The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The Sunday Times Bestseller

'A wondrous wonderful achievement' STEPHEN FRY

Longlisted for The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2025

The Seven Wonders of the World were staggeringly audacious impositions on our planet. They were also brilliant adventures of the mind, test cases for the reaches of human imagination.

Now only the great pyramid remains fully standing, yet the scale and majesty of these seven wonders still enthral us today. In a thrilling, colourful narrative enriched with the latest archaeological discoveries, bestselling historian Bettany Hughes walks through the landscapes of both ancient and modern time. This is a journey whose purpose is to ask why we wonder, why we create, why we choose to remember the wonder of others. She explores traces of the Wonders themselves, and the traces they have left in history. A magisterial work of historical storytelling, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World reinforces the exciting and nourishing notion that humans can make the impossible happen.

'Fantastic...a joy from the outset' PETER FRANKOPAN

'Fascinating...all told with Bettany's natural sense of wonder and adventure' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE