Author: Maddy

The Biography of Marilyn Monroe, the Sex Symbol of USA
This blog post is the biography of Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe was an actor, model, and singer based in the United States of America.

Marilyn Monroe became one of the world’s biggest sex symbols and an icon for female empowerment in the 1950s and 1960s. Even 58 years after her death, people still remember her for what she managed to achieve within a short period of time.

But Marilyn Monroe was not born rich. She wasn’t born to influential parents either. On the contrary, she was born to poor parents. In addition to that, she did not even get to spend much time with them because her mother became mentally ill when she was a child, and her father’s identity is still not 100% clear.

Understandably, Marilyn had a very difficult childhood. She was not only poor, but because of her mother’s health condition, she also lived with 12 sets of foster parents one after another and in an orphanage. As a result, she couldn’t get proper love and affection from her parents.

Some biographies motivate us to work harder, while others teach us to be humble by showing us how gifted we are. This biography of Marilyn Monroe is obviously the latter – this is the story of a little girl who suffered all her life. Read this biography of Marilyn Monroe now and get a glimpse into the saddening, yet motivational life story of that little girl.

Early Life

Gladys Monroe

Gladys Monroe was born to Otis Elmer Monroe and Della May Hogan in 1902. When she was seven years old, her father died due to an infection that destroyed his brain tissue. After her father’s death, hoping to find a husband, her mother had relationships with several men. But none of them lasted. Due to her mother’s inconsistent relationships and irresponsible behavior, young Gladys never really understood the importance of men and the role of women in a marriage. Moreover, since she lacked a father figure, she grew up craving attention from older men. So, when she was 14 years old, she claimed that she was 18 years old, and married a 26-year-old man called John Newton Baker.However, after giving birth to a son and daughter, the demands of motherhood tired her. Moreover, Gladys had no desire to be a conventional housewife. So, she would often leave her children in the care of her neighbors and go dancing and partying.As time progressed, Gladys wanted to be free, instead of being held down by the clutches of the family. So, in 1921, she filed for a divorce. Two years later, the divorce was granted, and her husband took their children with him.Gladys liked the new carefree life, which was devoid of a husband or kids. She often went on dates and had a good time with men.Several years later, when she was 22 years old, Gladys was attracted to a 27-year-old man called Martin Edward Mortensen. He had a stable job, was generous, handsome, and looked five years older than his current age. So, she married him. However, being a traditional housewife was something that was too boring for Gladys. Therefore, just four months after their marriage, she left her husband.

Birth of Norma Jeane

Almost ten months after Gladys left Mortensen, she found out that she was pregnant. As a result of the pregnancy, she gave birth to a baby girl on June 1st, 1926, in Los Angeles. However, since Gladys had been with several men after leaving Mortensen, she herself was not sure who the father was. The child’s father was most probably a womanizer called Charles Stanley Gifford. Charles Stanley Gifford was a coworker with whom Gladys had a brief affair. However, he abandoned her after finding out that she had gotten pregnant. Since she did not know who the father was, and also because she was still not divorced from Mortenson, she named the child as Norma Jeane Mortensen. The child was also called Norma Jeane Baker, taking the last name of Gladys’ first husband. This child would grow up and later revolutionize Hollywood by the name of Marilyn Monroe.

The first foster family

Gladys had no one who could help her financially. So, she couldn’t quit her job. Moreover, she knew that she couldn’t be a good mother due to her lifestyle. She was also scared of the responsibility of caring for a child. Therefore, when Norma was just two weeks old, Gladys left her in the care of a foster family living only sixteen miles away. She paid the family $25 every week to take care of Norma. Even though several children were fostered by the family, Norma lived there for the longest time. She lived there for the first six years of her life. During this time, the foster family took care of Norma properly. They even let her keep a puppy, which she brought home, as long as she took care of it.

Childhood photo of Norma Jeane, 1927 – By Dell Publications, Inc. New York, publisher of Modern Screen (Page 34) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons – File:Monroe as an infant.png, CC0, Link

Moreover, Gladys visited Norma on weekends and took her for picnics and outings. They would ride trams, tour glass factories, go to the beach, and eat ice cream. Yet, Norma was disturbed emotionally, because Gladys’ visits got less frequent, and Norma did not know when Gladys might stop visiting her.

A child’s confusion

As a child, Norma was always confused. The reason for the confusion is not hard to imagine. She saw other children addressing their parents as mother and father. So, she didn’t understand why her foster parents forced her to call them uncle and aunt. She did not understand that Gladys was her real mother, and her foster parents were just taking care of her. To her, Gladys was a fun lady who visited her often and took her to outings. When Norma turned seven, an angry neighbor shot and killed her dog because it was barking loudly. This caused a lot of pain to the little girl. So, unable to console the little girl, the foster family summoned her mother, Gladys.

Life with her mother

Gladys helped her bury the dog and took Norma to live with her. To Norma, living with Gladys was a new experience. Her foster parents were religious and highly disciplined. They did not approve of Norma watching movies.

On the other hand, Gladys worked in the film industry in Los Angeles to create the final version of the edited film. She often took Norma to watch movies. Norma would sit in the first row and watch the movies on the big screen with awe. Gladys often drank and danced with her friends on weekends. After Gladys was done drinking and dancing, little Norma often emptied the beer bottles that her mother drank and filled them with flowers from the garden. Even though Gladys was not a great role model, she tried her best to take care of Norma. As Norma was slowly getting adapted to living with her mother, everything changed suddenly.

Her Mother becomes mentally ill

All her life, Gladys had thought that her mother and father had died because of madness. In the year 1934, due to the economic depression and other reasons, her grandfather took his own life. Even though she did not know her grandfather personally, this made Gladys believe that mental illness runs in her family. So, she was convinced that she will become a lunatic as well. This pushed her into depression.

Due to the depression and the false belief, she started hallucinating. Often, she had difficulty in distinguishing between what is real and what isn’t. As a result, in the year 1934, Gladys was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. She spent the rest of her life in and out of care homes and hospitals.

Grace Mckee

Since Gladys was deemed incapable of caring for her daughter anymore, Norma was sent to live with different sets of people for short durations and even in some orphanages. But primarily, she spent her years with the family of Grace Mckee and their relatives.

Grace Mckee was the most important friend and confidante of Gladys. She decided to take care of Norma after Gladys became ill. Grace didn’t have any children of her own and considered Norma as her daughter. So, even if Norma was living with some other foster family, she visited Norma often.

Grace thought Norma was really beautiful and would become an actress one day. So, she taught Norma to dress properly and take care of herself, so that she appears gorgeous all the time. Grace would later become a big influence in the life of Norma.

Thus, growing up, Norma could never get the parental love that she needed. At first, she thought her foster mother was her biological mother. Then, she adapted to live with her biological mother. After her mother fell ill, she had to move from one foster family to the next and was also sexually abused. All these incidents left a permanent scar on her mental well-being. As a result, she developed a stutter and became shy because of the trauma.

Norma Jeane becomes Marilyn Monroe

The first marriage

When Norma was 16 years old, the family of Grace, with whom she was living at that time, decided to move to West Virginia. But they couldn’t afford to take Norma with them. Even though Grace had promised Norma that she wouldn’t have to feel insecure again, she went back on her word. This devastated Norma because she felt like a dispensable object once again.

Since Grace’s family was moving to West Virginia, she wanted someone else to take care of Norma. So, Grace decided to get Norma married to her neighbor’s son, whom she was dating at that time. Since the only alternative was to stay in an orphanage until the age of 18, Norma agreed to the marriage. So, in 1942, the 16-year-old Norma Jean Mortensen quit school and married the 21-year-old James Dougherty. After their marriage, they moved to Santa Catalina Island, where her husband was stationed during the second world war. Marilyn later described this marriage as mundane. After a year of living with her husband, Norma came to live with her mother-in-law when her husband was posted to the Pacific.

