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Rhodes hoteliers call for reconstruction of Colossus

Hoteliers from Rhodes have gathered to present their proposals for the recreation of the Colossus of Rhodes.

Rhodes hoteliers call for reconstruction of Colossus
Greek hoteliers on the isle of Rhodes are calling for the reconstruction of the ancient wonder [Credit: Protothema]
The statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun, Helios, standing at 30 meters in height at the ancient port of Rhodes was considered one of the tallest structures of its time.

The structure stood at the port for 56 years until it was destroyed in a 226 B.C. earthquake.

Tourists can only imagine what it must have looked like!

Even after its destruction, the remains lay on the ground for over 800 years and were so impressive, even broken, that travellers came to see them.

Rhodes hoteliers call for reconstruction of Colossus
The Colossus of Rhodes as imagined in a 16th-century engraving by Martin Heemskerck, part of his series of the Seven Wonders of the World [Credit: WikiCommons]
Pliny the Elder remarked that few people could wrap their arms around the fallen thumb and that each of its fingers was larger than most statues.

In 653, an Arab force under Muslim caliph Muawiyah I captured Rhodes, and according to The Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, the statue was cast down and sold to a Jewish merchant of Edessa who loaded the bronze on 900 camels.

50 of the island’s largest hoteliers now want to the statue to jump from legend, folklore and imagination to the realms of reality.

They have already compiled a text that has been presented to the new regional coordinator of Rhodes Marietta Papavasileiou.

Source: Protothema [October 24, 2014]