Article from: Reuters
The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer, Peru's Machu Picchu, Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid, The Colosseum in Rome and India's Taj Mahal have been chosen as the modern-day seven Wonders of the World.
The winners were announced at a glitzy show at Portugal's Benfica stadium today to unveil the winners chosen in an online poll at www.new7wonders.com which drew more than 100 million voters.
The New 7 Wonders of the World organisers say the contest was a chance to level the global cultural playing field and recognise the achievements of societies outside Europe and the Middle East.
The traditional "seven wonders of the world" all existed more than 2000 years ago and were all in the Mediterranean region.
Only one remains standing today - the Pyramids of Giza.
The winning sites were selected after a tally of about 100 million votes cast by people around the world over the internet and by mobile phone text messages, the non-profit organisation that conducted the poll said.
Among the other places that missed out were the Acropolis in Athens, the Statues of Easter Island, Cambodia's Angkor, Turkey's Hagia Sophia and Russia's Kremlin and St Basil's Cathedral.
The new architectural marvels were presented during a show which included appearances by American actress Hilary Swank, Indian actress Bipasha Basu and British actor Ben Kingsley, as well as performances by Jennifer Lopez and Jose Carreras.
The campaign to pick the seven new wonders was begun in 1999 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. His Switzerland-based foundation, called New7Wonders, received almost 200 nominations from around the world.
The list of candidates was narrowed down to 21 by early last year.
Voting took place over the past six years, but gathered pace only in recent months.
The organisers conceded there was no foolproof way to prevent people from voting more than once for their favourite. They claimed votes came in from every country in the world.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) keeps updating its own list of World Heritage Sites, which now totals 851 places.
However, Paris-based UNESCO distanced itself from the seven wonders ballot, saying it reflected only the opinion of those who voted.
Mr Weber aims to encourage cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments, and inspire people to value their heritage.
His foundation said it would use 50 per cent of net revenue from the project to fund restoration efforts worldwide. One of them is a mission to rebuild the giant Bamiyan Buddha statue in Afghanistan, blown up in 2000 by the Taliban regime.
"If you want to save something, you first have to truly appreciate it," Mr Weber told the crowd at today's show.
The original list of seven architectural marvels was collated by a variety of observers of the ancient Mediterranean and the Middle East.
However, 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 in Egypt have all vanished.
- with AAP