World's Largest Poll to Pick the New 7 Wonders of the World



Posted: Friday, June 29, 2007

by Cari Jones
Highway2PerfectHealth

It's been 2000 years, since the original 7 ancient wonders of the world were named by Greek scholars and only one remains to this day, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.They are one of 21 remaining candidates out of an original 177 in worldwide polling,where, according to Yahoo news, 60 million votes have been cast so far. There remains but eight days until the winners will be revealed to the world at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on July 7 2007, so there is still time to vote. It is anticipated that the contest will garner many more millions of votes in the final days to count down. Online votes may be cast at new7wondersdotcom.

The list of candidate sites include: Taj Mahal (India), Acropolis (Greece), Alhambra (Spain), Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Chichen Itza (Mexico), Christ Redeemer (Brazil), Colosseum (Italy), Easter Isand statues (Chile), Eiffel Tower (France), Great Wall of China, Hagia Sophia (Turkey), Kyomizu Temple (Japan), Kremlin (Russia), Machu Picchu (Peru), Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany), Petra (Jordan), Pyramids of Giza (Egypt), Statue of Liberty (US), Stonehenge (England), Sydney Opera House (Australia) and Timbuktu (Mali).

The original 7 included, The Pyramids of Giza, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Statue of Zeus(Jupiter) at Olympia, The Temple of Artemis(Diana) at Ephesus, The Mausoleum( source of modern usage) at Halicarnassus, The Colossus of Rhodes and The Pharaoh's Lighthouse of Alexandria.

The competition was organized by a Swiss-Canadian film maker, Bernard Weber and later was joined by United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.Weber decided to organize the international competition in 1999 to choose successors to the ancient wonders. To support the competition, Weber founded the New7Wonders Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2001. When UNESCO offered its assistance as an adviser, Weber promised to give half the proceeds from merchandising sales to restoring and preserving the sites, and in 2000 the first votes were cast.

 

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Ben Jones
 4 years 319 days ago.
71 fans.
I love history and I especially love the ingenuity of past generations. It's really sad that only one of the original seven wonders is still standing. I hope the new wonders fair better!
» left by 4 years 318 days ago.
Thanks for your comments. I think the new kids on the block would do great to match the old ones!
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