In 305BC Demetrios Poliorketes (one of Alexander the Great's successors) put the island of Rhodes under siege. After his withdrawal, the islanders sold off his siege machinery and with the money raised, they commissioned a mighty statue to celebrate their victory.

The statue was that of the sun god Helios. The sculptor was a man called Chares of Lindos and it took him 12 years to create. No one knows for sure how big the statue was or exactly where it stood. Scholors have said that it was 31 metres in height and stood in the courtyard of the Temple of Helios in the centre of Rhodes town. Myth dictated it straddling the harbour entrance, but this seems unlikley.

The area in which Rhodes stands is subject to frequent earthquakes and it is believed that one such 'quake sent the statue crashing to the ground 66 years after its construction.

The Greeks left the remains of the statue where it fell for about 800 years.

In 653AD Moabiah (or Mu'awiya),the first Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, a most powerful monarch of the Arabic world, carried away the remains of the bronze statue and sold it to a Jewish merchant. The legend goes on to state that it took 900 camels to transport it.