Mark Heaton Wrote:
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> If you are correct then the BBC book is not as
> good a history as I had thought. See for example,
> page 8 and page 10.

I'm not sure which BBC book is meant, but it's a fairly widespread misconception that G1 solely and specifically was on the ancient lists of wonders. Which I suppose is yet another example of popular culture's tendency to take G1 out of context.

>
> You seem fairly sure of your facts, and so I am
> happy to change my mind.>
>
> Mark
>
>
Then I'd better back myself up. Here are a few relevant excerpts.

Antipater of Sidon (usually considered the compiler of the first list of wonders): I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alphaeus, and the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Sun, and the huge labor of the high pyramids; but when I saw the House of Artemis that rose to the clouds, these other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, 'Lo, outside of Olympus, the sun has never looked on anything so grand.

Diodorus Siculus: The eighth King, Chemmis of Memphis, ruled fifty years and constructed the largest of the three pyramids, which are numbered among the Seven Wonders of the World. These pyramids, which are situated on the side of Egypt which is towards Libya, are one hundred and twenty stades from Memphis and forty-five from the Nile, and by the immensity of their structures and the skill shown in their execution they fill the beholder with wonder and astonishment.

Strabo: On proceeding forty stadia from the city, one comes to a kind of mountain-brow; on it are numerous pyramids, the tombs of kings, of which three are noteworthy; and two of these are even numbered among the seven wonders of the world, for they are a stadium in height, are quadrangular in shape, and their height is a little greater than the length of each of the sides; and one of them is only a little larger than the other.

Pliny the Elder: The other three pyramids, the renown of which has filled the whole earth, and which are conspicuous from every quarter to persons navigating the river, are situate on the African side of it, upon a rocky sterile elevation. They lie between the city of Memphis and what we have mentioned as the Delta, within four miles of the river, and seven miles and a-half from Memphis, near a village known as Busiris, the people of which are in the habit of ascending them.