Beginning of her modeling career

Norma’s mother-in-law was working in a Radioplane company as a nurse. At that time, the defense sectors were booming due to the second world war. So, Norma’s mother-in-law could easily get a job for Norma in the same company. Norma’s task was to spray varnish on the fuselage fabric.

In 1944, photographers came to shoot pictures of the most beautiful female factory workers for commercials and military magazines. Their task was to portray to the nation that America’s loveliest ladies showed their patriotism by working in defense companies.

One of these photographers, named David Conover, who had powerful contacts, was impressed by Norma. He advised her that she would have a great future if she got into modeling. Heeding to his advice, Norma quit her job the following year. She began doing modeling shoots for him and his other photographer friends. Gradually, she started applying to modeling agencies as well. One of these agencies, called the Blue Book Modeling Agency, accepted her. She signed her first contract with them in 1945.

Norma Jeane while working in the Radioplane company – By U.S. Army photographer David Conover’s shot – Yank, the Army Weekly, via [1] and [2], Public Domain, Link

The first divorce

Within a year, Monroe had appeared in more than 30 magazine covers and was called one of the most hard-working models by the owner of her agency. Her figure was more suitable for print advertisements than modeling. So, she began focusing on these magazines.

However, her husband was not pleased with this development in her career. He wanted her to quit modeling and become a housewife. So, Norma divorced him in the year 1946.

The birth of Marilyn Monroe

The same year, she met Ben Lyon, who was working with Fox production company. They signed a contract for six months with her even though she didn’t impress the head executive of the company. But Lyon didn’t want an actress who was called Norma Jean Dougherty. It seemed plain and unattractive.

So, Norma chose to have the last name, Monroe, since it was the name of her mother’s family. But Norma Jean Monroe was still not attractive. So, Lyon, remembering an actress called Marilyn Miller, with whom he had fallen in love previously, suggested that she should take the name of Marilyn Monroe. And just like that, the famous Marilyn Monroe was born.

The Rise to Fame

Entry into films

For the first six months after signing her contract, Marilyn did not do any films but worked on her acting and dancing skills. She got into an acting school with the help of the studio she worked with and met many people to promote herself. She got her first small role in the film “Dangerous Years” in 1947. Her contract was not renewed in 1947 after the teachers at the acting school said she was “too shy” to be a successful actor.

Marilyn continued her modeling journey. She started working as a backup dancer while continuing to take acting lessons. She did everything she had to do so that she could get acting roles. This involved befriending influential people in the industry and entertaining them at her home.

One such friendship with a Fox executive helped her get a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1948. But she lost that contract a year later as her picture didn’t work that well. She again went back to modeling and started some semi-naked shots, too, as she was comfortable with nudity.

Her big break came in the year 1950 when she earned a 7-year contract with 20th Century Fox studios after a series of small acting parts in movies like The Fireball, Right Cross, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle. She got great reviews for The Asphalt Jungle, and even critics praised her. Her mentor and partner, Johnny Hyde, who got her these parts and the contracts, died of a heart attack days after she signed the contract. This left her shattered.

“Fear is Stupid. So are regrets” – Marilyn Monroe

A scandal

In 1949, Monroe posed for a series of nude photographs. These photographs surfaced in the year 1952 and threatened to put a dent on her career. Her production studio did not want them to affect her reputation. So, they thought it would be better if Monroe admitted to being the model in the photographs and told that she was broke when she did that photoshoot for some instant money.

Monroe gained a lot of public sympathy from this scandal. At the same time, she also became popular for her “Sex symbol” image rather than her acting skills. Her following films did do well. But all these films had her typecasted in blonde bombshell roles that demanded semi-nudity and suggestive clothes.

Monroe enjoyed this popularity and added fuel to it by turning up in revealing clothes on public forums and sharing sexy amusing facts about her to public columnists. In December 1953, Hugh Hefner published one of her nude photos as the center spread of the first copy of Playboy. This added to her already soaring popularity as the leading sex symbol of Hollywood.

“The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up” – Marilyn Monroe

Stardom and an abusive marriage

After a series of highly successful films as a blonde sex symbol, Monroe wanted to do some serious roles. But 20th Century Fox studios did not agree to it, as they thought that her serious films would not do well.

After many discussions, Monroe refused to shoot for another such movie. So, they suspended her and canceled her contract.

Marilyn wanted to stop this negative publicity from ruining her career. So, she married baseball star Joe DiMaggio and started traveling the world with him. She reunited with Fox Studios a few months later and was promised a lead role in what would go on to become one of the biggest movies of her career, “The Seven Year Itch.” She started filming for the film in 1954. It was released in 1955. It features the immensely popular subway grate scene in which Monroe can be seen standing on the subway grate with the skirt flying up. This scene would later become so famous that it would be featured in many magazines and films even decades after her death. Ironically, her on-screen success ended her marriage with Joe. Marilyn later claimed that Joe was physically abusive and had a controlling behavior. She filed for divorce but continued her relationship with Joe along with affairs with Arthur Miller and Marlon Brando during this period.

Marlin Monroe in the subway grate scene – Published by Corpus Christi Caller-Times-photo from Associated Press Corpus Christi Caller-Times page 20 via en:Newspapers.com Public Domain, Link

Founding her own production studio

After her contract with Fox Studios ended, Marilyn, along with photographer Milton Greene, founded Marilyn Monroe Productions. She began studying acting and using psychoanalysis to address her personal traumas. Her production studio could not produce films on its own. So, Monroe reunited with Fox Studios yet again after an intense legal battle. She signed a 7-year contract with them with four big films. In 1956, Marilyn married Arthur Miller despite the FBI pursuing a case against him. She began shooting for “Bus Stop” under Fox Studios, which went on to become a commercial success. Monroe received a Golden Globe award for best actress for her role in the film and was finally recognized as an actress instead of just a sex symbol. She completed one more film under her own banner after this. Then, she took an 18-months hiatus from shooting to concentrate on her family life. She suffered a miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy in the period. So, she started taking pharmaceutical drugs to overcome her emotional depression. She and Miller finally got divorced in the year 1961. After this, Monroe resumed shooting on and off for films. But she did not get a commercial hit despite posing nude for a publicity stunt for the movie “Something’s Got To Give.” She was also involved in many legal battles with Fox Studios over delay in shooting. This gave her negative publicity in the final months of her life.

Final years

Depression and anxiety

In the last years of her life, Marilyn Monroe was battling depression caused by three failed marriages, miscarriages, a lost job, and the belief that mental illness runs in her family. She also suffered from anxiety and low self-esteem caused due to the lack of parental love when she was a child. The search for her father also devastated her terribly.

While she was living with her mother, the 8-year-old Marilyn found a picture of Charles Stanley Gifford, the man who was most probably her father. In her later years, she would try to reach him without any success. She would spend a lifetime trying to find this man in others, which affected her relationship with men. Once, when she called him in 1952, he told her that he didn’t have anything to say to her and that she should call his lawyer instead. This completely apathetic reply from the man she believed to be her father crushed her emotionally. All her life, she never stopped hoping for his approval.

Death

Magazine displaying the death news of Marilyn Monroe – By New York Daily Mirror – source (after en-wiki), Public Domain, Link

Marilyn Monroe died on the night of August 5th, 1962, when she was just 36 years old. Monroe’s housekeeper and her psychiatrist found her dead in her room due to drug overdose.

In the following years, her fans introduced many conspiracy theories and murder intentions, but police ruled them all out. Her sudden death became a national sensation. It was later revealed that Marilyn had overdosed on barbiturates, a drug used to treat anxiety, insomnia, and depression in the 1960s.

