This lighthouse was planned by Sostratus, another remarkable character in the architectural roll of honor of those early times. He was a native of Cnidus, a town in Caria in Asia Minor, to the south of Ionia and Lydia, celebrated also as the birthplace of several other men who rose to distinction in the early days of the Greek colonies as mathematicians and astronomers. Cnidus was almost equally remarkable in its possession of two famous works of the statuary’s art: one the figure of a lion carved from a single block of Pentelic marble, ten feet long by six feet wide, which was executed to commemorate the great victory of Caria; the other a statue of Venus by Praxiteles, which occupied one of the three temples to the goddess in that city. It is said that Nicomedes of Bithynia was so fascinated by the rare beauty of this figure that he offered to liquidate the debt of Cnidus, which was by no means a small one, if the citizens would cede the statue to him. They refused, however, to part with it at any price, esteeming it one of the glories of their city. Cnidus contained many beautiful architectural monuments, the ruins of which are still prominent. Sostratus, the architect, was the son of Dexiphanes, and must not be mistaken for any one of several other artists of the same name who are conspicuously mentioned by the early writers. His first fame was acquired through his connection with the celebrated so-called hanging gardens which he built in his native country. They consisted of a series of porticos or colonnades supporting terraces, surrounding an enclosure, possibly the Agora of the city, and served as a promenade for the inhabitants. Pliny says that Sostratus was the first to erect anything of the kind. This statement may be excused, either because the hanging gardens of Sostratus differed widely from the well-known ones of Babylon, which antedated them by several hundred years, or because Pliny forgot for a moment those of Semiramis.