Name your vote for the NEW Wonders of the World. Choose from old, modern or be creative and make up your own.

Cathy's (a client of mine) purse. I have no idea how the heck she manages to fit everything into it. It may be the geek in me, but I honestly believe she must have some kind of pocket dimension.....

Seriously though - I've always been impressed at the width of the street beside Tiananmen square in Beijing.

I can never remember what they are... here are the ancient 7 wonders of the world...

The Great Pyramid of Giza
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
The Lighthouse of Alexandria

I know there are tons of other lists out there ( like the 7 natural wonders of the world ) but if it's not already a wonder in some list, I'd vote for Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Now I think from what I have seen in my travels

Petra - Jordan
Temples of Bagan - Myanmar
Naqsh-E Jahan Square - Iran
Avebury Circles - England
El Djem - Tunisia
The Opera House - Sydney (I am biased)
Bangkok - Thailand (It is the centre of the universe!!!)

G'day to you all,
maybe we could squeeze in the tunnels in Vietnam (not all of us at once!) and the Tiger Leaping Gorge in China into the list. Ok, and also the Trans Siberian Railroad (hey, it's long and a lot of people and insects died during it's construction). And please leave the Opera House in there too! tee hee!

Guinness should definitley be on the list!! Because it amazingly tastes like crap everywhere except for Ireland!!

And I agree with Vinny !!!

Kelimutu, there is just something strange about looking down at those three lakes, each a different color.
Lake Toba, when you look out at the caldera from Samosir Island, it is just breath taking to imagine the fiery power that could punch a whole in the earth 1265 sq. k. in size, with the inner walls at least 500 m. high!
Thai cooking, I mean, that is a work of art!
Machachupre, even more than Everest, Machachupre is simply a spectacular mountain! I was lucky enough to see it in the early evening, when it was glowing coral, orange and red... Unreal!
Hadrians Wall, The Trans-Siberian Railroad and the Great Wall, the fact that they are manmade just boggles the imagination.
Modern Civilization itself, have you ever thought about how complex it is? Have you ever looked at the color copier at work and tried to figure out how it worked, or how hard it would be to make one? How often do you meet anyone that actually makes something? My mom is a rancher, and she is the only person I know that actually makes something, everyone else I know works in the service industry.

How about the Cuidad des Arts et Sciences in Valencia? I would also add the Guggenheim in Bilboa and all of Gaudi's architecture and art in Barcelona.

I know I caught flak in another thread for dissing the culture of Spain as being secondary to Italian, but let me tell you, the innovative architecture there is the best in the world. That's what NYC recently featured an exhibit on it.

Where was the NYC Exhibit and when is it over?

And here is a link:

Wonders

I'd have to include the Southern Lights!

Hey thanks for the list and the link, So much to see out there the worlds So big.

No one has really mentioned the big "official" project going on for the "New 7 Wonders of the World". It is decided by people's votes and the winners will be announced this July 7 (7/7/07).

We visited two of the nominees recently (Sydney Opera House and Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto) and both have big signs up asking people to vote for them in this contest.

Go and register your votes. As the website says, be part of making history.

This contest is a good idea. I think they should do it every decade.

KKH Karakrum high way is the eight wounder of the. its trake route between Chian and Pakistan.

I'd have to include New Zealand's Fiordland, utterly breathtaking..

I can't agree about re-choosing the wonders every decade. Most of the nominees have been around for many years, some for centuries, so once they are chosen, they should be the 'official' wonders. Having votes every ten years would kind of cheapen the exercise. Perhaps every century or so . . .

I don't really understand why the Sydney Opera House is there... sure, it's a lovely building... but a wonder of the world? The same could be said of the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty - can you really put them in the same league as a 1500-mile wall, or a city carved into the rock, or a massive Pagan calendar built from huge rocks dragged from 200 miles away, or a sprawling city of a past Empire consumed by the jungle?

The Eiffel Tower and S of L are both in the list of nominees, I think. I guess it depends on your definition of a wonder. The Colloseum is a nominee, as is Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, and a bunch of other buildings. The SOH is a unique building and almost symbolic for Australia, as is the Eiffel Tower.

Which was my first thought as to why they were in the list - to be "inclusive".

Then again, I guess perhaps you could argue that the sheer ingenuity that went into the structures - the art and design, then the mathematics, the science and engineering, the industry, the co-ordination - makes these structures a "wonder" (they certainly would have been to Pagans from 5000 years ago).

Perhaps my overfamiliarity with such technology - taking it for granted - makes me overlook these three structures as wonders in their own right.

I reckon I'd replace the sydney opera house with Ayres Rock / Ularu. i think it is a more stunning thing. the opera house is iconic and slightly interesting to look at, but visiting the big rock is more likely to be called amazing.

Yeh, I thought that too - but I think these wonders are meant to be man-made, not natural...

I thought Kata Tjuta/Olgas were more impressive than Uluru. The Valley of the Winds walk was one of the best things I did on my trip!

I can't understand why a quite ugly metal tower, the Eiffel tower could be a wonder? I would say an important building, but not a wonder!

The Acropolis in Athens is a wonder site.
The Alhambra in Granada is stunning, especially if you look from the opposite, from Mirador de San Cristobal!

Agree with you on the Alhambra, it's magical..