Facts you probably didn’t know
- Marilyn had a fear of losing her mind and going mad as her mother and grandmother did.
- She stuttered on occasions, and this stuttering continued for the rest of her life.
- Monroe attempted suicide in 1950 after her partner, agent, and close confidante Johnny Hyde died. She attempted suicide once again when she miscarried and had an ectopic pregnancy.
- According to her co-stars, Marilyn was extremely difficult to work with. She was even fired from her last film due to her lack of punctuality and erratic shooting schedule.
- Marilyn Monroe’s house, where she died in 1962, was purchased by a couple. The couple later found that the house was bugged, and an elaborate government phone tapping system was found across the house.
The Biography of Marilyn Monroe – Summary

We hope that this biography of Marilyn Monroe helped you learn about the actor and how she became a world-renowned personality. Whenever you have trouble making a decision, read this biography of Marilyn Monroe. If she hadn’t made the decision to divorce her first husband and pursue modeling, she could have raised a family and led a happy life. On the other hand, she wouldn’t have become a world-famous star. So, make the right decisions, for these decisions will define who you are.

It’s all make believe, isn’t it? – Marilyn Monroe

If you liked the biography of Marilyn Monroe, you might like the following biographies as well:
August 25, 2020
The heartbreaking but Inspiring Success Story of Oprah Winfrey
This blog post tells you the success story of Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American talk show host and a producer. She rose to fame with her talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and became the richest African American woman of the 20th century.

Oprah Winfrey at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 5, 2014

Born to a single teenage mother in poverty and being molested, Oprah had a rough childhood. Growing up, she worked various odd jobs before landing a job to anchor the local news at a small radio network. She then went on to work in a TV station, where she started her own talk show. Her emotional delivery in that show made her the favorite of the masses. As a result, her TV show became one of the highest-rated shows ever. When she was a kid, Oprah suffered a lot due to poverty. So, when she became famous, she tried to make the world a better place to live by donating money to the needy. Today, she is known as one of the greatest black philanthropists and one of the most influential women in the world. Read this success story of Oprah Winfrey to get a glimpse into her journey and find out how she transformed her life completely using sheer hard work and empathy towards her community.

Childhood

Birth

Oprah Winfrey was born on 29th January 1954 in Mississippi to a single teenage mother. She was named Orpah Gail Winfrey. Her father, Vernon Winfrey, left her mother soon after her birth. At that time, her mother was 18 years old and did not have a job. She knew that she couldn’t take care of young Oprah without a job. So, she left Oprah to stay with Oprah’s maternal grandmother and moved to Milwaukee to find a job.

Oprah Winfrey when she was 2 years old. Picture credits – Oprah.com

So, Oprah lived with her maternal grandmother for the first six years of her life, where she saw extreme poverty. They were so poor that Oprah had to wear dresses made out of potato sacks.

The gifted child

Even though she was born into a poor family, Oprah was a gifted child. As a kid, she developed a desire for learning, a passion for speaking, and even envisioned her future.

Her grandmother realized her skills and wanted Oprah to have a promising future. So, she taught Oprah to read when she was just two and a half years old. Soon, Oprah developed a desire for reading, and by the age of three, could recite Bible verses for the church. Astonished by Oprah’s ability to read the Bible, the people who came to the church nicknamed her, ‘The Preacher.’

It is during this time that Oprah’s passion for speaking also started taking shape. As a kid, she used to interview her dolls and the birds around her house. Imagining that she was on a stage and the farm animals were her audience, she used to enact in front of them. Looking at this, her grandmother realized her innate talent for speaking and acting and always encouraged her. In her later years, this encouragement she got from her grandmother when she was a kid, would motivate Oprah to speak in public.

When she was just four years old, Oprah had a feeling that she would be a great personality when she grows up. Even though she was a kid and did not know what she would do when she grew up, she was sure of one thing – that she wouldn’t be poor all her life. Even as a kid, she envisioned her future, something that many successful people often do.

“Whenever I look into the future, it is so bright it burns my eyes” – Oprah Winfrey

Oprah skips kindergarten

One year later, when she was five years old, Oprah was sent to a kindergarten. On the very first day, she wrote a note to her teacher saying that she belonged in the first grade and skipped kindergarten. Since her grandmother had taught her at home, she was skilled at school. So, she was allowed to start first grade.

Oprah develops her speaking skills

In the following year, her grandmother fell ill. So, Oprah’s mother took Oprah with her to Milwaukee. By this time, Oprah had a younger half-sister. Since Oprah’s mother worked as a housemaid, she did not have much spare time to spend with her children. The little spare time she had was spent taking care of her half-sister. So, when she was 7 years old, her mother sent Oprah to live with her father in Tennessee since she couldn’t take care of her properly.

Oprah’s father and stepmother were excited to take Oprah since they did not have any children of their own. They cared about her education and took her to libraries, where she read a lot. As a result, she became skilled at school. So, she skipped a grade again and started third grade.

The family also took her to church regularly. So, Oprah found more opportunities to improve her oratory skills by speaking at social gatherings and churches. Soon, she became so good at speaking in front of live audiences that she was paid $500 for a speech once. It was then that Oprah understood the power of her skill and decided that she wanted to be paid to talk. Thus, she had a lot of opportunities to develop her skills while living with her father. Yet, she lived there for only one year. After that year, when her father took Oprah to visit her mother, she decided to stay with her mother and continue her education.

Teenage

Sexual abuse

While she was living with her mother, her mother did not have sufficient time to take care of her children. So, she asked Oprah’s cousin to babysit them. Oprah’s cousin, who was 19 years old and came to babysit and protect her, raped her instead. He then bought her ice cream and asked her to keep it a secret. Oprah was just nine years old at that time.

For Oprah, the sexual abuse did not end there. In the years that followed, she was also raped by a family friend and her uncle. Yet, she couldn’t talk about her sexual abuse to her mother because they did not have such a good parent-child relationship. So, when she was 13 years old, unable to suffer sexual abuse anymore, Oprah ran away from home.

During this time, Oprah was studying in Lincoln high school. There, she did well in her studies. Therefore, she was transferred to a more affluent school. Since she was in an affluent school, she wanted to keep up with her wealthy schoolmates, who spent a lot of money. So, to impress her classmates, Oprah began stealing money from her mother. It was also Oprah’s way of rebelling since she couldn’t talk to her mother about the sexual abuse she suffered. But her mother eventually found out that Oprah was stealing money from her and became furious.

Teenage mother

So, since she couldn’t put up with her anymore, Oprah’s mother sent her to live with her father. After Oprah started living with her father, she became pregnant due to the sexual abuse she underwent while living with her mother. But her son was born prematurely and died soon after.

Oprah’s father

Oprah’s father was very strict. But he helped her forget about her son and focus on her studies instead. He provided Oprah with the guidance, support, rules, and books so that she could improve. He made her learn five new vocabulary words each day before dinner and submit book reports every week. So, Oprah became very intelligent. As a result, she became a top student in her school and came to be known for her brilliant oratory skills.

Oprah was also a member of various clubs like the debate club, the drama club, and the student council. Participating in these clubs improved her oratory skills further. As a result, she became so skilled in speaking that she secured a full scholarship to study at Tennessee State University by winning a speaking contest.

Becoming a radio news anchor

When she was 16 years old, Oprah participated in a beauty contest conducted by Nashville’s local radio station. Despite heavy competition, Oprah won the contest and was crowned Miss Fire Prevention. When she went to the local radio station to collect the prize, people working at the radio station asked her if she would like to hear her voice on the radio.

Excited, Oprah agreed and read a script. Listening to her speak, everyone at the radio station was impressed. So, they offered her a job as a news anchor. Oprah accepted the job and started working part-time at the Nashville radio station when she was still in high school.

Becoming a TV news anchor

Two years later, with the scholarship she had won, Oprah started studying her Bachelor’s degree in Speech Communications and Performing Arts at Tennesse State University. During her first year there, Oprah won two more beauty contests, becoming Miss Black Nashville and Miss Tennessee. Oprah was 18 years old at that time. After she won these beauty contests, she got a call from a TV station called the Nashville Columbia Broadcasting System (also known as CBS in short), who wanted to offer Oprah a job. But Oprah was concerned that the job might affect her studies. So, she declined the job offer twice.

But her professor, who found out that she had rejected the job offer, reminded Oprah that the main reason why people go to college is to get such jobs. This advice from her professor opened her eyes. So, when CBS called her the third time, she took the job. Thus, when she was 19 years old, she became the first African American female co-anchor of the CBS evening news.

