Vote for the New Seven Wonders of the World

Creating the first list of seven wonders of the world has been attributed to the ancient Greeks. They selected remarkable locations known in their time, possibly to promote vacation travel to awe inspiring destinations !

Why seven and not six, or ten, or another number ?
The number seven appears to have symbolic meaning in many ancient cultures. In ancient Egypt it was attributed to represent completion or perfection. In ancient Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations the number seven was significant as representing the number of known planets and days of the week, while the ancient Hebrews found many representations of seven as a special number, beginning with the creation of the world.

Most lists today of the Greek Seven Wonders of the Ancient World agree on these locations :

• Pyramids of Egypt at Giza
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Turkey)
• Statue of Zeus (Jupiter) at Olympia, Greece
• Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Turkey)
• Colossus of Rhodes (Aegean Sea)
• Lighthouse (Pharos) of Alexandria

note: some scholars have substituted the Walls of Babylon for either #2 or #7 on the above list - the long thick bricks of the great city wall were described as colorfully glazed History of the Seven Wonders, ABC News - CNN Destinations

Over the years, a number of folks have taken on the task of identifying Seven Wonders of the Modern World - for example the InfoPlease list matches the American Society of Civil Engineers list and includes

• Empire State Building (U.S.)
• Itaipu Dam (Parana River, Brazil & Paraguay)
• CN Tower (Canada)
• Panama Canal
• Channel Tunnel
• Netherlands North Sea Protection Works
• Golden Gate Bridge

Do you agree ? What about the Great Wall of China ? or Stonehenge ? Anchor Wat in Cambodia ?

Well, now you can cast your vote on which seven wonders should be identified for the modern world. Vote counting has already begun and the deciding list will be published on 07.07.2007

Check
out
the
nominees
and
vote
for
your
favorites
at

www.
new7
.com

Who is conducting the selection and counting the votes ? The New7Wonders Foundation, headquartered at the Heidi-Weber-Museum in Zurich.
Their project began in September 2000, When Bernard Weber, a Swiss filmmaker and entrepreneur started a website (www.n7w.com ) to promote awareness of the fragile conditions of many of the locations he'd seen in his travels and adventures. The aim of the foundation is to raise funds to help with restoration and protection of a number of the sites, and involve participation by collecting votes from around the world to create a New Seven list. The Foundation now includes over 19 million participants, from engineers and academics, architects and government officials, and other interested individuals. Nominations for the new list were narrowed down from almost 200 nominated sites to 77 locations in 2005. From that list, 21 locations were selected and are now pictured on the New7Wonders website, where you can register (free) and vote online for your choices (or you can telephone if you would prefer).

The n7w World Tour started Sept 5 at the Acropolis and will conclude March 6th at the Statue of Liberty in New York - the project is what its organizers call the "world's first global voting campaign".

Race on to name new seven wonders, 10/22/06, Monterey Herald
US citizens should vote to include Statue of Liberty in new 7, 10/20/06Kansas State Collegian
Moscow shows off new wonders, St Basil's Catherdral & the Kremlin, 9/27/06, RIA Novosti
Druids celebrate as Stonehenge makes 'seven wonders' shortlist, 10/17/06, 24dash.com
Chile's Easter Island Moais statues threatened by corrosion, 9/21/06, Santiago Times
Neuschwanstestill inlin the running for "New Seven Wonders" 2/15/05, Germany Info
Sydney Opera House, Taj mahal on new seven wonders list 1/03/06, CBC.ca Arts
Wanted: New Wonders of the world ! 10/17/06, CBBC Newsround

List of the 21 finalists, alphabetically:
1 Acropolis, Athens, Greece. 2 Alhambra, Granada, Spain. 3 Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia. 4 Chichen Itza Aztec site, Yucatan, Mexico. 5 Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 6 Colosseum, Rome. 7 Easter Island Statues, Chile. 8 Eiffel Tower, Paris. 9 Great Wall, China. 10 Hagia Sophia church, Istanbul, Turkey. 11 Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan. 12 Kremlin/St Basil's, Moscow. 13 Machu Picchu, Peru. 14 Neuschwanstein Castle, Fussen, Germany. 15 Petra ancient city, Jordan. 16 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt. 17 Statue of Liberty, New York. 18 Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom. 19 Sydney Opera House, Australia. 20 Taj Mahal, Agra, India. 21 Timbuktu city, Mali.

Other lists of Seven have been compiled over the years - for example, Earth Scientists and others have composed a list of the
Seven Natural Wonders of the World (ABC News - really nice pictures on this site)

• The Grand Canyon (U.S.)
• Mount Everest (Nepal & Tibet)
• Ayers Rock (Australia)
• The Matterhorn (Switzerland)
• Victoria Falls (Africa)
• Meteor Crater (U.S.)
• The Great Barrier Reef (Australia)

and check out these sites:

Seven Wonders of the Medieval Mind

Seven Most Endangered Wonders of the World, MSNBC

RESOURCES AT THE TCC LIBRARY

BOOKS
What are the seven wonders of the world? and 100 other great cultural lists, fully explicated

Dreams of iron and steel: seven wonders of the 19th century, from the building of the London sewers to the Panama Canal

VIDEOS
Seven Wonders of the World 2 videos at the TCC Library

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