New Seven Wonders list comes up short

It was an interesting idea: Ask millions of people worldwide to vote on a new “Seven Wonders of the World” list to update the old wonders — you know, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, etc., most of which no longer exist.
The new seven manmade wonders unveiled Saturday include familiar icons such as the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Wall of China, but they also include perhaps lesser-known sites such as the Christ statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico.
Already, voices from UNESCO to France have been grumbling about the choices. The group would have been on safer and surer ground picking a list of top 20 or even 50 sites. After all, no pyramids? No Acropolis? No Stonehenge? And no U.S. sites? (The Statue of Liberty was an also-ran, too.)
Seven isn’t enough to encompass the world’s many wonders, if you ask us.
Posted by Randy Scholfield

8 Comments

  1. political_mom
    Posted July 9, 2007 at 1:32 pm | Permalink

    No Niagra falls? I dig stonehenge, that one island where all the stone statues face the sea….all of those are pretty cool.

  2. stumper
    Posted July 9, 2007 at 2:06 pm | Permalink

    Well hell, there goes Wild West World off the list.

  3. stumper
    Posted July 9, 2007 at 2:14 pm | Permalink

    Did somebody say Seven Blunders of the World? Put Wild West back on the list.

  4. ProudMan
    Posted July 9, 2007 at 2:45 pm | Permalink

    Voting for the wonders of the world? How ridiculous. Next thing you know they will be running the government by opinion polls.

  5. Republican
    Posted July 9, 2007 at 3:34 pm | Permalink

    The Statue of Liberty got booed off the stage by the Portuguese audience.

    Maybe the Swiss will re-enter their newly found crop circles as a “wonder of the world.”

  6. Kev
    Posted July 9, 2007 at 6:19 pm | Permalink

    I think that the old Holiday Inn building in Wichita should be a wonder of the world. Like, I wonder how they made that building so UGLY?

  7. JWink
    Posted July 9, 2007 at 6:49 pm | Permalink

    FOR QUESTIONS OF THIS KIND, WONDERS OF THE WORLD AND SO FORTH … I USUALLY BYPASS AMERICA’S TOP UNIVERSITIES AND GO RIGHT TO THE TOP.

    Obviously that would be Coast to Coast’s top scientists … headed by the great Art Bell who has unfortunately just announced his retirement … again! Mr. Bell just moved back to the “high desert” somewhere near AREA 51 in Nevada … from somewhere above the 70th floor in downtown Manilla, The Phillipines.

    Of course, backup scientists at Coast to Coast are ready to step in immediately: Ian Punnett, George Noury, Richard Hoagland and their great crop circle expert, Linda Molten Howe.

    I wonder if Coast-to-Coast would transfer its base of operations to the vast uncharted sand hills somewhere northwest of Pratt to the Arkansas River. I have heard settlements there have been lost as the wind-blown sand hills shift locations.

  8. Jed
    Posted July 10, 2007 at 6:30 am | Permalink

    I really dislike the idea of selecting seven, or whatever number of wonders to be the places to go. If you’re really looking for wonders, you can find them wherever you happen to light; just look around you! Those will be the real wonders, even without a gift shop and bumper stickers. All it takes are eyes and mind full of curiousity!