Career

Baltimore TV news anchor

Three years later, she moved to Baltimore to co-anchor the Six 0’Clock news. She was 22 years old at that time and was getting a salary of $22,000.

Oprah Winfrey as a co-anchor of WJZ, Baltimore on June 26, 1978.

Oprah was a person who was deeply empathetic to people. But as a reporter, she often had to report tragic incidents like fire accidents without displaying her emotions. This was not only unnatural but also very difficult for Oprah. So, even though she was making $22,000 at that time as a reporter, she often felt that it was not the right job for her, because she couldn’t display her emotions.

Since Oprah was caring and emotional, she couldn’t be unsympathetic to people who were suffering. So, after reporting fire accidents, she would go to the fire victims and give them blankets. Once, she was reporting a funeral, and she had to ask the family of the dead child to comment on the issue. But she couldn’t bring herself to do that, because she understood the pain the family was going through.

However, when these incidents came to the attention of her boss, he understood that Oprah was unfit to be a news reporter because she gets too emotionally invested in her stories. So, he wanted to fire her. But Oprah was on a job contract for a year. So, if he fired her before the contract ended, the company had to give her the full salary even though she had worked for only half the period.

Therefore, he demoted her to be a co-anchor on a new local talk show called ‘People are Talking.’

Oprah’s first talk show

Initially, Oprah thought that this talk show would devastate her career. So, she begged the General Manager to not put her on this show. But he told her that if the talk show succeeded, she could impact the community much more than a news reporter. So, Oprah started to co-anchor the talk show.

Oprah Winfrey after her talk show became famous.

In this show, Oprah and her co-anchor Richard Sher interviewed people from all walks of life. In the very first episode of the talk show, Oprah and Richard interviewed an ice-cream man and a character from an American soap opera.

Once she started the interview, she felt a connection to what she was doing. She realized immediately that this is what she really wanted to do. She asked the right questions and was not shy about revealing secrets about herself. So, she connected with the female audience easily. As a result, Oprah and Richard’s talk show became famous.

The Oprah Winfrey show

After serving seven years on the talk show, Oprah was hired by another TV broadcasting company called the American Broadcasting Company to improve the ratings of its morning talk show. Before Oprah joined the company, its talk show was consistently last in the ratings. It was aired for half an hour and focused mostly on traditional women’s issues. Oprah immediately changed the focus of the talk show to current controversial issues.

Within months, Oprah’s talk show became one of the highest-rated talk shows of America. It overtook Phil Donahue’s talk show, which was considered the best talk show in Chicago. People said that while Oprah might not be a match for Donahue in journalism, she made up for it with her empathy. Due to her empathy, people revealed much more about their personality than they would normally reveal on a talk show. As a result, the talk show was named the Oprah Winfrey Show and was extended to one hour.

In the early years of the show, it was known as a general chat show. But it later transformed into a show that addressed social issues and the views of the celebrities associated with these issues. The show aired for 25 glorious years from 1986 to 2011 and was a huge success barring a few controversies. It received 47 Daytime Emmy awards.

Her own production company

Due to her talk show’s success, Oprah started her own production company, Harpo Productions, Inc., in 1986. Within two years of starting her own production company, she acquired the production rights and ownership for The Oprah Winfrey Show from the American Broadcasting Company. Thus, Oprah Winfrey became the first woman in history to produce and own her own talk show.

Oprah has co-starred in a few films under her production banner. She was nominated for an Oscar for the best supporting role for her role as Sofia in Steven Spielberg’s movie, ‘The Color Purple.’ In her next film, Beloved, she played the role of a former slave. To get an idea of how a slave feels, she asked her team to tie her up, blindfold her and leave her in the woods for 24 hours.

One of the most powerful woman in the world

Oprah is a self-made woman who rose from extreme poverty and climbed the heights of success because of her own merit. She was the world’s only black billionaire from 2004 to 2006, and the highest-paid television entertainer in the USA. Her net worth in 2014 was more than 2.9 billion dollars and has only risen since.

“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength” – Oprah Winfrey

CNN and Time magazine called her the “World’s most powerful woman” and one of the most influential people of the 20th century. She was also voted the greatest woman in America’s history in 2005.

Contribution to the world

Oprah believes that god resides inside us and goes with us wherever we go. This belief has helped her influence people with her warmth, affable talks, kind philosophies, and heal them. Oprah is one of the biggest philanthropists in America. She has given more than $ 400 Million to educational causes to date and donated about $ 12 million dollars to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. She treats her staff really well. In 2006, she took about a thousand people, including her staff and their families, to Hawaii for a well-deserved vacation. Oprah supports LGBT rights and is against gun usage. She donated about $ 500,000 to a student body in 2018 for their campaign for gun control. She has co-authored five books, including a book on weight issues and her memoir.

Awards and honors

Oprah was awarded the first Bob Hope Humanitarian award in 2002 for her service to the film and television industry. She was named as “Person of the year” in 2008 by PETA for using her influence to create a better world for animals and the less fortunate people. President Barack Obama conferred on her the “Presidential Medal of Freedom” in the year 2013.

Oprah receiving the presidential medal of freedom

Influence

In 2007, she used her influence for the first time to support a candidate running for President. Oprah endorsed the presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2007 and helped raise funds for his campaigns. This endorsement attracted about 1,600,000 votes for Obama. She was offered Obama’s vacant senate seat after the elections, but she politely declined to take it. In 1996, Oprah started an on-air reading club. Every month, she would announce the name of a book and ask her fans to buy the book. They would then discuss the book together the following month. One of the first books she read on-air was ‘The Deep End of the Ocean,’ which was a first time novel that sold around 750,000 copies mainly because of Oprah. The book then went on to become a best seller. Soon, Oprah became the most powerful book marketer in the USA. Her show drove more book sales than magazines, news shows, radio shows, and print reviews combined.

Romantic relationships

Oprah has been in a series of romantic relationships. The most profound and deep one out of those was with William Taylor, whom she met at Tennessee University. The couple had an intense relationship. However, they broke up when Winfrey moved to Baltimore, and William decided to stay in Nashville despite Winfrey getting him a job in the radio network she was working at. Another man that Oprah deeply cared for and called her “Most fun romantic relationship” was Lloyd Kramer. The couple broke when Oprah had an affair with a married man while Lloyd was away on an assignment. The affair with the married man broke her and drove her to think about committing suicide. She allegedly even wrote a suicide note but later rubbished the idea saying, “she could never kill herself.” All these broken relationships took a toll on her emotional and physical well-being, and Oprah battled with weight issues and drug usage. In 1986, she met American author Stedman Graham. She finally found love and solace in Stedman. Since then, she has been in a steady relationship with him. Her relationship with Stedman Graham has successfully continued for 33 years, with each partner supporting the other.

Facts you probably didn’t know
- Oprah does not like people chewing gum! She hates it when people chew gum around her. It is one of her pet peeves.
- She has a phobia of balloons.
- Her multimedia production company, named Harpo, is just “Oprah” spelled backward.
- Oprah was close to Maya Angelou and called Maya her mother/sister/friend.
- She grows her own avocados at her house and always travels with fresh bread and avocados while touring different parts of the world.
- She has her favorite muffins flown in from Napa Valley!
The Success story of Oprah Winfrey

We hope that this success story of Oprah Winfrey helped you understand how Oprah Winfrey became what she is today. She was born in extreme poverty and suffered sexual abuse when she was a kid. Yet, she never gave up. She never stopped believing in herself or improving her skills. She even suffered from drug abuse, but came out of it and succeeded in her life. Today, she is one of the most powerful women in the world (ranked Number 20 in 2020).

So, whenever life gets tough, don’t give up. Trust in yourself, and keep tuning your skills. Read this success story of Oprah Winfrey to motivate you. Always believe in yourself and envision your future.

