UNBELIEVABLE!! Ancient Colossus of Rhodes RECREATED in Minecraft

Hello my name is Harold haftan and welcome to archaeological Minecraft I’m a former archaeologist who enjoys playing Minecraft and thought it would be fun to combine the two in today’s episode we’re going to build one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World The Colossus of roads now I bet some of you

Who saw the thumbnail before reading the title thought this video was going to be about the Titan of braavos which is the ginormous 120 M or 400t tall bronze statue that straddled the harbor to the trade city of braavos in George RR Martin’s epic series The Song of Ice and

Fire well sorry to say this video isn’t going to be about that famous bronze statue but rather the statue that George RR Martin based his statue off of I think you’ll see that while there are some similarities between the two famous Bronze Statues perhaps what you think

You may know about the Colossus of RADS might be a bit different than the actual historical statue and that what George RR Martin based his statue off of might be more the later myth of the statue as a opposed to the historic statue it also might be that when you saw the thumbnail

You thought halfan why the heck are you building a big giant bronze robot cuz that’s kind of what this felt like the whole time trying to create people is super difficult so if anyone has tips in the comments about how I can make this thing look more personlike instead of a

Big bronze C3PO like robot it would be super helpful to hear what those tips and tricks are the story of the Colossus doesn’t begin with the Statue itself but rather with an invasion of the island of RADS from 305 to 304 BC by Demetrius of Macedon son of antigonus I otherwise

Known as antigonus The oneeyed Who was one of the successors and Generals of Alexander the Great and reigned in Macedon from 306 to 301 BC you see when Alexander the Great died his generals fought amongst themselves and carved up his Kingdom the island of RADS was aligned to to another of Alexandria’s

Generals who took over the land of Egypt and his family reigned as its Kings and Pharaohs until the time of Cleopatra who was the last pharaoh of Egypt though that’s a different story so let’s get back to the story of the Colossus RADS was a rich Island and had a central role

In Mediterranean trade and so antigonus wanted to control the island so he sent his son with a massive Invasion Force to the island to put it under siege in 304 BC he had to abandon The Siege when a release force from tol arrived and had to leave so rapidly that he had to

Abandon all his Siege equipment weapons and many of his supplies as such the rodians I’m sure with a nice smile of irony on their faces sold all the equipment and with the money they made from the sale along with the iron and bronze they reclaimed from The Siege equipment

Funded the creation of a mighty statue of their Patron God Helios who was the personification of the sun this statue was placed near the entrance to their Harbor where Ships coming to roads for trade would be able to see it as they sailed in or out notice I said placed

Near the harbor and not straddling the harbor that’s one of the first and perhaps the largest misconceptions about the Colossus I think many of us have seen pictures of the Colossus of roads and what is it often doing yeah straddling the harbor with ships sailing under it like in the fictional Titan of

Braavos but there are two reasons why this doesn’t work first is that the descriptions or paintings of it spanning the harbor come later well after Antiquity either in the writings of a 14th century Italian visitor who passed along Word of Mouth Tales From things locals told him or from a 16th century

Engraving by Martin heers on his series about the seven wonders of the world we’ll get into the destruction of the Colossus a bit later but suffice to say that the bronze statue and its remains were long gone by likely over 700 years before the time of the Italian visitors

Account and that text is likely where all the subsequent descriptions or pictures are based off of the second reason why it doesn’t make sense for it to have straddled the harbor is really just practical the statue stood around 32 M tall or 105 ft tall and while it

Stood on a pedestal That was supposed to be around 15 M or 50 ft tall and 18 M or 59 ft in diameter even at that height the leg span you would need to span the harbor wouldn’t have made sense on a statue 32 M tall instead of spanning the

Harbor entrance most modern Scholars think it was either located near the harbor on a pedestal on the one side of the Harbor’s entrance or possibly within a sanctuary of Helios on the Acropolis of roads that later might have become a temple to Apollo remember that the Colossus was a statue of Helios and

Given that the Acropolis was the highest part of the city if that theory is correct situated that way it would have been seen by any approaching ship coming into the harbor or leaving all that said there are very different opinions on the matter as far as where exactly it was

Located the construction of the statue started in 292 BC and the project was given to chares a native of Roads who was the pupil of a sculptor who had built a 22 M or 72t tall statue of Zeus in Tarentum in southern Italy so he likely knew what he was doing or at

Least saw someone who had done it before the construction took 12 years and was completed by 280 BC there’s a bit of a debate around how the statue was constructed Pho of Byzantium who lived from 280 BC to around 220 BC so basically a generation after the statue’s creation wrote about the

Construction used on the Colossus and said that it was built in a way and cast differently than was the normal process for Bron statues he claims that it was cast in place or in other words in situ because the individual sections couldn’t be moved because they were so heavy what

He described was this quote after the first part had been cast the second was modeled upon it and for The Following part again the same method of working was adapted after the casting of the new course upon that part of the work was already completed the artist heaped up a

Huge mound of Earth around each section as soon as it was completed thus burying the finished work under the accumulated Earth and carrying out the casting of the next part of the level so so let’s break down what he’s saying a little bit basically he’s saying that they piled

