Colossus of Rhodes, The

One of the Seven Wonders of the World, a bronze statue of the sun god Helios, with whom Apollo was later identified. Made by Charles of Lindus, it took 12 years to erect (292-280 BCE) and cost 300 talents. This money was obtained by the sale of the engines of war abandoned by Demetrius Poliorcetes after his unsuccessful siege of Rhodes, 304 BCE. The Colossus stood near, but did not bestride, the harbour. It was thrown down by an earthquake in 224 BCE and the pieces lay where they had fallen until CE 672. In that year Moawyia, general of the caliph Othman, sold them to a Jew of Edessa, who carried them away on 900 camels.

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