It seems like everywhere I turn these days, people are talking about the new seven wonders of the world. The winners were announced yesterday in Lisbon, Portugal. The seven new wonders of the world are:
- Chichen-Itza, Mexico
- Christ the Redeemer in Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro
- The Great Wall of China
- Machu Picchu, Peru
- Petra, Jordan
- The Roman Colosseum, Italy
- Taj Mahal, India
The Great Pyramid has been awarded honorary status, as it is one of the original seven wonders of the world and, coincidentally, the only ancient wonder of the original seven still standing today.
I voted for a few of my favorites at New Seven Wonders Of The World at MSNBC. Then I realised the task is next to impossible. This world of ours really is a world of wonders. If everyone else had as hard a time choosing as I did, then it’s a wonder in itself that we have only seven new wonders of the world.
There are just too many great places to choose from. I decided that I would have to break my choices into two lists. One list for seven archaeological wonders and one list for seven natural wonders of the world. Despite giving myself an extra seven wonders of the world to play with by breaking it down into two lists, I found the job next to impossible.
These were my picks:
MY PICKS FOR THE SEVEN ARCHAEOLOGICAL WONDERS OF THE WORLD:
Machu Picchu, Peru
- Machu Picchu, Peru
- Chichen-Itza, Mexico
- Angkor Wat, Cambodia
- The Army of Terracotta Warriors, China
- Monasteries of Meteora, Greece
- The Taj Mahal
- The Great Wall of China
Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Photo: Carrie Marshall
Army of Terracotta Warriors, Xian, China. Photo: Carrie Marshall
Meteora Monasteries, Greece.
MY PICKS FOR THE SEVEN NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WORLD:
- Victoria Falls, Zambezi River on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe in South Central Africa
- Great Barrier Reef, Australia
- Iguazu Falls, Argentina
- Taroko Gorge, Taiwan
- Halong Bay, Vietnam
- Rafting Through The Grand Canyon
- Pamukkale, Turkey
Victoria Falls, Zambezi River, South Central Africa.
Halong Bay, Vietnam. Photo: Carrie Marshall
Pamukalle, Turkey
Map of Seven Ancient Wonders of the World
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I mostly agree with the list…all but the Rio pick. Nice personal list you came up with as well!
Yeah. I didn’t really agree with the Christ Redeemer either. I’m guessing that they took location into consideration. China, for example, could have had two on the list with the Great Wall and The Terracotta Warriors.
If you look at the old map of the seven wonders of the world, you’ll notice that most of the ancient wonders were all centered around the Middle East.
Perhaps they were trying to spread everything out a little. However, I felt there were far more note-worthy options. Although beautiful, Christ the Redeemer is a relatively new addition to our world of wonders.
The Brazilian president asked the people to all vote for the Christ statue…a big lobbying effort in a populous country.
It was built in 1931, quite modern. It can cause some wonder maybe within a village, certainly not the world!! The Brazilian president is making fun of his own country.
This post makes me want to travel and I love your pictures Carrie. Machu Picchu, Peru is a place I have always wanted to visit.
Good going, buying into what is nothing more than a bloated marketing exercise. This is why we can’t have nice things – because the public are too stupid to see when they’re being fed a line of shit.
Thanks Jo. I’m itching to go to Machu Picchu as well. In fact, this whole Seven Wonders of the World deal has me wanting to travel and we haven’t even been home for a week!
Tetsuo,
Perhaps I’m missing something. I’m not really sure what you mean by your comment. What ‘line of shit’ are you refering to?
Although people might not agree with all seven of the new Wonders of the World, they are still something that we should all be proud of.
I don’t see Rio as a Wonder of the World. Yes, the idea has been around since the 1850s, the statue isn’t even a 100 years old. Everything else on the list has stood the test of time. There should have been no problems with China having two spots in the list. (South America is on there twice with Peru and Brazil.)
Being a geographer, I would have to say very good list!
Mark
http://www.mytropicalescape.com
How far will business people go to create new shady business schemes to achieve their financial and other goals? This is the real wonder of the world we live in today.
Fooling the “mob” by the million must be the new “gift of the Internet” to such business absurdity and for business people play with world heritage to benefit the few.
On the other hands, this is how business people of some kind live and we may excuse them, but for governments of some of the developing nations to aggressively take part in this business fiasco and queue their citizen free of charge to vote in favour of their own monuments, is really beyond belief if not truly sad.
By merely being included in such business scheme could on the long run for certain damage the reputation of these newly chosen so called wonders of the world, because this is the natural destiny for any flowed business scheme.
Have you heard or seen any developed nation’s government like the USA, United Kingdom, France, Greece raise any complaint or participate in such a scheme? why? not because these are great nations, not at all… their confidence, calm, long term vision is what made them great in the first place. They are not fooled like the governments of other developing nations into such schemes that will certainly damage these newly selected wonders on the long term.
As for the Great Pyramid of Giza, I don’t believe that it needed any defending by the Egyptian Government whatsoever. The Great Pyramid not only stood the ravages of time for thousands of years by invaders, business people, destroyers, tanks, guns, but also kept its wonder and secrets hidden for eternity. For 10500 years, this great monument refused to disclose to any one as to who build it, how, why and when. I guess this is why it is called the greatest wonder on the planet.
I would just like to say I love your list. I don’t know if the statue in Rio was worthy of the acknowlegment and I don’t really care. As long as there are people out there who realize what the real wonders of the world are and don’t buy into the corporate world’s marketing tactics then it doesn’t really matter what they chose. So keep on traveling and have fun.
Hi Andron,
Wow! Thanks so much for your kind words. I am passionate about traveling. There are so many beautiful places in the world. Sometimes it makes me sad to see the world reduced to lists.
Machu Picchu is a beautiful place; since I arrived I was charmed by its beauty and could learn more about its history and the customs of its habitants. Also, I enjoyed its landscapes and the traditional food that ate in Aguas Calientes. This would not have been possible without the help of the travel agency I hired, TurPeru, which arranged all my tours. I recommend you, its website is http://www.turperu.com.pe