Workers cast the exterior bronze skin sections of the Colossus of Rhodes. The base was built of white marble, and the statue's feet and ankles were initially secured. The edifice was built in stages as the bronze shape was reinforced with an iron and stone framework. Each section was attached to the next by metal pins driven through the bronze and into the underlying marble.
The statue itself is made of green bronze. It has been estimated that if melted down, the bronze from which it was made would have weighed about twenty-five thousand pounds – more than enough to fill a large wagon with enough left over for dozens of pots of glaze.
The original height of the statue was about thirty-three feet, but over the years pieces have been added, including a head at nineteen feet, another piece of chest at twenty-one feet, and a full body at half height. Today's statue stands forty-two feet high.
In its day, the Colossus was one of the largest structures ever built with its own power source. It is estimated that during construction, some ten thousand slaves were used along with a hundred elephants for transportation.
The statue was designed by Myronides and executed by Aristotileous. Construction began around 292 B.C. and was not completed until about eighty years later when it was damaged by an earthquake.
Around 250 B.C., an artist's portrayal of the Colossus of Rhodes depicts the statue straddling the island's bay. Nobody knows what the colossus looked like or where it was on the island. Scholars have claimed that it was a standing person carrying a torch in one hand based on textual descriptions. Soccer competitions (such as the European Champion Clubs' Cup, which subsequently evolved into the Champions League) would also emerge in the mid-twentieth century throughout the world. Globalization has been restricted outside of soccer. Within the world of soccer, however, many different countries have competed against each other since the early 1950s when the European Championship was established.
The first modern international tournament was held in 1930 and was called the World Cup. It was not until 1954 that another global event began: the European Championship. The European Championship is played every two years and includes the current title holder, Germany. The next edition will be hosted by France from June 9 to August 9, 2024. The Olympic Games are also held every two years and include soccer as one of their events. The last Olympic soccer tournament was in 2012 and was called the London Olympics. The next games will be in 2020 in Tokyo.
There are also several international tournaments that are held annually. Some of the most famous international tournaments are the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup. The former was created in 1955 and is open to all professional club teams in Europe. The latter was founded in 1995 and is exclusive to the winners of the FA Cup (England).
In addition to these major tournaments, there are also continental championships that determine national champions.
The Colossus of Rhodes was one of the Seven Wonders of the World and was a massive statue of the sun god Helios that stood in the ancient Greek city of Rhodes. The monument was built by sculptor Chares of Lyndus (another city on the island) to celebrate the end of Demetrius I Poliorcetes' protracted siege of Rhodes (305 bce). The statue was so large that it took eleven years to complete and was made out of bronze captured from the rivers Rhône and Nile. It is estimated that the statue was around thirty-three feet high.
Chares used parts of the arms and armor of dead enemies to create his sculpture. However, some historians believe that parts of the Colossus' body may have been taken from other works by Chares. For example, some scholars think that the head may be a copy of a now lost work by Lysippos or even a portrait of Chares himself.
After it was completed in 305 bce, the Colossus was set up in its own sanctuary where it remained for fifteen years. In 310 bce, however, the invading army of Antigonus Monophthalmus attacked Rhodes and most of the island's buildings were destroyed. The Colossus was then dismantled piece by piece and shipped off to Egypt to serve as an altar in the temple of Hephaestus.
The Colossus of Rhodes (Ancient Greek: o Kolossos Rodios, romanized: ho Kolossos Rhodios; Greek: Kolossos tes Rodou, romanized: Kolossos tes Rhodou) was a statue of the Greek sun-god Helios constructed in 280 BC by Chares of Lindos in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name. The statue stood about 35 metres (115 feet) high and was made of white marble with red veins.
It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The word "colossus" comes from Latin columba, meaning "dove". Thus, the phrase "colossal statue of..." means a huge sculpted figure of... Based on recent discoveries, it has been suggested that the original version of the statue might have been even more impressive than originally thought. It has been estimated that the original statue would have been about 80 meters (262 feet) tall, making it the largest bronze statue ever created.
The statue was destroyed during the 1648 Ottoman invasion of Rhodes when the invading forces used it for target practice. What remains today is only a small part of the original sculpture; the rest was broken up for metal. Only the base of the statue remains today; this can be seen at the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes.
The Rhodes Colossus was a statue in its time one of the largest bronze statues in the world. The statue, which stood at over 30 feet tall, was created by French artist Lysippos and inaugurated in 294 B.C. on the Athenian Acropolis. Originally titled "Neoptolemus," the statue depicted the Greek warrior prince Neoptolemus who died fighting Mardonios, king of Persia. It was destroyed during the sacking of Athens in 42 B.C.
Rhodes was a small island nation off the coast of modern-day Greece that played an important role in the growth of democracy. In 510 B.C., half of the citizens of Athens voted to give their capital city back to the people from whom it had been taken by force. The other half refused to vote for this act, saying they were not free men but slaves. Thus, democracy was established in Athens. A few years later, in 494 B.C., the people of Rhodes also voted to give their city back to its inhabitants. This event is called the Delian League because Rhodes joined together with Athens and others to fight against the invading armies of Sparta and her allies.