statue. He used stone blocks and about 7 1/2
short tons (6.8 metric tons) of iron bars to support the hollow statue. It was built in 280
BC,and unfortunately knocked down by an earthquake in 224 BC. The huge pieces were
left where they fell and were looked upon with awe for centuries to come. Nearly a
thousand years later, in AD 656, a scrap metal dealer bought the pieces and had them
melted down.
