The world now has seven new wonders

Lisbon - The Great Wall of China, the Jordanian rock city of Petra, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, the sacred Inca fortress of Machu Picchu in Peru, the Mayan temple city of Chichén Itzá in Mexico's Yucatán, the Roman Colosseum, and the Indian mausoleum Taj Mahal have been declared as modern seven wonders of the world. The results of the survey, in which 100 million people from around the world voted via the Internet and text messages on mobile phones, were announced overnight today in Lisbon.
    The international survey was organized by the New7Wonders Foundation, which was founded six years ago by Swiss-Canadian wealthy filmmaker and traveler Bernard Weber. He promised that half of the proceeds would be used for the restoration of world cultural heritage, including the Buddha statue in Afghanistan, which was destroyed during the rule of the fundamentalist Taliban movement.
    The original list of seven wonders was apparently compiled by the Hellenistic philosopher Philo of Byzantium in the 2nd century BC. Of the most remarkable monuments he mentioned, only the oldest - the Egyptian pyramids in Giza - has survived to this day. The existence of the hanging gardens of Babylon, known as Semiramis' gardens, has never been completely proven, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus and the statue of Phidias' Zeus in Olympia were destroyed by fire, and the remaining three structures - the lighthouse on the island of Pharos near Alexandria, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the mausoleum in Halicarnassus in Asia Minor - succumbed to earthquakes.
    "Never before in history have so many people participated in such a global decision," actress Hilary Swank declared during Saturday night's ceremonial event at the Lisbon stadium of the Benfica football club, where tenor José Carreras and pop diva Jennifer Lopez also performed.
    After the announcement of the results, excitement and celebrations erupted in the countries of the winning monuments. People expressed the greatest joy particularly in three Latin American countries: Peru, Brazil, and Mexico. The public, authorities, and large corporations in these countries had been working in recent months to promote their monument prior to the announcement. According to media reports, Brazilian telecommunications companies even lowered the price of text messages so that people would not save on sending votes for the Christ the Redeemer statue.
    This effort ultimately paid off for Brazil, according to agencies. The inclusion of the colossus, which rises 38 meters above Rio de Janeiro, among the new wonders of the world was welcomed enthusiastically by a crowd of 400,000 people who attended the Live Earth concert at Copacabana beach in Rio last night. "We are so happy. This means great publicity for Rio and Brazil," said 36-year-old concert attendee Patricia Polanca. The head of state and an avid supporter of the campaign, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, also did not hide his joyful feelings: "Christ the Redeemer has always been a wonder of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. From today onwards, it will also be a wonder of the world," the president declared.
    In the Mexican Chichén Itzá, 26-year-old student Alberto Jiménez jumped for joy with hundreds of other Mexicans, who then began singing ancient Mayan songs. "This is a great success for the whole country," Jiménez stated.
    Hundreds of Peruvians from Cusco, a city near Machu Picchu, also celebrated similarly. Peruvian Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism Mercedes Araoz thanked all Peruvian citizens for supporting the victorious candidacy of the sacred Inca fortress.
    People celebrated on the other side of the world as well - in Jordan and India - at the rock city of Petra and in front of the Taj Mahal. Two million of the total six million Jordanians had voted for the rock city up until the middle of last week. King Abdullah II and his family also participated in a large supportive campaign. The fact that the Indian mausoleum Taj Mahal became a new wonder of the world will also be appreciated by tourists over the next year. The head of the hotel and restaurant association in Agra, Rádžéš Čauhan, told AFP that tourists will receive a twenty percent discount on accommodation around the new wonder of the world over the next year.
    In contrast to the enthusiastic reactions elsewhere in the world, the selection of the Great Wall of China as a modern wonder of the world reportedly did not elicit any reactions in China apart from an official mention in the agencies. Egypt is also not thrilled, having recently withdrawn from the competition due to objections regarding the system for selecting the new seven wonders of the world. It was unhappy that the pyramids in Giza had to compete again to retain their place among the chosen and were not included among the wonders automatically.
    However, no massive celebrations took place in Europe either. Only one of the new wonders is located on the European continent - the Italian Colosseum. In the Lisbon audience during the night, 62-year-old Antonio Catarino frowned, disappointed that no European Catholic cathedral made it to the finals. "It is unforgivable that they were not chosen," he said.
    Weber's project has elicited mixed reactions from the start. For example, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee does not agree with the survey, stating that its own list of unique world monuments has little in common with the popular vote. "The World Heritage list is not about the classification of monuments; it is not the result of some quiz," recently quoted British media UNESCO spokesman for the World Heritage list Roni Amelan. According to him, the sole purpose of the UNESCO committee is to care for these monuments, which cannot be said of the new wonders of the world project. Egypt also shares UNESCO’s stance, having not only withdrawn the candidacy of the pyramids in Giza but also requested the organization to create a commission of 300 experts and intellectuals to select the new wonders of the world based on scientific and historical criteria.