The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World: The Great Monuments and How They Were Built

Chris Scarre took a subject so inherently full of awe and wonder and drained it of both. Monuments, buildings, and structures meant to inspire just fall flat in this compendium. You get semi-decent histories of each place, some facts and figures, and that's it. Of the 70 wonders in the book, there are only 13 in-book plates. Woeful. There are better coffee table books out there on this topic -- go get one of those.

I'm more of a historian than architect or archeologist but I found more than enough interesting facts to keep me reading the details of how these wonders came about. What makes this book really noteworthy are the great illustrations of these landmarks.

I went searching for a good book on the original 7 Wonders of the World and ended up getting 63 more than I'd bargained for! An excellent book that inspired a excellent series, this is a beautifully illustrated overview of some of the most fascinating architectural marvels of the ancient world.

A must for the armchair Indiana Jones.