The Taj Mahal is Leading Runner
Contributor July 7th, 2007
The Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Greece’s Acropolis and Peru’s Machu Picchu were leading contenders to be among the new seven wonders of the world in a global poll whose results were to be announced Saturday.
Also in the top 10 after votes were cast by more than 90 million people are the Colosseum in Rome, Mexico’s Chichen Itza pyramid, the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island, Brazil’s Statue of Christ Redeemer and Jordan’s Petra.
The winners were to be announced at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Great Pyramids of Giza, the only surviving structures from the original seven wonders of the ancient world, are to retain their status in addition to the new seven.
People from every country in the world voted by Internet or by phone message for the world’s top architectural marvels, the nonprofit organization conducting the balloting, called New7Wonders, said.
The Colosseum, the Great Wall, Machu Picchu, India’s Taj Mahal and Petra have been among the leaders since January. The Acropolis and the Statue of Christ Redeemer recently received a surge in votes.
The United States’ Statue of Liberty and Australia’s Sydney Opera House have been sitting near the bottom from the start.
Also in the less-voted group are Cambodia’s Angkor, Spain’s Alhambra, Turkey’s Hagia Sophia, Japan’s Kiyomizu Temple, Russia’s Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral, Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle, Britain’s Stonehenge and Mali’s Timbuktu.
The campaign was begun in 1999 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. Almost 200 nominations came in from around the world, and the list of candidates was narrowed down to the 21 most-voted by the start of 2006.
The organizers conceded there was no foolproof way to prevent people from voting more than once for their favorite.
Weber’s Switzerland-based foundation aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments. It relies on private donations and revenue from selling broadcasting rights.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, keeps a list of World Heritage Sites, which now totals 851 places, but the agency was not involved in Weber’s project.
The original list of wonders were concentrated in the Mediterranean and Middle East. 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 have all vanished.