New 7 Wonders of the World Announced in Portugal
The results of a global internet poll to pick the new 7 wonders of the world were announced on July 7th, 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal. The “New 7 Wonders of the World†campaign was started back in 1999 by Swiss filmaker, aviator and adventurer Bernard Weber. Originally numbering over 200 nominations, the new wonders candidates, were narrowed down to 21 finalists, which were put up for public vote on new7wonders.com until July 6, 2007.
According to Wikipedia.org, the original 7 wonders of the ancient world may date back to as late as the fifth century AD and are traditionally attributed (as in the new 7 wonders site, although Wikipedia disagrees) to the engineer Philo of Byzantium. The original list included only sites that would have been known and visited by ancient Greeks. In fact, the word used to describe these sites translates closer to “must-seesâ€.
The moderm attempt at reviving the concept of the 7 wonders has already raised controversy. The campaign has been called “neither democratic nor secientific†by UN experts and has been critized because the voting is restricted to those with acces to telephone and the internet. Additionally, it has been reported that some governments have carried out aggressive marketting campgains in order to get their citizens to vote and insure that their sites come out on top. Finally, the Vatican has accused the campaign of deliberately ignoring Christian sites.
Here is the final list of 7 wonders of the world according to new7wonders.com:
- The Great Wall of China
- Petra in Jordan
- Statue of Christ Reedemer in Brazil
- Machu Picchu in Peru
- Chichén Itzá in Mexico
- The Roman Coloseeum in Rome, Italy
- The Taj Mahal in India
I have only been one to the sites on the list but I must agree that the Colosseum should definitely be in there. As for the others, I’ll let you know once I have a chance to visit…
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