Besides wheels it had casters antistrepta, so as to admit of being moved laterally as well as directly. The whole machine weighted three hundred and sixty thousand pounds.Īt the siege of Rhodes Demetrius employed an Helepolis of still greater dimensions and more complicated construction. This person prepared an helepolis of prodigious expense and of ingenious and laborious construction, whose height was one hundred and twenty-five feet, and its width sixty feet: he secured it, moreover, with hair-cloths and raw hides, so that it might securely withstand the shock of a stone of three hundred and sixty pounds weight, thrown from a balista. Poliorcetes, prepared to wage war against the Rhodians, and brought in his train Epimachus, a celebrated architect of Athens. This tower was 50 feet square at its base, more than 100 feet tall, and was armed with its own banks of catapults and sling throwers. Probably his most fearsome device was an enormous wheeled fortified tower called Helepolis (the 'Taker of Cities'). Demetrius's tortoise-like armored battering rams were 180 feet long and manned by one thousand men, and his giant catapults threw 180-pound stone balls a quarter of a mile. Demetrius was skilled in directing catapults and battering rams to crush city walls, and upon landing on the island he immediately began his efforts to break down its fortifications and defenses. In 305-306 BC Demetrius son of Antigonus a general of Alexander the Great invade Rhodes with an army of 40000 (on 200 warships and 172 transport ships). Another of Alexander's generals, Antigonus, was upset by this turn of events. During the fighting Rhodes had sided with Ptolemy I Soter*, and when Ptolemy eventually took control of Egypt, they formed an alliance which controlled much of the trade in the eastern Mediterranean. , Stamps of the Seven Wonders of the WorldĪfter the death of Alexander the Great fights broke out between his generals. The statue was rather more similar to the Statue of Liberty in New York. The image of this stamp shows an impossible reconstruction for the material used.

It is one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World described by the poet Antipater of Sidon around 130 BC. The Colossus of Rhodes was approximately as large as the Statue of Liberty in New York. Lysippus a sculptor constructed already a 15 m high statue of Zeus. One example of construction technology from Rhodes was the Colossus of Rhodes, a gigantic statue. Some assume that it produced machines like the Antikythera device. The island was known for its technology of war machines. Technology in the Greek island of Rhodes was advanced around the period of Alexander the Great.

Not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of freedom.ĭedicatory inscription of the Colossus of Rhodes

To you, O Sun, the people of Dorian Rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus when they had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city with the spoils taken from the enemy. Also the first Greek Astronaut Mennipus on his trip to the moon tried to see if the Colossus of Rhodes is visible.

And so you shall ascend, therefore, in imagination with me to the Moon, and consider the situation and appearance of the earth from thence: suppose it to seem, as it did to me, much less than the moon, insomuch, that when I first looked down, I could not find the high mountains, and the great sea and, if it had not been for the Rhodian Colossus, and the tower of Pharos, should not have known where the earth stood.Īstronauts are supposed to be able to see the Great Wall in China.

The colossus of rhodes