For the list by USA Today/Good Morning America, see New Seven Wonders. For other uses see Wonders of the World (disambiguation)

New Seven Wonders of the World is a project that attempts to revive the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World concept with a list of modern wonders. A popularity poll was organized by the private New 7 Wonders Foundation, with winners announced on July 7, 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal.^[1]

The Swiss-based non-governmental, non-profit foundation New 7 Wonders Foundation claims more than 100 million votes were cast through the Internet or by telephone. Since nothing prevented fans, government or tourism agencies from casting multiple votes, the poll is considered "decidedly unscientific".^[2] According to John Zogby, founder and current President/CEO of the Washington-based polling organization Zogby International, New 7 Wonders Foundation drove “the largest poll on record”.^[1]

The New 7 Wonders Foundation, established in 2001, is committed to investing 50% of excess revenue in global good causes related to monument preservation and reconstruction. It has relied on private donations, the sale of merchandise such as shirts and cups, and revenue from selling broadcasting rights to obtain funds.^[3]

The program drew a wide range of official reaction. Some countries touted their finalist and tried to get more votes cast for it, while others downplayed or criticized the contest.^[2][1] After supporting the New 7 Wonders Foundation at the beginning of the campaign, with providing advice on nominee selection, UNESCO has distanced itself from the undertaking in 2007. ^{[4] [5]} Many monuments were supported by dedicated websites or strong placements on national websites. National figures and celebrities promoted the New 7 Wonders campaign in many countries. ^[6]

History

The origin of the idea of seven wonders of the world dates back to Herodotus (484 BC – 425 BC) and Callimachus (305 BC – 240 BC), who made lists which included the Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes and Lighthouse of Alexandria. Only the Great Pyramid of Giza is still standing. The other six were destroyed by earthquake, fire or other reasons.^[7]

According to the New 7 Wonders milestones page,^[8], Swiss-originated Québécois filmmaker and aviator Bernard Weber launched the project in September 1999. The project's web site started in 2001 when Mr. Weber paid $700 for a site based in Canada.^[1] To be included on the new list, the wonders had to be man made, completed before 2000, and in an acceptable state of preservation. By November 24, 2005, 177 monuments were up for consideration. On January 1, 2006, the New 7 Wonders Foundation said the list had been narrowed to 21 sites,^[9] later reduced to 20 following complaints from Egypt over the Pyramids' inclusion as a candidate in competition with others.

The project assigned what it called attributes to each finalist, such as perseverance for the Great Wall of China, passion for the Taj Mahal, and awe for the Easter Island statues.

A midpoint tally reported a top 10 list which included all 7 winners, plus the Acropolis, Easter Island, and the Eiffel Tower.^[10]

Federico Mayor, a former UNESCO Director General, was the president of project's expert panel as an individual.^[11] New 7 Wonders is not connected with UNESCO.^[12]

Organisers stated that their aim was to use part of the revenue from the contest between the well-known monuments, from future votes, related merchandise, and use of the voters database,^[13] to set up, or contribute to, various restoration projects in the world.^[14][15][2]

After the final announcement, however, New 7 Wonders said it didn’t earn anything from the exercise and barely recovered its investments.^[1][14]

Winners

In alphabetical order:

Wonder	Location	Image
Chichen Itza	Yucatán, Mexico
Christ the Redeemer	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Colosseum	Rome, Italy
Great Wall of China	China
Machu Picchu	Cuzco, Perú	View of Machu Picchu
Petra	Jordan
Taj Mahal	Agra, India
And one listing has honorary status:Great Pyramid of Giza (The last remaining ancient wonder of the world)	Cairo, Egypt

The company plans to develop a new list of seven wonders of nature through a similar process, taking nominations through August 8, 2008.

Reactions

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in a press release on June 20, 2007, reaffirmed that it has no link with the "private initiative", which it says would reflect "only the opinions of those with access to the Internet." The press release concluded:

There is no comparison between Mr. Weber’s mediatised campaign and the scientific and educational work resulting from the inscription of sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The list of the 7 New Wonders of the World will be the result of a private undertaking, reflecting only the opinions of those with access to the Internet and not the entire world. This initiative cannot, in any significant and sustainable manner, contribute to the preservation of sites elected by this public.^[5]

Egypt

Egyptian commentators have viewed it as competition to the status of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the only surviving monument of the original Ancient Wonders. "This is probably a conspiracy against Egypt, its civilization and monuments," wrote editorialist Al-Sayed al-Naggar in a leading state-owned daily. Egyptian Culture Minister Farouq Hosni said the project was "absurd" and described its creator, Weber, as a man "concerned primarily with self-promotion." Nagib Amin, an Egyptian expert on World Heritage Sites, has pointed out that "in addition to the commercial aspect, the vote has no scientific basis."^[16]

After the complaints from Egypt, the New7Wonders Foundation designated the Pyramids of Giza — the only remaining of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World — as an Honorary New7Wonders Candidate, and removed them from the voting.^[17]

Brazil

In Brazil there was a campaign Vote no Cristo (Vote in the Christ) which had the support of private companies, namely telecommunications operators that stopped charging voters to make telephone calls to vote.^[18] Additionally, leading corporate sponsors including Banco Bradesco and Rede Globo spent millions of dollars in the effort to have the statue voted into the top seven.^[1] Newsweek reports the campaign was so pervasive that:

One morning in June, Rio de Janeiro residents awoke to a beeping text message on their cell phones: “Press 4916 and vote for Christ. It’s free!” The same pitch had been popping up all over the city since late January—flashing across an electronic screen every time city-dwellers swiped their transit cards on city buses and echoing on TV infomercials that featured a reality-show celebrity posing next to the city’s trademark Christ the Redeemer statute.^[1]

According to an article in Newsweek, around 10 million Brazilians had voted in the contest by early July.^[1] This number is estimated as the New 7 Wonders Foundation never released such details about the campaign.

Chile

The Chilean representative for the Easter Island Moais, Alberto Hotus, said that the organizer, Bernard Weber, gave him a letter saying that the Moais had finished eighth and were "morally" one of the New Seven Wonders. Hotus said he was the only participant to receive such an apology.^[19]

Jordan

Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan joined the campaign to back Petra, Jordan's national treasure.^[1] Despite Jordan only having a population of under 7 million people, over 14 million votes were made from the country.^[1]

India

The Taj Mahal was lagging at No.14 with just 0.8% of the votes one month before the final declaration. A campaign to publicize the campaign in India gathered speed and it reached a crescendo in July 2007 with news channels, radio stations, and many celebrities asking people to vote. Towards the end of the campaign, 13% of all votes being cast came from India.^[20] At the end, the Taj Mahal of Agra got the highest number of votes.^{[citation needed]}

Other finalists

The other 13 finalists,^[21] listed alphabetically, were:

Wonder	Location
Acropolis of Athens	Athens, Greece
Alhambra	Granada, Spain
Angkor Wat	Angkor, Cambodia
Easter Island Moais	Easter Island, Chile
Eiffel Tower	Paris, France
Hagia Sophia	Istanbul, Turkey
Kiyomizu Temple	Kyoto, Japan
Kremlin, Red Square, and Saint Basil's Cathedral	Moscow, Russia
Neuschwanstein Castle	Füssen, Germany
Statue of Liberty	New York, United States
Stonehenge	Amesbury, United Kingdom
Sydney Opera House	Sydney, Australia
Timbuktu	Mali

References

External links

• New 7 Wonders Site
• Vietnamese New 7 Wonders Site
• Chichen Itza in Second Life Promotional machinima film made for the Mexican entry in the New Seven Wonders of the World contest by Planet Video.