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Seven New Wonders of the World
The ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Great Wall of China, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, Brazil’s Statue of Christ Redeemer, the Colosseum in Rome, India‘s Taj Mahal, and Jordan’s Petra have been voted the Seven New Wonders of the World at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on 7th July 2007 (07/07/07… get it?). The new wonders attempt to be a modern update to the original list devised by Greek scholars over 2,000 years ago. I’m not sure what to make of the poll myself and it sounds like UNESCO aren’t too impressed either. Did we really need this new poll? Should we even be limiting the wonders of the world to seven now in any case? And what message does this new list send out to those countries whose sites have not been retained? (Note the absence of the Pyramids at Giza…) Feel free to click on the ‘comments’ link to voice your opinion…
Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Telegraph.
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Wow! I didnt know you could suddenly revote and revamp the 7 wonders of the world. It defeats the purpose if you can ‘renew’ this list at any time at all! And to be honest, there are many more wonders around… Great barrier reef in Queensland, Great Ocean Road, Grand Canyon, USA, Stonehenge.. so many more..
Hmmm, interesting question. In my opinion if something is wondrous then why shouldn’t people consider it to be a ‘wonder’.
I’ve been to some of the places on the list – and some of those left off. Visiting the pyramids at Giza was quite a horrible experience. There were so many touts and people pestering me so much that I almost lost the will to live and went back to sit in the minibus instead of exploring further. Oh dear.
I also think that the Taj Mahal is over-rated.
It’s worth a look if you’re in the area. We won a raffle prize of two nights in the Agra Sheraton (when we lived in Delhi) so we took the opportunity to go down and see the place.
Anyway, it was quite a big hassle getting in – they even took my cigarette lighter away. Even more amazingly I got it back on the way out!
The Taj is an architectural marvel but it lacks atmosphere. It is after all just a big tomb. The mosque at the side is much more interesting.
How can they decide on just 7? there are so many wonders in the world that have been missed out like sydney opera house, the great barrier reef, summer palace in beijing, venice, panama canal, ha long bay, uluru, edinburgh castle etc etc etc. The list is endless so who really decides????