“You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.” – Oprah Winfrey

If you liked reading the success story of Oprah Winfrey, you may like the following blog posts too:
August 16, 2020
The Seven Wonders Of The World
Several centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, Herodotus compiled the first list of the seven wonders of the world. Of those seven ancient wonders, only the Great Pyramid of Giza stands even today. All the other wonders were destroyed either by fire, earthquake, or invaders. Moreover, one of these wonders, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, might have never existed in the first place.

So, in 2000, the New 7 wonders foundation organized a campaign to select the new seven wonders of the world. But unlike the seven wonders of the ancient world, these wonders were not chosen by a single historian or archaeologist. They were chosen by people all over the world.

In the world’s first global voting campaign, almost 100 million people cast their votes through the internet and telephones. From these votes, the seven wonders of the world were chosen and officially announced on 07/07/07 (They were announced on this specific date to preserve the historical significance of the number seven).

What are these seven wonders? Why were they built? What were the problems faced while constructing them? Read this blog post to find out.

1. The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is comprised of a series of walls, watchtowers, and beacon towers totaling almost 13,000 miles in length. It has been acknowledged by UNESCO as the largest man-made structure on earth. Its average height is 7m high, and its average width is 6m.

Why was the Great Wall of China built?

In the history of China, the warring states era has great significance. During this era, seven major states – Qin, Han, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Chu, and Yan, fought against each other for superiority.

Seven warring states in 260 B.C. – By Philg88 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

In comparison, the Map of China now

After almost three centuries of warfare, the warring states era ended in 221 B.C. with Qin’s victory. The king of Qin, Qin Shi Huang, combined all these states and formed the first unified Chinese empire.

Once Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor of unified China, he ordered the construction of a fortified wall in the north, which would protect China from nomadic invaders. On his orders, the existing stone and earth walls (built between 8th and 3rd century B.C. by the warring states to protect themselves from one another) were combined into a single system. This wall would later come to be known as the Great Wall of China.

Even though the Qin dynasty had achieved the impossible dream of unifying China, the dynasty itself didn’t last long. Indeed, the Qin dynasty fell within two decades. But even though the Qin dynasty was no more, the wall built by it was repaired, rebuilt, and further extended by successive dynasties until 1868A.D.

Very little of the original wall constructed by the Qin dynasty remains today. Most of the Great Wall of China, as it exists today, was built by the Ming dynasty between 1368A.D. and 1644A.D.

Function

The Qin dynasties originally built the Great Wall of China to protect China from nomadic invaders. The watchtowers and beacon towers in the wall not only served as defensive structures but also as lookouts. Soldiers guarding a watchtower could report an incoming attack to other watchtowers using signal fires. At times, when China’s borders extended beyond the Great Wall, emperors armed it with soldiers to protect traders using the silk route.

Challenges

Unlike several other monuments, the Great Wall of China was not built at the heart of a thriving civilization. It was built along the border of a nation. It stretches through plains, mountains, and a desert. Hence, the collection and transportation of materials to construction sites in different terrains was a huge problem.

At a time when advanced machines and tools were not available, gathering and transporting millions of tonnes of rock, soil, and wood as well as building huge walls needed humungous manpower. Hence, getting the manpower needed to construct the wall was an even bigger problem.

So, how did the Chinese tackle these problems?

Solutions

It would have been expensive and ineffective to transport rocks, cut out of mountains, to plains and deserts. So, the wall was built strategically.
1. On hills and mountains, workers built the wall using uncut rocks and soil abundant in these places.
2. On the plains, they built the wall by ramming the soil abundant in these areas. Some of these sections are more than 2000 years old but still remain intact.
3. In the desert, they built the wall by creating reed and wood-layers. Then, they filled these layers with sand to strengthen them.
4. Wherever possible, the workers made use of rivers as natural barriers, thus saving labor and materials.
During the Ming dynasty, the workers used bricks and lime mortar to build the wall.

To solve the problem of manpower, the emperors used soldiers, peasants, and prisoners to build the wall. During the Qin dynasty, the emperor commissioned around 300,000 soldiers to build the wall. However, it took another 500,000 common people to finish it. Criminals were often given four years of construction as a prison sentence. They often patrolled the walls during the day and built the wall during the night.

Some emperors from later dynasties enlisted all the men in the kingdom to construct the wall. At times, even children were not spared.

The construction of the Great Wall was too hard on the bodies of normal people. So, many people died while building the wall. Many of them died due to cold winters as well.

How long did it take?

The Great Wall of China is the longest construction project undertaken by humans. It took millions of workers from several dynasties and different periods more than 2500 years to finish the wall. Several hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of workers died during its construction. Many of their bodies were buried within the wall.

Current problems

After the fall of the Ming dynasty, the Chinese started seeing the Great Wall as a symbol that portrayed China’s insecurity to the whole world. So, they neglected it and stopped maintaining it properly. Hence natural wear and tear started eroding the wall.

A damaged part of the Great Wall of China

In the 1960s, during Mao Zedong’s rule, officials even encouraged people to dismantle the wall and use the bricks to build houses.

As a result, almost three-fourths of the Great Wall, built during the Ming dynasty, is in danger today. One-third of the Great Wall has even completely disappeared. Only 8.2% of the Great Wall has been preserved properly.

2. Christ, the Redeemer

Christ, the Redeemer, is one of the seven wonders of the world and a symbol of Brazilian Christianity. It is located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Standing 30m tall on the summit of Mount Corcovado, it is the fifth-largest Statue of Jesus in the world. The horizontally outstretched arms spanning 28m make it look as if Jesus is welcoming everyone with open arms.

Why was it built?

In the 1850s, a Christian priest proposed placing a massive statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro. However, his proposal was not accepted.

In 1921, the Roman Catholic society in Rio became alarmed by the declining religious faith among Brazilians. They wanted to make Brazilians start believing in Christianity once again.

So, they made a second proposal to build a statue of Jesus on the summit of Mount Corcovado. The Mount Corcovado is 704m high. If the statue was built on top of it, this statue would be visible from anywhere in Rio. By placing such a religious symbol in Brazil’s (then) capital city, they hoped to kill the increasing godlessness and win back the citizens’ faith in Christianity.

To gather support for building the statue, the catholic circle organized an event to collect donations and signatures. The citizens, who became aware of the proposal, now petitioned the president to permit them to build the statue. Soon, the president granted permission.

So, in 1922, a competition was held to select a design for the statue. Among several competing designs, the design of Jesus with open arms was chosen.

Once the design was selected, several designers started working together to build the statue. They made the statue using reinforced concrete. They built the outer layer using soapstone tiles. Soapstone was chosen because it is easy to carve while being durable and heat-resistant at the same time. It was also abundant in that area.

Nine years, 6 million soapstone tiles, and $250,000 (now, 3.2 million U.S. dollars) later, the statue was completed.

After its completion, the statue was opened to the public on October 12, 1931. Visible from anywhere in Rio, the statue sent a message to the citizens of Rio, that Jesus was welcoming them with open arms. Soon, the statue became a symbol of Brazilian Christianity and global peace.

How long did it take?

It took nine years to finish building Christ, the Redeemer.

Current problems

Due to its location on the top of the mountain, it is prone to strong winds, erosion, and lightning attacks. Indeed, it gets hit by lightning around three to six times a year. In 2008, lighting hit the statue and damaged the head, eyebrows, and fingers.

Due to these problems, maintenance is done periodically, and restoration work is carried out when needed. However, the white stone which was originally used to build the statue is in high-demand now. So, during restoration works, a dark-colored variation is often used. Therefore, Christ, the Redeemer, is becoming darker gradually.

3. Petra

Petra was a flourishing city in Jordan two thousand years ago. Built in an arid, rocky desert, it served as an important trade center. However, somewhere around the seventh century A.D., its people abandoned the city. Since then, it had been forgotten and remained hidden for more than a thousand years, until the 19th century.

In 1806, the African association, an English club created for the discovery of interior parts of Africa, assigned a Swiss adventurer the job of penetrating the Muslim dominated region of Sudan. Since foreign Christians could be executed for entering the Ottoman Empire, the Swiss adventurer disguised himself as a Persian pilgrim and traveled from England to Syria.

