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Monday, July 09, 2007

7 Wonders - old, new, and au natural


- Machu Picchu

Recently there was voting online to choose the New Seven Wonders of the World, and there was some controversy about the fairness of the voting, with even the Vatican entering the fray with a protest that no Christian churches had been chosen. The winners were ...

Chichen Itza, a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, present-day Mexico .....

Christ the Redeemer, a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The statue stands 38 m (105 feet) tall, weighs 700 tons and is located at the peak of the 700-m (2296-foot) Corcovado mountain .....

The Great Wall , a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century .....

Machu Picchu, a pre-Columbian city created by the Inca Empire. It is located at 2,430 m (7,970 ft)[2] on a mountain ridge ... above the Urubamba Valley in Peru .....

Ptera, an archaeological site in Jordan, lying in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is famous for having many stone structures carved into the rock. .....

The Colosseum, a giant amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy. Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, it was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. It was built on a site just east of the Roman Forum, with construction starting between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian .....

The Taj Mahal, a mausoleum located in Agra, India. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned it as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Construction began in 1632 and was completed in approximately 1648 ...

Of all of these Wonders, I've only seen one in person - the Colosseum - though I saw Petra in that last Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and have heard Paul Horn play his flute in the Taj Mahal :-)

Lest we forget the past, the former Seven Wonders of the (Ancient) World, of which only one still exists (the Great Pyramid of Giza,) are ... the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum of Maussollos, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, and the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Don't know why, but for some reason I had thought the Library of Alexandria, not the Lighthouse, was one of the Seven Wonders ... brain rot, I guess.

Next up for the organizers of the contest - a new campaign to choose the seven natural wonders of the world, from possibilities like animal reserves, canyons, fjords, coastlines, cliffs, forests, glaciers, mountains, deserts, oases, reefs, seas, lakes, rivers and waterfalls (link).


- Christ the Redeemer


15 Comments:

Blogger Stephen C. Carlson said...

Even with no churches, the selection of Christ the Redeemer is nevertheless quite an impressive consolation prize.

1:18 PM  
Blogger cowboyangel said...

I refuse to acknowledge this list because of the absence of the Alhambra. Why not just vote for the first Madonald's or something?!?!?!?

Curses.

I read that a "last minute surge of votes" pushed Christ the Redeemer statue on the list. Stupid and unfair internet voting. It's a beautiful statue in a beautiful location, but it's only the 9th tallest statue in the world, so I don't know why it's such a wonder. The Ushiku Daibutsu Buddha in Japan is three times bigger.

And it's simply not more wonderful than the Alhambra. No, sorry, no, no, no. Nor is Petra.

Glad to see Macchu Pichu and Chichen Itza make the list.

1:25 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Stephen - thanks for visiting :-)

I heard St. Basil's in Moscow was on the shirt list too, but Christ the Redeemer is more impressive, I think.

1:35 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

1:39 PM  
Blogger cowboyangel said...

:-) Point taken.

I like the old cinema.

Actually, 5 or 6 of my 7 choices made the list (can't remember if I decided in the end between Petra or the Eiffel Tower), but my #1 choice was the Alhambra. Sorry, I've been there, and there's no way a statue -whether of Christ, Buddha, Statue of Liberty, etc. - beats the Alhambra. It's an entire complex, with gardens, palace, fortress, etc., etc.

Where's Liam? I want to hear what Liam has to say about this.

2:03 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

2:12 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

I thin Liam voted for Ramon Llull University :-)

2:14 PM  
Blogger Liam said...

Yeah, the whole thing seems rather silly to me. I haven't seen more of Petra than the Indiana Jones movie, so I can't really judge about that.

I have to say that Christ the Redeemer is very nice and all, but I think it's far from a wonder. It's in a great place, but artistically it leaves me pretty cold.

I don't know if I could come close to limiting the list to seven. St Peter's in Rome, Hagia Sofia, and a few different cathedrals including Chartres and Leon have good claims to compete. Of course the Alhambra. Why not the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge? What about El Escorial? The entire city of Venice? My fiancee?

William and I often have deep passionate and usually slurred discussions about such lists, but in the end I can never take them seriously.

It was a humid 95 degrees in New York today and I stopped in my favorite local haunt for a cold Brooklyn Lager. That, my friends, was a true wonder.

3:39 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Liam,

I don't know what I would have chosen if I'd voted - I didn't read about the contest until today.

The oracle at Delphi maybe - there's not much to see there anymore temple-wise but at least I've been there. The Golden Gate bridge? New York'd natural history museum? :-)

5:34 PM  
Blogger cowboyangel said...

Liam,

You were supposed to say, "William's completely right - The Alhambra is definitely one of the 7 Wonders of the World." What's with the wishy-washy "Everything is beautiful" response? That's not what I paid you for!

(Not to imply that your fiancee isn't a wonder.)

Oooh - Golden Gate vs Brooklyn Bridge. See the Crystal-William Smackdown on ESPN 3.

6:41 AM  
Blogger crystal said...

Celebrity death match .... claymation bridges throwing down :-)

10:57 AM  
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Thanks for your comment.

2:04 PM  
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