The Magnificent 7
Often when I’m traveling, I hear that a particular site was declared one of the seven natural wonders of the world, or one of the founding fathers declared such and such site one of the wonders of the world (Jefferson said that the view on a particular rock in Harpers Ferry was one of the wonders of the world---needless to say, he never made it out west). Since there’s only one of the remaining original ancient 7 wonders of the world left (the original list was: The Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Statue of Zeus at Olympia; the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus; the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria), New 7 Wonders is calling for a world wide vote of a new list. Here’s the 21 Finalists:
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
Of the 21 finalists, I’ve personally visited four: machu picchu, Colosseum, Neuschwanstein, and the Statue of Liberty. I’ve seen several original moais from Easter island, but I’ve never been to Rapa Nui.
My list would be the following:
Machu Picchu
Pyramids of Giza
The Great Wall
Taj Mahal
Stonehenge
Petra
The Kremlin
What would your list be?
