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Seven Medieval Wonders of the World

Spread over three continents, the feats of engineering and architecture now referred to as the Seven Medieval Wonders represent an impressive diversity of human thought. The wonders range from a mighty wall to a magnificent church to a sporting arena, and the purpose of one, Stonehenge, remains a mystery. Although they are lumped together as "medieval," and all existed between the 5th and the 15th centuries, two of the wonders were actually built well before the beginning of the Middle Ages.

Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, Alexandria, Egypt

The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa are a 2,000-year-old underground burial site carved out of bedrock and located in Alexandria, the capital city of ancient Egypt. Founded by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. and situated along the Mediterranean Sea, Alexandria was the center of Hellenic scholarship and science and today is the site of ongoing archeological excavations.

The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa were used between the 2nd and 4th centuries. The site was rediscovered in 1900 when a donkey reportedly fell through a chamber ceiling during an excavation project. It's likely the Catacombs were originally constructed as a family tomb; however, they were eventually expanded to hold several hundred corpses. A circular staircase leads below ground to a rotunda, a banquet hall for friends and family to celebrate the dead, and various tombs and chambers. The Catacombs are decorated with a mix of Egyptian and Greco-Roman iconography. Today, this ancient site is open to the public.

Colosseum, Rome, Italy

Once the site of bloody gladiator battles, the Colosseum still stands as one of the greatest architectural legacies of ancient Rome. Commissioned by Vespasian, the ninth Roman emperor, sometime between 70 A.D. and 72 A.D., the open-air theater and sports arena could seat 50,000 people and was officially known as the Flavium Amphitheater.

Vespasian's son and successor, Titus, dedicated the Colosseum in A.D. 80 with a 100-day celebration featuring gladiator fights and other spectacles. The gladiator tradition originated with the Romans, who forced slaves, criminals and prisoners of war to become trained combatants.

Gladiators, who were typically male, fought each other as well as wild animals, often to the death, while blood-thirsty crowds cheered them on. The floor of the Colosseum is said to have been covered with sand to soak up the blood. In the early years of its existence, the Colosseum was also flooded so mock naval battles could be staged.

Key cities throughout the Roman Empire constructed their own amphitheaters based on the Colosseum. Over the centuries, the Colosseum suffered from earthquake damage and was stripped for building materials. Today, it stands as a shell of its former self, next to one of Rome's busy traffic circles.

Great Wall of China, Northern China

Known as the world's largest man-made structure, the Great Wall of China spans mountains and deserts and was over 2,000 years in the making. The Great Wall is actually a series of walls, signal towers and passes that were built, rebuilt and expanded by different dynasties, including the Qin, Han and Ming.

The Wall was originally constructed in the 5th century to protect the Chinese Empire's northern border from nomadic tribes and other invaders. It was also used to house soldiers and supplies and relay military information. Millions of people, many of them forced laborers, worked on the Great Wall over the centuries. Countless workers lost their lives in the process and the remains of some are buried within the Wall. Earth and stone were the primary building materials during the early phases of the Great Wall's construction. During the Ming dynasty, bricks were introduced. China opened the Great Wall to tourists in 1970. Today, large sections of the wall have fallen into disrepair and in some places people continue to remove stones for building homes and roads. No one knows exactly how long the Wall is, although estimates often range from 3,000 to 4,500 miles. In 2007, researchers set out to conduct the first detailed survey of the Great Wall's dimensions and route. The project is expected to take four years.

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