The Colossus of Rhodes

By Juan Maciel

Background The Colossus of Rhodes, which is a statue of

the Greek God Helios, was built to celebrate the cities successful defense against an attempted siege by Demetrius. They sold the equipment that Demetrius’ army left

behind and built the statue with the money.

Building the Colossus The man put in charge of the construction of

the colossus was a Rhodian named Chares. The statue was said to be built with iron tie-

bars, which were then coated with bronze to create the “skin.”

To support the statue at first, dirt mounds were built around the legs, these dirt mounds were removed after construction. To give support to the colossus, it was filled to the

knees with stones.

Math Involved in it’s Construction Though there is no definite source (That I

found anyway) stating the math involved in building the Colossus. I found out what went into building large statues of this sort.

Ratios: You obviously don’t want to start construction of a statue only to fall short of the required materials. So ratios play a big role in constructing models and then determining how tall the real thing would be, the surface area, and things of that sort. They could find out the amount of bronze needed to cover the statue with this.

Appearance The statue was a 107 ft tall depiction of Helios

and was made of pure bronze. Some accounts have the statue depicted

straddling the harbor, while others have it standing on a 50ft marble pedestal. The more popular depiction is it straddling over

the harbor’s entrance, with ships sailing under it to access Rhodes harbor. Though this is arguably the incorrect one.

The Colossus straddling the harbor

The Colossus on a pedestal

Destruction The colossal statue no longer exists, it was

destroyed in an earthquake. It’s ruins were left as be for almost a millennia,

and it became a popular tourist attraction even after it’s fall.

After an Arabian force captured Rhodes, they broke down the statue into brass to sell.

Reconstruction There has been much debate on rebuilding

the colossus since it was proposed in 1970. But it was never done due to the enormous price (100 million Euros) and lack of funds.

In 2008, Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas announced that construction of a new “Colossus of Rhodes” would begin that would cost 200 million Euros. This new statue would have room for people to enter it, and is hoped to be a major tourist attraction.

Extra Credit Another Wonder of the World in Greece is the

Statue of Zeus.

Sources http://

www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/nov/17/colossus-rhodes-greece-sculpture

http://www.rhodos-travel.com/colossus.htm http://

www.richeast.org/htwm/Greeks/wonders/colossus.html

http://www.rhodesguide.com/rhodes/colossus_rhodes.php