The phrase “seven wonders of the ancient world” is enough to make your heart sink. There is something so fly-blown about the notion of an archaeological greatest hits – all tourist buses, bossy tour guides and dodgy air conditioning. Bettany Hughes, however, is on a mission to re-enchant us with what she calls seven “test cases of the human imagination”, from the Great Pyramid at Giza to the Colossus of Rhodes by way of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. “I have travelled as the ancients did by land and sea to explore traces of the Wonders themselves,” declaims Hughes, sounding for all the world like Homer. And now she is here to tell us why we should wonder – and perhaps wander too – in her wake.
We start on the banks of the Nile, staring into the scorching sun and trying to discern the tip of King Khufu’s great pyramid, built around 2560BCE. The pharaoh was convinced that a tall, pointy launchpad in blinding white limestone was just what he needed to sail into the sky and on into the afterlife. Thrillingly, new evidence about his postmortem travel plans continues to emerge. Hughes explains that as recently as 2011 the remains of a boat were excavated on the eastern side of the Pyramid, still patiently waiting to ferry its royal commander into the beyond. You have to admire the literalness or perhaps hubris of the Egyptian king in thinking that he could paddle his way to the stars. Worth noting, though, that his mummified body has never been found.
