The statue of Zeus - the third wonder of the world

The statue of Zeus is the third miracle of the world, which, unfortunately, has not survived to this day. It was located in Olympia - the ancient Greek city, 150 km west of Athens. The city was famous for the fact that it hosted the Olympic Games. Competitions began to be held in the 7th century BC, but then they were of a non-scale nature. Over time, the news of the competition between men for strength and dexterity spread over many countries, and representatives from Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Sicily began to gather in Olympia. The games acquired a political character, and to emphasize their importance, it was decided to build a temple to the main god Zeus and create his statue.

First, a temple was built, over its construction for more than 15 years, the talented Greek architect Lebon worked. The structure was reminiscent of the Greek sanctuaries of that time, but it was much larger and more luxurious. The length of the temple of Zeus was 64 m, width - 28 m, and height - 20 m. Its roof was kept on 13 huge 10-meter columns. But still the Greeks had not one sanctuary, they wanted Zeus himself to be present at their Olympic Games, so it was decided to create his statue.

The statue of Olympian Zeus is the creation of the Athenian sculptor Phidias. According to the surviving records of eyewitnesses, its height was about 15 m, because of what it could hardly fit in the temple. It seemed that if Zeus rises from the throne, his head rests directly in the ceiling. The figure of the Thunderer was carved from a tree. Then, on a wooden frame, Phidias fastened the plates of pink ivory, so the body of the god seemed alive. The beard, the cloak, the scepter with the eagle and the figure of Nicky were poured out of pure gold. A wreath of olive branches, adorning the head of Zeus, was also made of this precious metal. The creation of the sculpture took more than 200 kg of gold, and this is almost $ 9 million.

The statue of Zeus at Olympia was such a unique masterpiece at the time that the news of her flew around many countries, people from nearby countries converged to look at this magnificence. God looked so natural that he seemed to be about to rise. If you believe the legend, after Phidias finished work on the statue, he asked: "Zeus, are you satisfied?". At the same time, thunder struck, and the Greeks took this sign as a satisfactory answer.

For seven centuries, the statue of Zeus favorably smiled to all participants of the Olympic Games. In 391 AD. The temple was closed by the Romans, who at that time adopted Christianity. The Roman emperor Theodosius I, who was a Christian, had a negative attitude towards everything connected with paganism, he forbade the holding of competitions and the worship of Zeus.

The statue of Zeus was at that time looted, and what was left of it was sent to Constantinople. But the sculpture was not destined to survive, there it completely burned down during the fire. The remains of the temple were discovered in 1875, and in 1950 archaeologists were lucky enough to find a workshop of the genius sculptor Phidias. These places were thoroughly investigated, as a result of which scientists were able to find out what the statue of Zeus looked like, and also to revive the Thundercracker's temple itself.