Page "Colossus of Rhodes" Paragraph 18

While these fanciful images feed the misconception, the mechanics of the situation reveal that the Colossus could not have straddled the harbor as described in Lemprière's Classical Dictionary.

If the completed statue had straddled the harbor, the entire mouth of the harbor would have been effectively closed during the entirety of the construction ; nor would the ancient Rhodians have had the means to dredge and re-open the harbor after construction.

The statue fell in 224 BC: if it had straddled the harbor mouth, it would have entirely blocked the harbor.

Also, since the ancients would not have had the ability to remove the entire statue from the harbor, it would not have remained visible on land for the next 800 years, as discussed above.

Even neglecting these objections, the statue was made of bronze, and an engineering analysis proved that it could not have been built with its legs apart without collapsing from its own weight.

Many researchers have considered alternative positions for the statue which would have made it more feasible for actual construction by the ancients.