When a group of archaeologists is digging a section of the jordanian amman citadel, they come across an incredible marble hand. Even though the artifact itself is a remarkable find, some experts think that the enormous stone body part could only be the beginning of a significant discovery. Archaeologists think this enormous hand may have been part of the tallest marble statue ever built.

Of course, the ancient world has something of a reputation for astonishing structures. Indeed, in the era of the byzantine empire, the author philo of byzantium wrote a work that he called the septum monday miraculous or on the seven wonders of the world. And in the treatise philo described seven tomato are things to see, these days, we might call the must cease. In the writers opinion, they were the most remarkable feats of engineering and art in the ancient world, and therefore places that every traveler should visit.

Today, we don't actually know if all of these wonders ever really existed. And even if they did, their descriptions may well be subject to exaggeration. Six of these natural and architectural triumphs didn't make it to modern times, you see, making it impossible to know for sure if the sights were accurately portrayed in philo's work, some of the historic attractions succumb to natural disasters such as earthquakes, while others fell victim to human malice nowadays, then only one survives. But arguably the most famous of the seven wonders is the one that's still around today. Completed in around 2561 bce, egypt's great pyramid in giza remained for nearly 4000 years, the highest structure ever built by humans. And although many of the tombs treasures were stolen a long time ago, the pyramid itself remains almost intact.

At the other end of the seven wonders scale, however, are the hanging gardens of babylon. You see, while the existence of the great pyramid can't be denied, there is no conclusive evidence that the gardens ever really once flourished.