In 1812, on his way from Syria to Cairo (Egypt), he heard rumors of a city in ruins, that was close to a tomb. This rumor made him curious. So, on the pretext of sacrificing a goat, he asked his guide to take him to the tomb. When he passed through the narrow valley and finally set his eyes on the ruined city, he was mesmerized. He deduced that this city could only be Petra, the ancient city whose wealth was envied even by the Romans. He instantly knew that it was a wonder that deserved to be remembered for eternity.

The treasury in Petra

Why was it built?

The Nabateans were a tribe of people who lived in tents in the Arabian deserts (present-day Jordan). They moved along with their herd from one place to another in search of grass and water.

Due to their life in arid deserts, they developed an intrinsic knowledge of hydraulic engineering. They dug tanks in the ground to store water, starting with a narrow hole and making it wider as they dug deeper. When it rained, the water went through the narrow opening and filled the tank. When the tank got full, they closed the opening and left signs known only to their tribe. This efficient storage of water in the arid desert gave them two benefits – Wealth and Power.

Power

Whenever a battle broke out, they would hide themselves and use the water stored in these tanks to quench their thirst. They would then wait until their enemies eventually surrender due to the lack of water. By fighting this way, they soon developed an efficient and well-organized military that defended them against bigger powers.

Wealth

Due to their efficient use of water, they could transport goods more efficiently and quicker than their competition. So, they started trading aromatic items, used to make scents and incense, along the Incense trade route (a network of ancient trade routes used for trading Arabian, African, East Asian, and Indian goods). Since these aromatic items were in great demand in Egypt, Rome, and Babylon, they quickly became richer and accumulated a lot of wealth.

This wealth helped them control several cities along the Incense trade route by the third century B.C. These cities became important stop points in the Incense route, where the traders, making the 65-day one-way travel journey to Gaza (Egypt), would rest for the night and trade their goods. Due to the amount of trade happening in these cities, the Nabateans became even wealthier.

They eventually levied taxes from these travelers by building forts along the routes and guaranteeing them safety. Now they were so rich that the neighboring empires started envying their wealth. But their wealth came from their main source – travelers and traders. So, to offer better protection for the traders and oversee their own tax caravans, they built the city of Petra.

How long did it take?

The construction of the entire city of Petra is supposed to have been finished within a span of 100 years.

Challenges

While building the city of Petra, the Nabateans might have faced four major challenges.
1. The Nabateans’ excelled at hiding themselves during battles and revealing themselves later when the enemy has gotten weaker. Building a city at the center of the desert for everyone to see would place them at a serious disadvantage. Defending their city against well-trained armies would be impossible.
2. The water was a scarce resource in the desert. Building a city in the desert would put them at a disadvantage if they had to provide water for thousands of their citizens. So, finding a consistent water source might have been a big challenge.
3. The area, where Petra was built, was prone to flash floods. Hence, ensuring the safety of their citizens was another challenge.
4. In the arid desert, water was not the only scarce resource. Wood, used to build the scaffoldings for construction, was also a scarce resource. Hence, procuring the wood needed to build scaffoldings for construction was yet another challenge.
Solutions
1. To prevent being attacked by well-trained armies, the Nabateans built their city amidst Sandstone cliffs. The main entrance to the city was through a narrow 1.2km path between cliffs, making it hard to find. Moreover, the enclosing towering rocks made the city a natural fortress. (See the pictures below).
2. The Nabateans were excellent hydraulic engineers. To combat the water scarcity problem, they built a pipeline from the Spring of Moses to Petra. The pipeline covering 8 km in length could have contained tens of thousands of ceramic pipe sections fixed together. A slope (declination) of 6° would have increased the speed of water flow, increasing the water pressure, and creating a leak between pipe sections. On the other hand, if the declination was less than 1°, there wouldn’t have been enough difference in height between the source and destination for the water to flow. So, they used a constant declination of 4° from the Spring to Petra, to avoid any leakage between these pipe sections, while ensuring the smooth flow of water. This pipeline, along with their efficient management of flash floods, could have provided up to 8 liters/day of water for each of their 30,000 citizens (approximately). Indeed, there was an excess of water which was used to create a garden in the city center.
3. To protect their citizens from floods, the Nabateans built dams. Then, they closed the opening between rocks to block the water’s pathway and divert it to these dams. They also built an intricate system of aqueducts to transport this water to different locations within the city. They even built a garden (oasis) in their city.
4. To minimize the usage of wood during construction, the Nabateans used an innovative approach. They could have carved their buildings out of sandstone rocks, not from bottom to top, but from top to bottom. Instead of using wooden scaffoldings, they might have used wooden slabs, placed on iron rods inserted into rocks. From treasuries to cemeteries, they could have built all their buildings in this way.
Entrance to Petra

Entrance to Petra

Decline in Popularity

Petra was a thriving city and the capital city of the Nabatean kingdom until the first century A.D. In 106 A.D., the Nabatean kingdom lost its independence to the Roman empire, which annexed Nabatea and renamed it to Arabia Petraea.

In the following centuries, Petra’s significance declined due to the emergence of sea trade routes. An earthquake destroyed several of the city’s structures in 363 A.D. In the following centuries, the city’s significance gradually declined, and eventually, it was forgotten.

4. Taj Mahal

Of all the world wonders, the Taj Mahal, located in Agra, India, is considered the symbol of love by most people on earth. It was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

Why was it built?

The Mughal empire is said to have been founded by Babur, a descendent of Timur, the undefeated military general, tactician and first ruler of the Timurid dynasty, and Gengis Khan, the founder and first emperor of the Mongol empire.

After being ousted from his ancestral lands in central Asia, Babur went to Kabul (Afghanistan) and established himself there. Pushing downwards from Kabul, he conquered several parts of India and eventually created the Mughal empire. His successors followed in his footsteps, conquering many parts of India and expanding the Mughal empire.

At times, to expand their empire without shedding blood, they even married princesses from other kingdoms. Thus, many of the Mughal emperors had many wives.

The fifth emperor of the Mughal empire, Shah Jahan, was no different. He had many wives, and most of his marriages were political. But his marriage with Mumtaz Mahal, a Persian woman from Iran, was different. It was born out of love. Indeed, his love for Mumtaz was said to be so great that he stopped having emotional or sexual relationships with his other wives. Even though their love for each other was so great, sadly, in 1631, while delivering their 14th child, Mumtaz died.

Shah Jahan was heartbroken. Unable to forget his wife, he commissioned the construction of a tomb in memory of her. Under his orders, the construction of the Taj Mahal started in 1632 and finished in 1653.

The Taj Mahal is truly a wonder of the world. It was built on the banks of the Yamuna river. The marbles used to build the Taj Mahal were inlaid with 28 kinds of rare stones and metals.

The Taj Mahal is 68m high. The four minarets surrounding it are 43m tall. Shah Jahan didn’t want the minarets to fall on the Masuoleum in the event of an earthquake. So, the minarets were built tilted at an angle of 2.5° facing away from the Mausoleum, so that in case of an earthquake, the minarets would fall on the opposite side of the Mausoleum.

Upon its completion, the Taj Mahal, including its complex, was almost perfectly vertically symmetrical, when seen from the main entrance.

Taj Mahal Aerial View – Check symmetry across a virtual line passing through top mid to bottom mid

However, 13 years later, when Shah Jahan died, his tomb was placed on the left side in the Mausoleum. Today, his tomb is the only structure that spoils the Taj Mahal’s symmetry. But if so much effort was taken by Shah Jahan to make the Taj Mahal symmetrical, why was his own tomb placed in a way to spoil it?

Mumtaz’s tomb (right) is centered and symmetric, but Shah Jehan’s tomb (left) is not. Note that the entrance is at the bottom left- By No machine-readable author provided. Donelson assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

The Black Taj Mahal

Legend has it that Shah Jahan planned to build a black Taj Mahal on the opposite side of the Yamuna river to serve as his own tomb. The moonlight garden, located on the other side of the Yamuna river, is perfectly aligned with the gardens of the Taj Mahal. People speculate that this is the place where Shah Jahan wanted to build the black Taj Mahal.

