You’re a tourist in the ancient Mediterranean. Where do you go? Easy: Do a tour of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The idea for a consolidated list of wonderful man-made monuments came from writers in the ancient world. For example, Antipater of Sidon, a Greek writer from the 100s BCE, wrote a poem celebrating some of the known world's most breathtaking sights. These places formed the core of the Seven Wonders.