REVIEW: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Bettany Hughes)

Book: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Author: Bettany Hughes

Premise: The Seven Wonders of the World were staggeringly audacious impositions on our planet. They were also brilliant adventures of the mind, test cases of the reaches of human imagination. Now only the pyramid remains, yet the scale and majesty of these seven wonders still enthral us today.

This book takes each of the seven wonders in turn and covers their creation, the social and political backdrops, what happened to the wonders, and what remains today. I found it interesting learning about the wonders as I only knew about of the pyramids and the hanging gardens. My favourite chapter was about the statue of Zeus and learning about the original Olympic games. However, I did find this really dry and I got confused as to how each tangent related to the wonder in question. Interesting but a bit of a slog.