Friday, April 25, 2008

The 7 New Wonders of the World

Last year New7Wonders announced that there were 7 new wonders of the world. New7Wonders is the non profit organization which conducted a global poll, which generated over 100 million votes that were cast on the internet by cell phone text messages. The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in 1999 by Bernard Weber, who is a Swiss adventurer. Close to 200 nominations came in, and the list was narrowed to 21 by the start of 2006. The new 7 wonders of the are The Great Wall of China, Rome's Coliseum, India's Taj Mahal, Peru's Machu Picchu, Brazil's Statue of Christ the Redeemer, Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid and Jordan's Petra. We probably know the least about Petra. Petra is a city located about 250 miles from Amman, Jordan and this ancient city was built the Nabetheans. This city was carved in the rock of the red-rose mountains. This city is hidden behind an almost impenetrable barrier of rugged mountain that has no comparison in the world. This city was "designed to strike wonder into all who entered it".
The Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower were nominated and did not make the cut. And politics did make a play in some of the selections. Portugal was widely opposed to the Statue of Liberty as a nominee because of our invasion of Iraq. Also, Egypt had to be assured that the pyramids of Giza, the only surviving structure from the original 7 wonders, would retain their status in addition to the new 7 wonders. This is one of my long dream vacations. I want to go from one location to another. I will also see remnants of any of the remaining wonders. I hope that you can join me!

No comments: