Seven ‘New’ Wonders of the World Named

July 9, 2007

Seven ‘New’ Wonders of the World Named
July 9 – Saturday, the seven "new" wonders of the world were revealed in a gala celebration held in Lisbon, Portugal. The wonders named were the centuries-old pink ruins of Great Wall of China, India’s Taj Mahal, the Colosseum in Rome, Petra in Jordan, the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru and the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico.

A private Swiss foundation launched the contest in January, allowing voters to choose from 21 sites short-listed out of 77 picked by a jury of renowned architects and ex-UNESCO chief Federico Mayor. It said it had gathered nearly 100 million votes at http://www.new7wonders.com/ by the end of polling at midnight Friday.

For inclusion in the list, the new wonders had to be man-made, completed by 2000 and in an acceptable state of preservation. Each continent had to be represented by at least one wonder, but there could not be more than one per country. The ancient wonders were mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean area.

The ancient seven wonders of the world all existed more than 2,000 years ago and were all in the Mediterranean region. Only one remains standing today, the Pyramids of Giza. The original list of seven architectural marvels was collated by a variety of observers of the ancient Mediterranean and the Middle East. However, 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 off Alexandria in Egypt have all vanished.