THE NEW 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD
The New7Wonders organization is happy
to announce the following 7 candidates have been elected to represent global
heritage throughout history.
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The Taj Mahal, India |
Chichén Itzá,
Mexico |
Christ Redeemer, Brazil |
The Great Wall, China |
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Machu Picchu, Peru |
Petra, Jordan |
The Roman Colloseum,
Italy |
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Taj Mahal has been incl;uded in the
seven wonders of the world.
LISBON, Portugal: The
Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Greece's Acropolis and Peru's Machu
Picchu were leading contenders to be among the new seven wonders of the
world in a global poll whose results were to be announced Saturday.
The Taj Mahal, regarded
as one of the most beautiful monuments, was tonight voted in a global poll
as one of the new seven wonders of the world.
Officials of the I Media
Corp, the Indian representative of 'New7wonders of the World', claimed
that they got the information about the Mughal marvel getting into the
list from the Swiss organisation which organised the worldwide campaign
Also in the top 10 after
votes were cast by more than 90 million people are the Colosseum in Rome,
Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid, the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island, Brazil's
Statue of Christ Redeemer and Jordan's Petra.
The winners were to be
announced at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Great Pyramids of
Giza, the only surviving structures from the original seven wonders of
the ancient world, are to retain their status in addition to the new seven.
People from every country
in the world voted by Internet or by phone message for the world's top
architectural marvels, the nonprofit organization conducting the balloting,
called
The Colosseum, the Great
Wall, Machu Picchu, India's Taj Mahal and Petra have been among the leaders
since January. The Acropolis and the Statue of Christ Redeemer recently
received a surge in votes.
The United States' Statue
of Liberty and Australia's Sydney Opera House have been sitting near the
bottom from the start.
Also in the less-voted
group are Cambodia's Angkor, Spain's Alhambra, Turkey's Hagia Sophia, Japan's
Kiyomizu Temple, Russia's Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral, Germany's
Neuschwanstein Castle, Britain's Stonehenge and Mali's Timbuktu.
The campaign was begun
in 1999 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. Almost 200 nominations came
in from around the world, and the list of candidates was narrowed down
to the 21 most-voted by the start of 2006.
The organizers conceded
there was no foolproof way to prevent people from voting more than once
for their favorite.
Weber's Switzerland-based
foundation aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving
and restoring monuments. It relies on private donations and revenue from
selling broadcasting rights.
The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, keeps a list of World
Heritage Sites, which now totals 851 places, but the agency was not involved
in Weber's project.
The original list of wonders
were concentrated in the Mediterranean and Middle East. 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 Pharos lighthouse
off Alexandria have all vanished.
The New7Wonders of the
World were announced tonight in a star-studded ceremony featuring a fanfare
of musical performances and a parade of world dignitaries. All came together
for one night to highlight the world's cultural gems and shared heritage.
The New7Wonders of the
World, in random order, are: Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China, Petra,
Chichén Itzá , the Statue of Christ Redeemer, the Colosseum
and the Machu Picchu. More than 100 million votes were cast worldwide. |