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The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

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The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

By: Bettany Hughes
Narrated by: Bettany Hughes
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About this listen

'A wondrous wonderful achievement' STEPHEN FRY

Longlisted for The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2025

The Seven Wonders of the World were staggeringly audacious impositions on our planet. They were also brilliant adventures of the mind, test cases for the reaches of human imagination.

Now only the great pyramid remains fully standing, yet the scale and majesty of these seven wonders still enthral us today. In a thrilling, colourful narrative enriched with the latest archaeological discoveries, bestselling historian Bettany Hughes walks through the landscapes of both ancient and modern time. This is a journey whose purpose is to ask why we wonder, why we create, why we choose to remember the wonder of others. She explores traces of the Wonders themselves, and the traces they have left in history. A magisterial work of historical storytelling, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World reinforces the exciting and nourishing notion that humans can make the impossible happen.

'Fantastic...a joy from the outset' PETER FRANKOPAN

'Fascinating...all told with Bettany's natural sense of wonder and adventure' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE

©2024 Bettany Hughes (P)2024 Orion Publishing Group Limited Ancient Archaeology Egypt Europe

Critic Reviews

Egypt's The Great Pyramid, the only one of the Seven Wonders that survives virtually intact, reminds us of the overwhelming human desire to collaborate and create "beyond the possibilities of the individual," states Bettany Hughes in her rich historical study The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on The Hanging Gardens of Babylon and learned that "paradise" comes from the Persian word for a beautiful walled garden (Martin Chilton)
A trip to modern-day Egypt is an appropriate starting point for Bettany Hughes's fascinating exploration of the impact such structures have had on our history and imagination. Mixing the latest archaeological and historical research with a bright, inquisitive style makes these places - and their peoples - come alive. (Ben East)
Hughes has long been one of television's more vivacious historical guides, and here she doubles down on her enthusiasm in a book that transforms these ancient sites into vivid three dimensions for even the most armchair-bound of travellers. It is at once a travelogue and a textbook, and is possessed of an insatiable craving for knowledge ... That she loves her subject is given, but the fact that she manages to endlessly fascinate even those amongst us for whom the ancient world rarely intrudes into the modern is perhaps the real achievement here. History couldn't ask for a better ambassador (Nick Duerden)
A meditation on the enduring idea of wonder . . . Hughes's narrative is alive with detail relating to the construction and daily operations of the Seven Wonders in their prime. This is heightened by her intimate knowledge of the archaeological sites (Bijan Omrani)
Starting with the Great Pyramid at Giza - the oldest of the Wonders, and the only one to survive almost intact - Hughes makes a fascinating tour, combining classical sources with modern archaeology to tell the stories of these astonishing monuments (and, in the case of the Hanging Gardens, whether they really existed). Richly detailed and full of fascinating insights, her book is a wonder in its own right (Jane Shilling)

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Loved It.

I want Bettany’s job. I just need to be a brilliant historian and storyteller. The detail and insight is exceptional and her stories about her adventures in researching the book are compelling.

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Subject knowledge and narration

Excellent subject knowledge on all the wonders and very well narrated so as not to get lost with all the information provided

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Absolutely loved every minute

I absolutely loved this book, I enjoyed it as much as Istanbul and can’t wait you get my hands on another one by Bettany Hughes

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A travelogue more than history

Ms Hughes is overblown in dialogue. Where 2 words would suffice 50 are used.

Factually incorrect in places ie: ‘ The sea peoples were Phoenician Pirates’. No one knows exactly who they were and more likely a mixture of peoples.

More of an ancient travelogue a la Herodotus than history,

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