This World Wonder was created by the great Greek sculptor Phidias. The statue depicted the God Zeus sitting on his throne. His body was made of ivory, and his clothes were made of hammered gold. It was 40 feet tall and was meant to instill awe in the worshipers visiting the temple.

Not everyone was amused by the giant statue. The historian Strabo wrote that “the greatest of these was the image of Zeus... it was so large that, although the temple was very large, the artist is thought to have missed the proper symmetry, for he showed Zeus seated but almost touching the roof with his head, thus making the impression that if Zeus arose and stood erect he would unroof the temple.”

Nevertheless, Phidias’ masterpiece captivated the ancient world and was a must-see for anyone who attended the ancient Olympics. However, soon the Roman emperor Theodosius I issued a decree to end all cult practices, including the Olympics Games. After that, the temple fell into decay until it was desecrated, and then completely destroyed by earthquakes. Eventually, the ruins were covered with silt brought by the River Alpheus, which gradually changed its course.

The statue didn’t have the same fate as the temple, as they were destined to part and never reunite again. It was repaired several times, the cracks in the ivory were corrected, and supporting columns were possibly added under the throne. The Roman emperor Caligula tried to bring it to Rome but according to the writer Suetonius, the project was abandoned after the giant Zeus mysteriously emitted a roar of laughter and the workers’ scaffolding collapsed. The next indignity was the stealing of its gold parts by Roman Emperor Constantine I.

Finally, the Statue of Zeus was moved to Constantinople in 395 CE where it was destroyed due to an earthquake or tsunami in the 5th or 6th century CE. According to an alternative theory, the statue was destroyed by fire in 475 CE. No matter what the exact reasons for losing this statue were, the surviving descriptions by ancient writers and the images in ancient artworks and on coins are all that have been left from the only “wonder” of the Ancient World that was genuinely worshipped.

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