The Colossus of Rhodes was built to honor the sun god of Rhodes, Helios. It took the Greek sculptor Chares twelve years to construct the giant bronze statue and its completion was in 282 B.C. It stood about 120 feet tall, almost as tall as The Statue of Liberty stands today. Interior stones and iron bars supported the statue. The colossus did not even stand for a century. In 226 B.C., an earthquake hit Rhodes and broke the statue at it's weak point, the knee. The statue crumbled and was believed to have been sold to a Jewish man who carried it away. It was never seen again.
The colossus was said to straddle the entrance to the harbor. But unless part of the harbor was covered with water during the earthquake, that theory is impossible.