Live Safe >> Get Insured:

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

SEVEN WONDERS LISTS ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES.

Seven Wonders lists about the Middle Ages are existing historical lists for which there is no unanimity of opinion about origin, content or name. These historical lists go by names such as "Wonders of the Middle Ages" (implying no specific limitation to seven), "Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages", "Medieval Mind" and "Architectural Wonders of the Middle Ages". The lists are more properly seen as a continuing type or genre in the Seven Wonders tradition than a specific list.
It is unlikely the lists originated in the Middle Ages. Brewer's calls them "later list[s]" suggesting the lists were created after the Middle Ages. This is supported because the word medieval was not even invented until the Enlightenment-era, and the concept of a "Middle Age" did not become popular until the 16th century. Further, the Romanticism movement glorified all things related to the Middle Ages, or more specifically anything pre-Enlightenment era, suggesting such lists would have found a popular audience in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Some items found on some of the lists are not technically from the Middle Ages (according to modern historical standards), but we know the lists were not created by modern medieval historians, so such standards did not apply.

Typically representative of the seven:

1.Stonehenge


2.Colosseum


3.Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa


4.Great Wall of China


5.Porcelain Tower of Nanjing


6.Hagia Sophia


7.Leaning Tower of Pisa


Other sites that have been mentioned include:

1.Cairo Citadel


2.Ely Cathedral


3.Taj Mahal


4.Cluny Abbey

No comments: