new seven wonders of the world

Editorial from the Philippine Panorama- July 15, 2007




Christ the Redeemer



Great Wall of China


Roman Colosseum


Petra


Macchu Picchu


Taj Mahal


Chichen Itza


Two thousand years on, the Seven Wonders of the World are chosen again- this time through a global poll.

The Original Seven Wonders were chosen by Antipater of Sidon, who drew on the authority of such learned travellers as Herodotus and Callimachus. The list included the Colossus of Rhodes and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and were found only around the Mediterranean, the limits of the Western World.

Four Wonders were destroyed in earthquakes and two in fires. Few can list them today. To find their modern successors, 21 finalists were drawn up from submissions.

The winning list wad revealed in Lisbon, Portugal, on Saturday, July 7. The ranking of the top seven wonders is kept secret.

The Great Wall of China, Rome’s Colosseum, India’s Taj Mahal, Peru’s Macchu Picchu, Brazil’s Statue of Christ the Redeemer, and Mexico’s Chichen Itza pyramid were among the new Seven Wonders of the World chosen. Jordan’s Petra was the seventh winner.

About 100 million votes were cast by the Internet and cell phone text messages, said New7Wonders, the nonprofit organization that conducted the poll.

The seven beat out 14 other nominated landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island in the Pacific, the Statue of Liberty, the Acropolis, Russia’s Kremlin, and Australia’s Sydney Opera House.

The Pyramids of Giza, the only surviving structures from the original seven wonders of the ancient world, were assured of retaining their status in addition to the new seven after indignant Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace they had to complete.

The campaign to name new wonders was launched in 1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. Almost 200 nominations came in, and the list was narrowed to the 21 most-voted by the start of 2006. Organizers admit there was no foolproof way to prevent people from voting more than once for their favorite.

A Peruvian in national costume held up Macchu Picchu’s award to the sky and bowed to the crowd with his hands clasped, eliciting one of the biggest cheers from the audience of 50,000 people at a soccer stadium in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.

Many jeered when the Statue of Liberty was announced as one of the candidates. Portugal was widely opposed to the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Another Swiss adventurer, Bertrand Piccard, pilot of the first hot-air balloon to fly nonstop around the world, announced one of the winners- then launched into an appeal for people to combat climate change and stand up for human rights before being ushered off the stage.

The Colosseum, the Great Wall, Macchu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, and Petra had been among the leading candidates since January, while the Statue of Christ Redeemer received a surge in votes more recently.

The Statue of Liberty and Australia’s Sydney Opera House were near the bottom of the list from the start.

Also among the losing candidates were Cambodia’s Angkor Watt, Spain’s Alhambra, Turkey’s Hagia Sophia, Japan’s Kiyomizu Temple, Russia’s Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral, Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle, Britain’s Stonehenge, and Mali’s Timbuktu.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria have all vanished.

Weber’s Switzerland-based foundation aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving, and restoring monuments. It relies on private donations and revenues will be used to fund restoration efforts worldwide, including recreating the Bamiyan Buddha statue in Afghanistan.

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) also keeps a list of World Heritage Sites, which now totals 851 monuments.

With these new set of Seven Wonders of the World, we will have new global cultural icons to treasure and admire in the next century or so.