Statue of Zeus at Olympia belongs to the years before the Common Era — dated here to c. 435 BCE at Olympia, Greece. The date is a scholarly centre of gravity, not a foundation-stone timestamp.
Phidias seated Zeus in gold and ivory so large that if the god stood he would unroof the temple — a chryselephantine dare.
How it was made
A workshop south of the temple matches tools and ivory-working debris to the 430s BCE. The throne was cedar, gold, ebony, and precious stones.
Why it still counts as a wonder
It sits on the canonical Greek list of seven wonders of the ancient world — a tourist poster already in Hellenistic poetry.
The statue was later moved toward Constantinople and lost. Olympia keeps the temple floor and the legend of a god who almost did not fit.
On dating
BCE in this series means years before the traditional birth of Christ, counted backward. A monument listed as c. 435 BCE may have been founded earlier, rebuilt later, or famous only in one phase. Where ancient writers disagree — as they do for Babylon’s gardens — we say so.
This is story 4 of 100 in The Trend Ledger’s illustrated desk on world wonders raised before the Common Era.