Which ancient wonder was a giant bronze statue of the sun god Helios?

The Colossus of Rhodes was the ancient wonder that portrayed the sun god Helios as a giant bronze statue.

The statue was erected on the Greek island of Rhodes after the city successfully resisted a siege by Demetrius I of Macedon. Construction began around 292 BC and took about 12 years. The sculptor Chares of Lindos led the project, which used bronze plates attached to an iron framework.

Ancient accounts commonly give the statue a height of about 30 metres. It stood for only a few decades before an earthquake toppled it in about 226 BC. The broken statue remained on the ground for centuries, and later visitors still regarded the fallen pieces as astonishingly large.

A popular modern image shows the Colossus straddling the entrance to Rhodes harbour. That arrangement is considered technically implausible and is not supported by the ancient evidence. Its exact location is still debated, but it was not a harbour-spanning gateway.