The Site of the Black Taj Mahal on the other side of the Yamuna river.

But before he could begin its construction, he was overthrown from his throne by his third son, Aurangazeb, and was imprisoned by him. Most modern historians have dismissed the legend of the black Taj Mahal as a rumor. However, if it were true, and had Shah Jahan managed to pull it off, it would have added another layer of symmetry to the already symmetrical White Taj Mahal.

How long did it take?

Employing 20,000 workers, the construction of the Taj Mahal and its complex took 22 years.

Current Problems

In recent years, the Taj Mahal has been turning yellowish-green due to the air pollution from Agra. The Yamuna river, on whose banks the Taj Mahal is built, is also heavily polluted. This, in turn, attracts thousands (if not millions) of bugs. These bugs excrete on the white marbles of the Taj Mahal, marring its beauty further. Acid rain, created when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emitted from industries react with the moisture or rain, also affects the marbles.

Since 1994, as a temporary measure, the Indian government uses mud pack therapy to treat the yellowing of the Taj Mahal. Every five years, the outer marbles are coated with mud. The mud then sticks to the marbles and absorbs all dust and pollution. After 2-3 months, when the mud is finally removed using soap, the marble becomes white again.

In 1996, the Indian government declared an area of 10,400 sq km around the Taj Mahal as the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ). Industries and factories within TTZ were either asked to relocate outside the zone or minimize emissions by using clean fuels.

5. Machu Pichu

Located in the Andes Mountains in Peru, Machu Pichu truly deserves its spot as a world wonder. Known only to few locals, this mysterious city made of rock remained hidden from the outside world for five centuries.

Discovery of Machu Pichu

The Incas were fierce warriors. Until the 15th century, they lived in their small kingdom (the city of Cusco in Peru). In 1438, their ninth king Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui started expanding their kingdom through conquest and eventually founded the Inca empire. Under Pachacuti and his successors, the Inca empire subjugated dozens of kingdoms in South America and (at its prime) stretched for more than 4000km along the Pacific coast.

Despite the Incas being fierce warriors, the Inca Empire lasted only for a hundred years. The Inca empire gradually weakened due to Smallpox and civil wars, until the Spanish invasion in 1532.

Due to the Spanish invasion, the king of the Incas at that time moved his capital to Vitcos. Soon the Spanish raided Vitcos, killing many Incas. So, the Inca king and his supporters moved to Vilcabamba, which was in a remote area within the forests. There they defended against the Spanish for 35 years until 1572. However, in 1572, the Spanish forces successfully captured Vitcos and Vilcabamba, ending the Inca empire.

After several years, due to the lack of written records and the absence of inhabitants, the locations of these two cities were forgotten. For adventurers around the world, Vilcabamba came to be known as the lost city of the Incas, which held reserves of treasure hidden by the Incas.

Almost 340 years later, in 1911, the American explorer Hiram Bingham set on to find Vitcos and Vilcabamba. During his search, he was led to Machu Pichu by a local villager. He mistook this city for Vilcabamba, the last capital and lost city of the Incas. Soon, Machu Pichu became famous as the lost city of the Incas.

After discovering Machu Pichu, Bingham continued his search and discovered two more Inca cities, one of which he identified as Vitcos and the other he named as Trombone Pampa. In 1964, another American explorer called Gene Savoy was exploring the ruins at Trombone Pampa, that Bingham has discovered. He found that Trombone Pampa was indeed Vilcabamba, thus disproving Bingham’s theory that Machu Pichu was Vilcabamba.

This discovery by Gene Savoy caused huge confusion among archaeologists and historians. If Machu Pichu wasn’t actually Vilcabamba, then why was it built? What purpose did it serve? These were the questions that historians wanted the answers to. However, since the Incas didn’t have a written language, finding answers to these questions was not easy.

Why was it built?

The Incas were not only ferocious warriors but also skilled engineers. They built a vast network of roads and stone buildings without the use of wheel or iron tools. So, they should have known that the location, where Machu Picchu stands today, was prone to earthquakes and landslides. Yet, despite the amount of money, time, and labor, it would cost them, they decided to build Machu Picchu there. Therefore, there should be a strong reason for the construction of Machu Picchu. But nobody is certain what this reason is. However, by looking at the way Machu Picchu was built, historians have deduced the purpose for which Machu Picchu was constructed.Machu Pichu is a city of rock built on a mountain. But it has no walls surrounding the city. So, it couldn’t have been used for defense. It has half a hectare of green vegetation watered by open waterways and fountains. Corn and potato were primarily grown here, which were the food for royal people at that time. This indicates that Machu Pichu was intended to be used by the king and his relatives. At the base of the mountain on which Machu Picchu was built, the Urubamba River flows. This river was holy to the Incas. Moreover, a pillar that stands at the highest point of Machu Pichu is aligned with the four mountain gods of great importance to the Incas. Two virtual lines, each of them connecting the peaks of two opposite mountains, would meet at this pillar. This indicates that the Incas considered Machu Picchu a holy site. It might have taken 50 years to finish this city. From all these observations, historians believe that Machu Picchu could have been built by the Inca emperor Pachakuti to serve as a royal estate. The Inca emperors could have used it a few days every year, just like a resort.

Challenges

During the construction of Machu Picchu, the Incas might have faced the following challenges:
1. The location where Machu Picchu is built gets 1800mm of rainfall every year. This would cause soil erosion, thereby destroying the rock buildings in Machu Picchu eventually. So, building a city there wouldn’t have been easy.
2. The area where Machu Picchu is located is prone to earthquakes. Building a city of rock in such a place would have been a big challenge.
3. There are no visible reservoirs there. So, the Incas did not store the rainwater anywhere. Sustaining a population of almost 750 people without a system for storing rainwater would have been another challenge.
4. Getting and transporting the granite rocks needed for transportation would have been a challenge as well.
Solutions
1. To safely dispose of the rainwater, the Incas built terraces leading up to Machu Pichu. The terraces they built ensured that the soil in Machu Pichu was not washed away, and there were no landslides. Each of their terraces is made of a layer of sand on the top of a layer of gravel. The topmost layer is made of soil, which was probably brought from the plains for cultivating crops. Whenever it rains, the rainwater slowly works its way into the mountain through these three layers of materials, instead of running down the mountain and causing landslides.
2. In Machu Picchu, the rocks used for construction are just placed on top of each other. No mortar or lime was used to hold them together. This adds flexibility to the building. But, since no mortar is used, the rocks are cut precisely in shapes that wedge together (fit perfectly with each other like building blocks in a Tetris game), to prevent them from sliding away. Thus, when there is an earthquake, the rocks vibrate and return to their original position.
3. A canal was constructed at a 3° declination to bring water from a nearby spring. This canal brought drinking water to the city, sufficient for sustaining a thousand people.
4. Many of the granite rocks needed for the construction were available on site. These rocks were moved by keeping cylindrical wooden blocks under them and pulling them using ropes.
6. Chichen Itza

The sacred site Chichen Itza was one of the greatest Mayan centers in the world. Built during the sixth century A.D., it rose to prominence within a hundred years and continued to thrive even after the end of the golden age of the Mayan civilization.

Why was it built?

The Mayans were one of the dominant native people of Central America. Unlike other civilizations of that time, which originated around rivers and delta regions, the Mayan civilization originated in a place with very few rivers that could be used for irrigation or transport.

Even though rivers are scarce, the region receives sufficient rainfall for up to six months every year. However, the limestone abundant in those areas, which exists under the thin layer of soil, absorbs rainwater immediately.

But that doesn’t mean that water doesn’t accumulate anywhere at all. Indeed, water accumulates in several swamps that can be found in these areas. But this water is too salty to be used for drinking or irrigation. Therefore, this area was highly unsuitable for early human settlement.

Yet, the earliest Mayan settlements started appearing in these areas around 1800 B.C. This proves that Mayans were intelligent people who found ways to survive in a water-scarce environment.

