I was a statue they called Colossus. It was bronze and was next to the port of a small island of the Aegean Sea, called Rhodes. I was as tall as twenty men and my thumb was so big you couldn't have surrounded it with your hands. If you had climbed over my head, you could have seen the land and the sea a lot of miles in the round.
A long time ago, the inhabitants of Rhodes tried to save their island from an invasion of thousands of men from other lands. They had very little hope of coming out victorious, but both men and women fought with great courage. Its value was rewarded when an illustrious friend of the island, Ptolemy, came to his aid with a powerful squadron of boats and managed to beat the enemies of Rhodes.
The people of Rhodes were so grateful to have been saved that they built my statue. I stayed for many years in the bay and they called me one of the Seven Wonders of the world. The word "colossal" comes from my name.
One day, the Earth began to tremble. The tremor was so intense that I collapsed and could not recompose.
Today, in books, I am but a statue, called the Colossus of Rhodes. But once in a while there are fragments of bronze that were part of my body.
