New Seven Wonders

By Lee | March 29th, 2007 | 2 Comments »

I am a big history guy and I love the ancient seven wonders of the world. I have studied up on all of them and have visited the only remaining one, the pyramids. Now, the new seven wonders of the world campaign is seeking votes from millions of people all over the world to choose the new seven wonders of the world. I have voted several times already and have visited all but three of the twenty finalists. I have very strong feelings on this vote and what should qualify to be a wonder of the world. I believe that of the twenty finalists, only 11 are worthy of being finalists (You can see pictures of the 20 finalists here). I don’t believe that modern sites such as the Sydney Opera House or the Eiffel Tower should be considered. Nor do I feel that several of the others are worthy of their finalist status. I understand they want to have a variety covering all parts of the globe but the Statue of Liberty is not a wonder of the world. It is a great site but it doesn’t inspire wonder in people. I have voted for the same 7 each time I have voted. I have 6 that I think should definitely be wonders and 1 that came down to a few toss up points before I chose it.
In the coming weeks I will profile all of my choices and why I voted for them, but the 7 that I voted for are: The Pyramids; Petra; Taj Mahal; Angkor Wat; Easter Island (Moai on Anakena Beach, Easter Island pictured above); Machu Picchu and The Acropolis.
To me, the first six I listed are slam dunks and there really can’t be any argument that they are worthy and certainly should be wonders of the world. I chose the Acropolis as my seventh for a few reasons. I had to choose between the Colosseum, Stonehenge and of course the Athenian Acropolis. The thing that set it apart in my mind was what I have mentioned before as shock value or the awe of first site. When you see Stonehenge for the first time it is very cool and the anticipation has built up from the long bus ride from London or wherever you are coming from but in the end it is just a pile of rocks in the middle of farmland just off the road. If it wasn’t Stonehenge it wouldn’t be anything special and it’s hard to quanitfy exactly what it is because nobody actually knows-so the histroical perpective is kind of lost.
The Colosseum is also amazing to see for the first time as you come ripping around a bend in Rome and see the glorious gladiator arena. However, the upkeep of this wonder hasn’t been to spectacular and it isn’t that unique in that you feel like you’ve seen something like this before if you’ve toured Roman and Greek ruins before. The inside is also a mess and really isn’t that impressive-relatively speaking of course compared to other amazing ancient wonders…realize we’re dealing with diamonds and pearls here. Finally, in my opinion, the Colosseum isn’t even the most impressive site in Rome. Not being religious at all, its hard to deny that St. Peters and the Sistine Chapel are unbelievable to see even for the most jaded of European cathedral tourists.
However, what set apart the Acropolis for me was as you drive into central Athens from the airport and you kind of come over a hill and see this amazing structure looming over the city with the Parthenon at the very top just beaming over Athens. It kind of makes you see why Athens is the mythical city of the ancients and all of that stuff. It is really a site to behold and is clearly the best site in Athens and really is in an amazing place and acts as the calling sign for the city.