I'd go with Angkor Wat. Just because. But it is man-made....and I do not want to vote for any man-made wonders really.......even the pyramids.
So, not going with man-made things, I'm kind of stuck. I just prefer natural beauty!!

i agree with steve and paul - can't understand why SOH is there... i saw it, got a thrill because it brought home to me that i was in oz, but that's about it... close up it's pretty grubby too. i support the inclusion of the eiffel tower though, not least because of the period when it was built - how many other structures had been created that size, in that age? none, i would hazard...

my nomination though, goes to wat rong khun a few miles below chiang rai... if you think 'seen one wat, seen them all...', then go to this place - it'll blow you away!

http://www.watrongkhun.com/

btw, click on the thai script at the bottom to see more pics...

Wonders can create different types of WOW!
These are places that stay in my mind.

Halong Bay Vietnam
Wat Doisuthep Chiang Mai
Uluru
Kakadu
Great Barrier Reef
Taj Mahal
Anghor Wat

Tiger temple (Kanchuburri) Thailand isnt really in the class but it is a real wow to have a tiger resting peacefully in your lap.

Don't think SOH or Eiffel cut it.

mez

Just for something different - how about the ruins at Sukhothai. They are pretty nice, but not quite enough to be a wonder of the world. Maybe. What makes them even more special is that was an amazing age for Thais and humans. The king at that time developed the thai script, expanded the empire but if any citizen had a complaint or problem, they could ring the bell and the king would come out and hear it and decide. Certainly an improvement on the current system of "democracy" as per the other forum discussion I just discussed.

Did you see the Sydney Opera House was added as a UNESCO world heritage site last week?

Ha ha - that is funny.

And George Bush was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

The winners of the New 7 Wonders competition announced a few days ago were:
Great Wall of China
Petra
Statue of Christ Redeemer, Rio
Machu Picchu
Chichen Itza
Colosseum
Taj Mahal

I wouldn't have gone with most of those, but there you go....

Now they've moved on to natural wonders

The big statue of Christ was a bit of a disappointment - I would have liked to see Angkor Wat in the list before that.

Sagarmatha NP (have I spelt that right? Everest) would have to be one. The Great Barrier Reef - maybe? Uluru - maybe? Antarctica?? The Pacific Ocean??? Hmmm, actually making that list is harder - there is so much in nature that is a wonder and amazing

The problem with the new 7 wonders list was block voting. A lot of countries got their residents to vote for whatever was in their country to increase tourism. There was even something on the BBC website a couple of weeks back saying that the Taj Mahal wasn't going to make it because Indians didn't know about the vote.

Chichen Itza was a weird one as well. I've heard it's almost totally restored but it is close to the beach resorts on the Yucatan so it'll boost tourism.

I was just talking about this exact thing last night. Christ Redeemer isn't spellbinding to me. I would think Angkor is much more of a 'wonder' than Christ Redeemer and way more impressive, as are many others...

The voting done for the new wonders couldn't control how many times people voted either, but I don't think the list is too terrible at all. Besides Redeemer, which was erected in the early 20th century, the rest are ancient, magnificent and architectural masterpieces that transcend time.

What they have become today is less relevant than what they meant when they were designed and created. There are others worthy of the list too.....

I am pretty interested to find out the new natural wonders but it could be some time! Voting for the new 7 wonders started 6 years ago.

the new 7 natural wonders are being announced bext year on 08.08.08

really? How come the first new ones took so long and these are so quick??

i just think they've had the exposure now so don't need 10 years worth of voting lol. Plus they want to keep with the funky dates.

I almost never agree with the OFFICIALS....we will see what they come up with.

With so many fascinating points of interest in the world I don't think we will all ever agree on just seven!

Even though there are some glitches in the voting system, at least the wonders are actually (as much as possible) being chosen by 'the people' and not just some panel of "experts".

I would like to nominate that indoor ski slope in Dubai as one of the new man made wonders of the world.

Snow in a dessert. now that is a wonder.

It would be fun to make our own list.....

I dare you to

Yeah - that is a good inclusion.

YAY! I have been to Ngorongoro (twice).

Wow, a copy'n'paste spammer actually adding to the discussion! Whatever next!

Like, double dare? Maybe we can think of some way to organize it so we can vote and break it down to own choices.....what do you guys think?

I am glad that the Pyramids did not make the top 7 on the man-made list. Not because they are not spectacular, they are amazing, but because it would have been an indirect compliment to the complex itself, which deserves the exact opposite.

The infrastructure surrounding the Pyramids, from the ticket office to the facilities to tourist information to the manners of the staff to overall user-friendliness, was an absolute disgrace. The Egyptian government should be completely ashamed of how terribly they promote and maintain these incredible structures.

Unless you pay for an expensive taxi ride from Cairo to Giza or are part of one of those coach tours, it can be very difficult to even get to the Pyramids. There is supposedly a bus from the Egyptian Museum but it is unmarked and we waited hours for it, to no avail. Then we took a local bus, followed by a mini-bus that dropped us at the bottom of the hill on which the Pyramids sit. There is no signage to the entrance, the ticket office staff could not have been less excited to see us and the office itself was little more than a wooden shack.

Once inside, we climbed half way up the Great Pyramid to the entrance in the 40+ degree heat only to be told that we needed to buy tickets from another anonymous ticket office to get into this pyramid. So we trudged back down there only to find that this office was closed for the next four hours. This sort of thing, coupled with the incessant camel-riding touts, continued for our entire time at the Pyramids.

I will reiterate that the Pyramids themselves (and the Sphinx) are incredible but it is almost like the Egyptians have made no effort at all to enhance the site. For shame.

I'm going to have to throw in the Taj Mahal, just because it got me interested in having my trip stretch around the globe instead of backtrack.

One of my favorites from home has to be the aurora borealis. Especially when you get some intense greens mixing with some bright red.