New 7 Wonders

I was taking this from local newspaper. Too sad that none of the finalist or even the candidate is come from my country, Indonesia.

Why they don't count any ancient places in Indonesia or maybe because no one had voted any ancient places in Indonesia to the committe.

In my opinion, this committe should also become proactive to list the real ancient wonders not only based on the voting from peoples.

But what to do, now there is already 21 finalist to be choosen.

==================================

Only one of the ancient wonders of the world still survives - now history lovers are being invited to choose a new list of seven.

Among 21 locations shortlisted for the worldwide vote is Stonehenge, the only Brit-ish landmark selected.

The 5,000-year-old stones on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, will be up against sites including the Acropolis in Athens; the Statue of Liberty in New York; and the last remaining original wonder, the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo.

An original list of nearly 200 sites nominated by the public was narrowed to 21 by the organisers and experts, including the former director general of Unesco Professor Federico Mayor.

The vote is organised by a Swiss foundation called New7Wonders, which specialises in the preservation, and promotion of monuments, and the results will be announced on July 7, 2007, in Lisbon.

About 20 million votes have already been lodged, including many from India, for the Taj Mahal; China, for the Great Wall and from Peru for Machu Picchu, the fortress city of the Incas.

The other original seven wonders of the ancient world were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Statue of Zeus at Olympia; the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus; the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Tia Viering, spokeswoman for New7Wonders, said: "Apart from the Pyramids, the seven ancient wonders of the world no longer exist."

The only criteria for the new list is that the landmarks were built or discovered before 2000.

"People of England, it is now your turn to be heard," added Viering.

Support Stonehenge to become one of the New Seven Wonders of the World."

Votes can be made online, at www.new7wonders.com.

The 21 finalists for the New Seven Wonders of the World, alphabetically:

1 Acropolis, Athens, Greece. 2 Alhambra, Granada, Spain. 3 Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia. 4 Chichen Itza Aztec site, Yucatan, Mexico. 5 Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 6 Colosseum, Rome. 7 Easter Island Statues, Chile. 8 Eiffel Tower, Paris. 9 Great Wall, China. 10 Hagia Sophia church, Istanbul, Turkey. 11 Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan. 12 Kremlin/St Basil's, Moscow. 13 Machu Picchu, Peru. 14 Neuschwanstein Castle, Fussen, Germany. 15 Petra ancient city, Jordan. 16 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt. 17 Statue of Liberty, New York. 18 Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom. 19 Sydney Opera House, Australia. 20 Taj Mahal, Agra, India. 21 Timbuktu city, Mali.

===================================