The Colossus of Rhodes was a bronze statue of the sun god Helios, built by the sculptor Chares of Lindos, a pupil of Lysippos. Construction began in 292 BC and finished in 280 BC. Rhodes paid by selling siege equipment left by Demetrius for 300 talents. Its height was about 108 feet (33 meters), and it stood on a white marble pedestal 49 feet (15 meters) high.
Iron tie bars carried bronze plates, and stone blocks filled the interior as the work rose. Scholars generally reject the popular image of the statue straddling the harbor mouth. Local tradition places it at the Mandraki port entrance, and one archaeologist argues for the Acropolis of Rhodes.
An earthquake in 226 BC snapped it at the knees. Ptolemy III offered to pay for rebuilding, but the Rhodians declined, following the Oracle of Delphi's warning that they had offended Helios. Modern proposals to rebuild it were never carried out.
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