The Eighth Wonder

“Why Egypt?” a number of friends have asked.  Well, you could claim it is part of the elaborate home schooling journey we have embarked on.  The fact is Willow has something of an obsession with the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  In case you have forgotten, these Mediterranean and Middle Eastern marvels are:

1.      Hanging Gardens of Babylon (now Iraq)
2.     Colossus of Rhodes (Greece)
3.     Statue of Zeus at Olympia (Greece)
4.     Temples of Artemis at Ephesus (now Turkey)
5.     Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (now Turkey)
6.     Lighthouse of Alexandria  (Greece)
7.     Great Pyramid of Giza (Egypt)

If you know your history, you know that the only remaining wonder of the world is the Great Pyramid of Giza.  Also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, it is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in Egypt.  The Great Pyramid is also the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, predating the others by 2,000 or more years.  Last year, when we were discussing where we would go for a big family adventure, Willow was clear, “I want to see the pyramids.”  When I suggested we could see other things first, Willow pointed out that all the other ancient wonders have been destroyed.  When I tried to counter that the pyramids had been there for thousands of years and were not likely to go anywhere, Willow shot back, “Some of the other wonders were there for thousands of years and they’re all gone now.”

And so we go to Egypt.


The Eighth Wonder