14 DAY TRIAL // In the 2nd century BC, the Antipater of Sidon created a travel brochure for the ancient Greeks. This brochure, the Seven Wonders of the World, showed places worth visiting and to which the Greek aristocrats could reasonably aspire to travel. Later, in the 6th century AD, the list was changed - the Ishtar Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon, was replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
Besides the lighthouse, the ancient list included 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 Egyptian pyramids. Only the pyramids still exist, all other structures being destroyed either by fires or earthquakes. Moreover, no one really knows whether the Hanging Gardens of Babylon really existed or not. The list of wonders included only man-made structures, because until recently, people weren't very interested in places of natural beauty.
In 1999, the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber started a campaign for the "New 7 Wonders of the World". According to Tia Viering, a spokeswoman for the campaign, Mr. Weber "felt it is time for something new to bring the world together" and to "symbolize a common pride in the global cultural heritage".
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has a list of 830 World Heritage Sites and since the beginning of his campaign, Weber has received about 200 nominations coming from around the globe. Insofar, more than 20 million people across the world have voted and the initial list of proposals has narrowed down 77 (click here for the list). Last year, a panel of international architects including Britain's Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando from Japan and Cesar Pelli from the United States and chaired by the former UNESCO chief Federico Mayor, has shortened the list to 21 finalists:
￭ Acropolis, Greece ￭ Alhambra, Spain ￭ Angkor, Cambodia ￭ Christ Redeemer Statue, Brazil ￭ Colosseum, Italy ￭ Easter Island, Chile ￭ Eiffel Tower, France ￭ Great Wall Of China ￭ Hagia Sophia, Turkey ￭ Kiyomizu Temple, Japan ￭ Kremlin and St Basil's Cathedral, Russia ￭ Machu Picchu, Peru ￭ Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany ￭ Petra, Jordan ￭ Pyramid at Chichen Itza, Mexico ￭ Pyramids of Giza, Egypt ￭ Statue of Liberty, United States ￭ Stonehenge, England ￭ Sydney Opera House, Australia ￭ Taj Mahal, India ￭ Timbuktu, Mali
The final seven wonders will be chosen based on popular vote and they will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal, on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07. You can cast your vote here.