Dirt over the area that was just cast and then on top of that level cast the next section in place and then repeated that process until the statue was completely finished I think now might be a good time as I explain this to talk about how casting normally works seeing

How Pho of Byzantium said that it was cast differently so differently compared to what when talking about bronze casting don’t think about this as a solid bronze statue instead think of a bronze outer shell with a supporting framework inside of wood stone or iron normally when bronze is cast a process

Called The Lost wax process is used with this process you start by creating a central core of clay and then place the wax over top that Central core in ancient times beeswax was used the wax was poured on or coated to the thickness you wanted the eventual bronze thickness

To be for the Colossus that thickness has been estimated to be about 2.5 cm or 1 in thick then you carve into the wax to create your design any intricate work or just any general shaping you’d want the bronze to take on once you’re satisfied with the design and this in

The end will be what your bronze will look like you then coat the wax in a slurry often of water clay and charcoal and then let it dry over that you place an outer coating of clay which is allowed to dry the whole process of loss wax works because of the different

Melting points between the wax with a low melting point and the clay which has a higher melting point used in the outer core and outer coating heat is then applied and the wax melts away and is allowed to drain out of the mold thus creating a cavity within the mold with

The exact thickness and style of the carvings of what you are casting molten bronze is then poured into the the mold taking the place of what was originally the wax everything’s allowed to cool and then the mold is broken open or in the case of a reusable mold separated in a

Way that it can be then put back in place and reused a number of bronze workshops in roads have been excavated what they show is that normally large Bronze Statues were cast in large sections in casting pits a similar bronze pit was discovered in Athens which dates to around the time of the

Construction of the Colossus that could accommodate large sections up to 15 M or around 50 ft so how does this apply to the Colossus let’s go back to what pho of Byzantium said Pho had indicated that the Colossus was cast in a way that was different from what normally occurs for

Bronze Statues he said this was necessary because the bronze sections couldn’t be moved that said many modern Scholars think that Pho might be incorrect In His descriptions or at least incorrect in saying that the normal processes weren’t used casting like he described isn’t really practical and given that there are other very

Large casting pits that have been found in a concurrent time frame has led some to conclude that the sections of the classes were created in casting pits and then assembled and placed around wooden iron or a stone frame perhaps using some of the remnants of The Siege equipment

Left over from the siege of the city the Cass was said to have carved Stone feet that were covered with bronze plates and riveted in place it makes sense to me and this is only my personal opinion here that maybe they cast the parts in the casting pits and then built Earth

And ramps around where the parts of the statue had already been constructed and then used that artificial Hill of sorts to pull up the next part to then assemble it onto that next section and then repeated that process until the statue was fully created once completed they removed all the

Earth surrounding the statue remember Philo was writing his account at least a generation removed from the actual construction so maybe the methods or all the steps weren’t passed down to him 100% accurately the second misconception or thing you might not know about the Colossus is how long it stood for given

How famous the statue became I mean it’s one of the seven wonders of the world you would think it stood in place for hundreds and hundreds of years through throughout the ages of antiquity thus why it’s so famous Beyond being just such a large statue but that isn’t at

All correct just a short 54 years after it was constructed in 226 BC the island of RADS was hit by a devastating earthquake that caused major damage to the city its temples and harbor and brought down the Colossus of Roads it said it broke at the knees and collapsed

Onto the land to me the fact that it fell onto the land points more strongly that it wasn’t right on the Harbor and certainly not straddling it or it very likely might have fallen into the sea and not Fallen onto the land strabo the Greek geographer who lived from around

64 BC to around ad24 wrote about the Colossus and said the rodians didn’t rebuild it because of the advice of an Oracle in any case it collapsed onto the land and afterwards became a famous place for tourists and visitors to go and visit plenty the Elder a Roman

Author who lived from around ad23 to ad79 also wrote about the Statue saying how exciting it was to visit even though it lay on the ground he said quote few men can clasp the thumb in their arms and its fingers are larger than most statues where the limbs were broken

Aunder vast Caverns are seen yawning in the interior within it too are to be seen large masses of rock by the weight which the artists steadied it while erecting it from that time the Colossus rested laying on the ground with ancient tourists visiting the great Wonder all the way up until ad.

653 that’s when RADS was captured from the byzantines during the Arab expansion and according to the chronicle of theophanis the Confessor the bronze in the Statue was taken as booty and melted down that said I think it’s very likely that a statue to a pagan deity such as

Helios might have well have been taken apart bit by bit over the preceding centuries when roads was christianized around the 4th century and thus it was just the last Invasion by the Arab forces that melted down the remaining sections thus removing the Colossus of Roads from history but not from memory

Well that wraps up this video I hope you enjoyed my Recreation of the Colossus of Roads as always I put some resources I un covered while doing my research for this video in the description so you can check those out if you want to learn

More make sure you take the time if you liked my video to like subscribe and all that normal stuff and if you did like this video you might also like these other videos I’ve made about different ancient topics here’s one where I recreate a Roman aqueduct and here’s

Another where I talk about the public toilets used by ancient cultures thanks have a good rest of your day bye for now