World wonders

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Main article: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The Great Pyramid of Giza, the only wonder of the ancient world still in existence The Colosseum in Rome The Great Wall of China Hagia Sophia Taj Mahal Golden Gate Bridge Chichen Itza Old City of Jerusalem The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights Grand Canyon The Great Barrier Reef The London sewerage system's original Abbey Mills pumping station Machu Picchu

The historian Herodotus (484—ca. 425 BCE), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca. 305—240 BCE) at the Museum of Alexandria, made early lists of Seven wonders but their writings have not survived, except as references. The seven wonders included:

• 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
• Lighthouse of Alexandria

The earliest lists had the Ishtar Gate as the seventh wonder of the world instead of the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

The Greek category was not Wonders but "thaumata"(Greek: Θαύματα), which translates closer to "things to be seen". The list that we know today was compiled in the Middle Ages—by which time many of the sites were no longer in existence. Today, the only ancient world wonder that still exists is the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Wonders of the Medieval World

Many lists of wonders of the world are said to have existed during the Middle Ages, although it is unlikely that these lists originated at that time because the wordmedieval was not even invented until the Enlightenment-era, and the concept of a Middle Age did not become popular until the 16th century. Brewer's refers to them as "later list[s]"^[2] suggesting the lists were created after the Middle Ages.

Many of the structures on these lists were built much earlier than the Medieval Ages, but were well known.^[3] These lists go by names such as Wonders of the Middle Ages (implying no specific limitation to seven), Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages, Medieval Mind and Architectural Wonders of the Middle Ages.

Typically representative are:^[2][3][4][5]

• Stonehenge
• Colosseum
• Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
• Great Wall of China
• Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
• Hagia Sophia
• Leaning Tower of Pisa

Other sites sometimes included on such lists:

• Taj Mahal^[6]
• Cairo Citadel^[7]
• Ely Cathedral^[8]
• Cluny Abbey^[9]

Wonders of the modern world

Many lists have been made of the greatest structures built during modern times or of the greatest wonders existing today. Some of the most notable lists are presented below.

American Society of Civil Engineers

The American Society of Civil Engineers compiled a list of wonders of the modern world:^[10]

Wonder	Date Started	Date Finished	Location
Channel Tunnel	December 1, 1987	May 6, 1994	Strait of Dover, between the United Kingdom andFrance
CN Tower	February 6, 1973	June 26, 1976, tallest freestanding structure in the world 1976–2007.	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Empire State Building	January 22, 1930	May 1, 1931, Tallest structure in the world 1931–1967. First building with 100+ stories.	New York, NY, U.S.
Golden Gate Bridge	January 5, 1933	May 27, 1937	Golden Gate Strait, north of San Francisco,California, U.S.
Itaipu Dam	January 1970	May 5, 1984	Paraná River, between Brazil and Paraguay
Delta Works/ Zuiderzee Works	1950	May 10, 1997	Netherlands
Panama Canal	January 1, 1880	January 7, 1914	Isthmus of Panama

New7Wonders Foundation's seven wonders of the world

Main article: New Seven Wonders of the World

In 2001 an initiative was started by the Swiss corporation New7Wonders Foundation to choose the New Seven Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments for profit.^[11] Twenty-one finalists were announced January 1, 2006.^[12] Egypt was not happy with the fact that the only original wonder would have to compete with the likes of the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Opera House, and other landmarks; and called the project absurd. To solve this, Giza was named an honorary Candidate.^[13] The results were announced on July 7, 2007:^[14]

Wonder	Date of construction	Location
Great Wall of China	5th century BCE – 16th century CE	China
Petra	c.100 BCE	Jordan
Christ the Redeemer	Opened 12 October 1931	Brazil
Machu Picchu	c.1450 CE	Peru
Chichen Itza	c.600 CE	Mexico
Roman Colosseum	Completed 80 CE	Italy
Taj Mahal	Completed c.1648 CE	India
Great Pyramid (Honorary Candidate)	Completed c.2560 BCE	Egypt

USA Today's New Seven Wonders

In November 2006 the American national newspaper USA Today in conjunction with the American television show Good Morning America revealed a list of New Seven Wonders as chosen by six judges.^[15] The wonders were announced one per day over a week on Good Morning America. An eighth wonder was chosen on November 24, 2006 from viewer feedback.^[16]

Number	Wonder	Location
1	Potala Palace	Lhasa, Tibet, China
2	Old City of Jerusalem	Jerusalem, Israel
3	Polar ice caps	Polar regions
4	Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument	Hawaii, United States
5	Internet	Everywhere
6	Maya ruins	Yucatán Peninsula, México
7	Great Migration of Serengeti and Masai Mara	Tanzania and Kenya
8	Grand Canyon (viewer-chosen eighth wonder)	Arizona, United States

Seven Natural Wonders of the World

Similar to the other lists of wonders, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the world, as there has been debate over how large the list should be. One of the many lists was compiled by CNN:^[17]

• Grand Canyon
• Great Barrier Reef
• Harbour of Rio de Janeiro
• Mount Everest
• Aurora
• Parícutin volcano
• Victoria Falls

New7Wonders of Nature is a contemporary effort to create a list of seven natural wonders chosen by people through a global poll, organized by New Open World Corporation (NOWC), which ran the New Seven Wonders of the World campaign.

