Thursday, January 18, 2007

Seven Wonders of the World

There's a contest going on to come up with a new list of Seven Wonders of the World. The current short list is, in no particular order:

1. The Acropolis (Athens, Greece)
2. Alhambra (Granada, Spain)
3. Angkor (Cambodia)
4. The Pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichén Itzá (Mexico)
5. The Statue of Christ Redeemer (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
6. The Colosseum (Rome, Italy)
7. Statues of Easter Island (Easter Island, Chile)
8. The Eiffel Tower (Paris, France)
9. The Great Wall of China
10. Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey)
11. Kiyomizu Temple (Kyoto, Japan)
12. The Kremlin (Moscow, Russia)
13. Machu Picchu (Peru)
14. Neuschwanstein Castle (Schwangau, Germany)
15. Petra (Jordan)
16. The Great Pyramids of Giza
17. The Statue of Liberty (New York, USA)
18. Stonehenge (Amesbury, UK)
19. Sydney Opera House (Sydney, Australia)
20. The Taj Mahal (Agra, India)
21. Timbuktu (Mali)

The candidates I would choose are in bold. 9 and 16 are the obvious choices, of course. I have no notion why 5, 8, 12, 14, 17, 19, and 21 are on this list; they're interesting places, but hardly wonders of the world. So basically it came down to choosing five of the rest. Which would you choose?