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The Colossus of Rhodes   The Colossus Of Rhodes was built in 282 B.C. It took about 12 years. For years the statue stood in the harbor entrance until an earthquake hit in about 226 B.C. Then the Colossus was then broken at its weakest point the knee. The Rhodians soon got an offer from Ptolemy III Eurgetes, the leader of Egypt. For almost a millennium the statue lay broken in ruins. In AD 654, Arabs invaded Rhodes. They took apart the ruins of the Colossus and sold them to a Jew from Syria. The pieces were said to be carried away on 900 camels. No one really knows what the Colossus looked like. The statue was made by a Rhodian sculptor named Chares of Lindos. The statue's skin was made out of bronze. The statue was slowly erected and the bronze became stronger as it was placed on an iron and stone frame. To reach the high up places they built an earth ramp which was later removed. When the Colossus fell the statue was so large that people couldn't wrap their arms around its thumb. Later on, the Colossus simply vanished from existence. Still to this day, no one knows why.