Seven Natural Wonders:^[18] is a not for profit endeavour created to protect the seven natural wonders that have already been established.

Seven Wonders of the Underwater World

The Seven Underwater Wonders of the World was a list drawn up by CEDAM International, an American-based non-profit group for divers, dedicated to ocean preservation and research.

In 1989 CEDAM brought together a panel of marine scientists, including Dr. Eugenie Clark, to pick underwater areas which they considered to be worthy of protection. The results were announced at The National Aquarium in Washington DC by actor Lloyd Bridges, star of TV's Sea Hunt:^[19][20]

• Palau
• Belize Barrier Reef
• Great Barrier Reef
• Deep-Sea Vents
• Galápagos Islands
• Lake Baikal
• Northern Red Sea

Seven Wonders of the Industrial World

Main article: Seven Wonders of the Industrial World

British author Deborah Cadbury wrote Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a book telling the stories of seven great feats of engineering of the nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries. In 2003 the BBC made a seven-part documentary series on the book, with each episode dramatising the construction one of the wonders. The seven industrial wonders are:

• SS Great Eastern
• Bell Rock Lighthouse
• Brooklyn Bridge
• London sewerage system
• First Transcontinental Railroad
• Panama Canal
• Hoover Dam

Travel wonders of the world

Travel writer Howard Hillman is one of many who have compiled lists of the top man-made^[21] and natural^[22] tourist travel wonders of the world:

Man-made travel wonders

1. Giza pyramid complex
2. Great Wall of China
3. Taj Mahal
4. Machu Picchu
5. Bali
6. Angkor Wat
7. Forbidden City
8. Bagan Temples and Pagodas
9. Karnak Temple
10. Teotihuacán

Natural travel wonders

1. Serengeti Migration
2. Galápagos Islands
3. Grand Canyon
4. Antarctica
5. Iguazu Falls
6. Amazon Rainforest
7. Ngorongoro Crater
8. Great Barrier Reef
9. Victoria Falls
10. Bora Bora

See also

• Eighth Wonder of the World
• World Heritage List – a list of over 800 sites deemed by UNESCO to be of "outstanding universal value"
• National Seven Wonders
  • Seven Wonders of Canada
  • Seven Wonders of Poland
  • Seven Wonders of Portugal
  • Seven Wonders of Russia
  • Seven Wonders of Ukraine
  • Seven Wonders of Wales
• Seven Wonders of Fore (Fore Abbey, Ireland)
• Seven Blunders of the World—a list by Mahatma Gandhi

References

1. ^ Anon. (1993)The Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia First Edition Oxford:Oxford University
2. ^ ^a b I H Evans (reviser), Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Centenary edition Fourth impression (corrected); London: Cassell, 1975), page 1163
3. ^ ^a b Hereward Carrington (1880–1958), "The Seven Wonders of the World: ancient, medieval and modern", reprinted in the Carington Collection (2003) ISBN 0-7661-4378-3, page 14.
4. ^ Edward Latham. A Dictionary of Names, Nicknames and Surnames, of Persons, Places and Things (1904), page 280.
5. ^ Francis Trevelyan Miller, Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt. America, the Land We Love (1915), page 201.
6. ^ Palpa, as You Like it, page 67)
7. ^ The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Crusades (2001, page 153))
8. ^ The Rough Guide To England (1994, page 596))
9. ^ The Catholic Encyclopedia, v.16 (1913), page 74
10. ^ American Society of Civil Engineers Seven Wonders
11. ^ New Seven Wonders
12. ^ Finalist Page
13. ^ Egypt Angered at New Wonders Idea
14. ^ Reuters via ABC News Australia "Opera House snubbed as new Wonders unveiled" 7 July 2007
15. ^ New Seven Wonders panel
16. ^ The world's 8th wonder: Readers pick the Grand Canyon
17. ^ CNN Natural Wonders
18. ^ Seven Natural Wonders
19. ^ Underwater Wonders of the World
20. ^ 2nd list of Underwater Wonder
21. ^ Hillman, Howard. "World's top 10 man-made travel wonders". Hillman Quality Publications. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
22. ^ Hillman, Howard. "World's top 10 natural travel wonders". Hillman Quality Publications. Retrieved 2007-07-07.