Pooga
Talk about a tough call! This is not easy. But I finally got my 7 voted for!</i>
LONDON (Reuters) - Only one of the ancient wonders of the world still survives – now history lovers are being invited to choose a new list of seven.
An original list of nearly 200 sites nominated by the public was narrowed to 21 by the organizers and experts, including the former director general of Unesco Professor Federico Mayor.
The vote is organized by a non-profit Swiss foundation called New7Wonders which specializes in the preservation, restoration and promotion of monuments, and the results will be announced on July 7, 2007, in Lisbon.
About 20 million votes have already been lodged, including many from India, for the Taj Mahal; China, for the Great Wall and from Peru for Machu Picchu, the fortress city of the Incas.
The other original seven wonders of the ancient world were 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.
Tia Viering, spokeswoman for New7Wonders , said: "Apart from the Pyramids, the seven ancient wonders of the world no longer exist." The only criteria for the new list is that the landmarks were built or discovered before 2000.
- Acropolis, Athens, Greece
- Alhambra, Granada, Spain
- Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia
- Chichen Itza Aztec site, Yucatan, Mexico
- Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Colosseum, Rome
- Easter Island Statues, Chile
- Eiffel Tower, Paris
- Great Wall, China
- Hagia Sophia church, Istanbul, Turkey
- Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan
- Kremlin/St.Basil's, Moscow
- Machu Picchu, Peru
- Neuschwanstein Castle, Fussen, Germany
- Petra ancient city, Jordan
- Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
- Statue of Liberty, New York
- Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom
- Sydney Opera House, Australia
- Taj Mahal, Agra, India
- Timbuktu city, Mali