Indeed, historians have found evidence that Mayans obtained water by using innovative methods like building small tanks to store rainwater, filtering saltwater using limestone, and finding caves that contained freshwater. Using this water, the Mayans started farming, cultivating crops like Maize to feed themselves.

Between 2000B.C. and 250A.D., keeping this effective water management and agriculture at their core, Mayan cities started to emerge. These cities eventually became huge centers that attracted massive human populations. Indeed, one of these cities was so big that it had a population of 250,000.

However, unlike the Incas and the Aztecs, these Mayan cities never joined hands to form a Mayan empire despite having a common culture and similar languages. Instead, ruled by kings who were considered divine, these Mayan cities competed against each other. They even went to such lengths to construct huge pyramids to show off their power to other cities.

Around 300A.D., the golden age of the Mayan civilization began. During their golden age, their cities started becoming more organized and powerful. The number of these cities grew to 40, with each city housing 5,000 to 50,000 people. Many of these cities had central plazas and palaces. Buildings of religious importance, like stone pyramids and temples, and buildings of cultural significance, like ballcourts, also became common in these cities.

Chichen Itza is one such city that emerged during the golden age of the Mayans. Built somewhere in the sixth century A.D., it rose to prominence within a hundred years. Since the terrain here was rough, it was first leveled, and a complex network of roads and buildings were built upon it. Some of these buildings, including a ball court and a stepped pyramid, can be seen even today.

Even though it led to the emergence of urban cities like Chichen Itza, the golden age of the Mayan civilization did not last very long. Between the eighth and tenth centuries, a mysterious event happened in the Mayan civilization. Nobody knows what it was. It could have been a severe drought or the unprecedented warfare between Mayan cities, or the overuse of resources. But whatever it was, it shook the Mayan civilization to the core. As a result, most of these Mayan cities were abandoned.

However, very few cities, like Chichen Itza, continued to flourish even after the end of the Mayan golden era. They continued to thrive until the 16th century when the Spanish came and eventually led to the fall of the Mayan civilization. Chichen Itza, however, might have lost its significance even earlier, around the thirteenth century, as a result of the power struggle among cities.

Today, Chichen Itza is a world heritage site and a world wonder. The buildings preserved at this site give us an insight into how Mayans lived 1500 years ago. Especially noteworthy among these buildings are a ballcourt and a stepped pyramid.

This ballcourt is where the Mayans played their famous ball game called Ulama. In this ball game, players, up to seven on each side, used only their hips, knees, and upper arms to push a 3-4 kg rubber ball past the enemy line or put it through a stone ring in the wall.

This game became an indispensable part of their lives. While some games were played just for fun, some games were soaked in gambling. Houses, fields, and even children were used to gamble. Sometimes, the game was played for purely religious reasons, with the players of the losing side being sacrificed to the gods.

Iron ring in the ballcourt in Chichen Itza

Mayans were highly religious people. They believed that, since the gods created everything, they needed something in return. So, they often made sacrifices to repay their debt to the gods. The most common sacrifice in the Mayan civilization was one’s own blood. They pierced their body part and then burned the blood as an offering to their gods.

They usually never sacrificed normal humans because normal humans were deemed studied unworthy of the gods. If they sacrificed humans, it was normally the captured king or some other royalty of the enemy kingdom. Such sacrifices and other rituals were often performed on top of stepped pyramids, like the one found in Chichen Itza. Hence, these pyramids held religious importance in the Mayan culture.

El Castillo (Temple of Kukulcan) – The pyramid in Chichen Itza.

Thus, looking at these preserved buildings helps us understand the cultural behavior and religious beliefs of the Mayans.

Challenges

Even though Egyptians were famous for their pyramids, the number of pyramids in America, built by Aztecs, Olmecs, Mayans, and Incas, outnumber the number of pyramids in the rest of the world. So, how did the Mayans build such massive pyramids?

Solutions

Unlike the Egyptians, the Mayans did not build their pyramids by placing one stone on top of another. Instead, they used a different process. First, they piled up mud in the form of a pyramid (prism). They then coated it with a layer of plaster made of limestone. Finally, they shaped it into a stepped pyramid and painted it red (mostly). The pyramids so built were initially small.

However, unlike the Egyptian pyramids, the Mayan pyramids grew bigger with time. Even though the later generations of Mayans used the same process, they did not start building pyramids by piling mud over the ground.

Instead, they piled mud over the already existing pyramids and then coated it with a layer of plaster. Thus, they utilized the pyramids of their ancestors to build bigger pyramids. Using this method, they could build huge pyramids, some of which were almost half the size of the Giza Pyramid.

7. The Colosseum

The Colosseum is a huge amphitheater that stands in the center of Rome, in Italy. When it was built, it had a seating capacity of 50,000 people. However, today, only one-third of it remains. Building an amphitheater that could host 50,000 people may not be a big deal today. But two thousand years ago, it was an extraordinary accomplishment.

Why was it built?

Rome was initially a kingdom that transformed into a republic. However, the Roman Republic was brought to an end when Julius Caeser became a dictator in 46 B.C. In the political turmoil that ensued, he was assassinated by rebellious senators. His adopted son Octavian, who later came to be known as Augustus, avenged Caeser’s murderers and established the Roman Empire, becoming its first emperor.

Even though Augustus was a righteous ruler, his successors were not. This led to turmoil in 68 A.D., and the Julio-Claudian dynasty, from which Augustus hailed, was overthrown. Eventually, Vespasian became the Roman Emperor, and he established the Flavian dynasty.

Once he became the Emperor, Vespasian ordered the construction of a huge amphitheater for the Roman people, at the same site where the previous Roman Emperor’s palace stood.

Unlike the other amphitheaters of that time, which were built into hillsides to provide support for the building, the Flavian Amphitheater was built as a freestanding structure. After ten years of construction, the Flavian Amphitheater was opened by his son Titus in 80 A.D. with 100 days of games.

In this amphitheater, which came to be known as the Colosseum in the middle ages, 50,000 people could be seated.

Inside the Colosseum

The men who fought in the Colosseum were mostly criminals or prisoners of war. At times, they were made to fight to the death as a means of executing them. Other times, they were bought as slaves and trained to be gladiators.

Training gladiators was a costly business. So, contrary to how Hollywood often portrays gladiatorial fights, the gladiators did not always fight to the death. Most of the time, they fought until one of the gladiators was wounded or ran out of energy. Only rarely, when the owner of the gladiator was compensated heavily, did the gladiators fight to the death.

Since gladiators were mostly slaves, most of them fought to win their freedom. They could win their freedom by being a top-ranked gladiator for 3 to 5 years. Upon winning his freedom, the gladiator was given a wooden sword, that was the proof of his freedom as a gladiator.

A gladiator could also win his freedom by portraying a performance that the Colosseum had never seen before. But it was very rare because the audience often loved the best gladiators. So, letting them go often cost the gladiator business heavily.

Just like the sportsmen of our time, the victorious gladiators could become famous and earn loyal fans. So, occasionally, even free Romans who wanted fame became gladiators.

Over the years, thousands of man vs. man, as well as man vs. animal fights, were held here. Roman people, who loved brutality and the sight of blood, loved these gladiatorial fights. Occasionally, mock naval battles were also hosted in the Colosseum by flooding the base with water.

The Colosseum was used actively for four centuries. After the sixth century A.D., it was mostly neglected. The later generations used it as a quarry for the construction of cathedrals. Two earthquakes that struck in the years 847 and 1231 also damaged the Colosseum. As a result, by the 17th century, the Colosseum was mostly destroyed. However, by the beginning of the 18th century, several popes tried to conserve the Colosseum as a sacred Christian site. Even after all the efforts at conservation, only one-third of the original Colosseum remains today.

How long did it take?

Almost 60,000 Jewish slaves worked day and night to build the Colosseum using limestone, tuff, and brick-faced concrete. It took them approximately ten years to finish the construction.

Which of these wonders have you visited already? How was your experience?
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