New 7 Wonders of the World

For those of you who haven't heard, a group called The New7Wonders Foundation has organized a vote for the new seven wonders of the world. Their idea is that it is ridiculous that of the seven wonders of the ancient world, only one of them still exists, and so it's time to come up with seven wonders of the world for the 21st century.

Of course, any talk about the 7 wonders of the world begs the question, "Can you name the original 7?" So take a moment....

While you think I'll give you the website for the foundation; here's a link where you can go and vote for what you think should be the new 7 wonders of the world.

Ok, so the original 7 wonders of the World are:

• the Great Pyramids at Giza
• the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• the Colossus of Rhodes
• the Statue of Zeus at Olympia
• the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus (say that 5 time fast!)
  
• the Lighthouse at Alexandria

Of these the only one still left standing is the Great Pyramids. Now, the list of candidates for the new 7 wonders of the world includes the Great Pyramids, but it also includes such upstarts as the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Egypt is kinda pissed about this--rightly so, I think. I mean, their wonder was the only one of the original 7 to survive earthquakes, storms, and over 2000 years of being beaten on by tourists. I think that the pyramids should get a bye in the voting process, and be automatically given one of the spots. Needless to say, the Great Pyramids got one of my 7 votes.

Among the candidates for the New 7 Wonders are the following structures: the Great Wall of China, Neuschwanstein, the Sydney Opera House, the Statue of Liberty, Stonehenge, St. Basil's Cathedral, the Taj Mahal, Christ Redeemer statue (Rio de Janeiro), the Acropolis, the Alhambra, Angkor, the Pyramid at Chichen Itza, the Colosseum, the Easter Island Statues, Hagia Sophia, the Eiffel Tower, Kiyomizu Temple, Machu Picchu, Petra, the Pyramids of Giza, and Timbuktu.

I think the organizers of the vote did a good job at selecting structures from all over the world. There are some candidates, however, that I feel are distinctly out of place on this list, such as the Statue of Liberty, and the Eiffel Tower. These places are too new; building them wasn't a challenge like building the pyramids was. And some of them, Neuschwanstein in particular, aren't really historically significant; it's just a pretty castle built by a lunatic king.

So, when I voted, I selected places that met 2 qualifications: they were an impressive architectural achievement and they had stood the test of time. In my opinion, places like the Great Wall of China, the Easter Island Statues, the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, and Stonehenge fit these qualifications. Not only do we still marvel about how the people of the time constructed such places, but they have provoked endless speculation about their significance and meaning. And that, I think, is what a true wonder will do.