The Seven New Wonders -- as heard on BBC World

[Fanny Brice]

Hi all

It has been half a year since I've spent any amount of time on the Fanatics Forum. Did you miss me?!

I heard this piece on the radio yesterday... sorry if it is old news here. But, I immediately thought of all you fanatics.

A world-wide vote is going on to select the NEW Wonders of the World. I don't know the fame of Bernard Weber, but he is described as a "Swiss entreprenuer." He is sponsoring the vote. See the web site:

http://www.n7w.com

The transcript for the radio piece I heard can be found at:
http://www.theworld.org/geoquiz/2004/12/02ga.shtml

Another link which provides some good historical information is:
http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders

I couldn't help but notice -- on the n7w site, the "statistics" look a little skewed. 50% of all votes coming from China? A little voter fraud?

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Very good selection of candidates!
However, the voting won't be interesting; obviously, most voters will simply pick the Wonder of their Civ

[Abaddon]

i dont know... i certianly dont think anything like the Tower of London is a Wonder..... i would have thought people are more likely to vote things that are not local.. For me the Wall of China, or the Taj Mahal stood out from those choices... and certainly are not local.

[Blackbird_SR-71]

vote for Taj Mahal

[MikeH]

Originally Posted by slozenger

i dont know... i certianly dont think anything like the Tower of London is a Wonder..... i would have thought people are more likely to vote things that are not local.. For me the Wall of China, or the Taj Mahal stood out from those choices... and certainly are not local.

No, but they're not very modern either. It's a shame that they are only accepting buildings, I think Civ has it right in considering the Internet and the Apollo Programme to be modern wonders.

[braclayrab]

I'd suggest that most votes are coming from china because most people are from china...

[punkbass2000]

But it's an internet poll, isn't it? I don't think most internet users are from China...

Oh, and BTW, the Apollo Program is not a Great Wonder in Civ3.

[snipelfritz]

I definately think they should be more modern. Some of the nominees are as old as the original 7 wonders. It should be "the seven wonders of the modern world".

[Crimso]

As a Torontonian, I'm disappointed that the CN Tower isn't up here. It's the modern day Tower of Babel, the most basic (and powerful) symbol of our hubris. The goal was to just build something really f'ing tall, and we did it better than anyone else (tieing your structure to a mountain doesn't count). I'd mention what else it symbolizes, but I worry there are too many immature people here.

[MikeH]

Originally Posted by punkbass2000

Oh, and BTW, the Apollo Program is not a Great Wonder in Civ3.

I didn't say it was .

[plarq]

Angkor Wat and Taj Mahal

[plarq]

I prefer Buddism culture.Same to Chinese,Japanese and Tibet religious buildings.They are totally ignored by Ancient wonder list(There's no Buddism then,anyway).Culture is not only found in Eastern Mediterrain Sea.

[punkbass2000]

Originally Posted by MikeH

I didn't say it was .

So you'd propose that whatever the Russian and Chinese Space Programs are called should also be voted in?

[El Duderino]

Originally Posted by Crimso

As a Torontonian, I'm disappointed that the CN Tower isn't up here. It's the modern day Tower of Babel, the most basic (and powerful) symbol of our hubris. The goal was to just build something really f'ing tall, and we did it better than anyone else (tieing your structure to a mountain doesn't count). I'd mention what else it symbolizes, but I worry there are too many immature people here.

Definitely. It should definitely be up there. It has been the tallest free-standing structure in the world for 25 years now. In our modern era, that is unheard of. It definitely deserves to be up there.

[punkbass2000]

Concurred.

[onedreamer]

Originally Posted by snipelfritz

I definately think they should be more modern. Some of the nominees are as old as the original 7 wonders. It should be "the seven wonders of the modern world".

TIME SPAN
The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World were built between 2500 B.C. and 200 B.C. The New 7 Wonders of the World can have been built from the earliest time that Man began to make his mark upon the Earth, up to the year 2000.

ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL VALUE
Monuments and buildings must have artistic or architectural value. (Purely technological wonders, whose sole purpose is the application or use of technology, and untouched natural wonders which have had no human intervention, will be included in future projects of New 7 Wonders.)

DIVERSITY
Monuments and buildings should reflect and celebrate cultural and social diversity.


These 3 rules will help many understand why some proposed Wonders are very old and why Internet & other similar are not one of them, while the Cremlin and the Red Square are.

Too bad that ruins are also left out from the selection. I've been around pretty much everywhere in Europe, and the most amazing thing that immediatly comes to mind are the ruins of Pompei and Ercolano. While at my eyes the Tour Eiffel was just a tall pile of standing iron (I don't mean to hurt anyone's feeling with this statement... "De Gustibus"), it has been a real wonder for me to walk in the exact same streets of a city that died more than 2.000 years ago.

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Isn't the Eiffel Tower also nothing but application/demonstration of a technique? Not that I don't like it, but it is pure coincidence it wasn't teared down again after the World Exhibition...

[onedreamer]

I agree Doc. I also wouldn't have nominated Versailles. It doesn't have that artistic and cultural value (not because it's not beautiful, it is... but there are such places everywhere in Europe, I mean it's not something unique in its genre) other candidates have, and to my knowledge, it doesn't celebrate the cultural and social diversity of France. Or does it ?

[MikeH]

Originally Posted by punkbass2000

So you'd propose that whatever the Russian and Chinese Space Programs are called should also be voted in?

Actually, yes I'd include all space exploration, I wasn't favouring one nation.

[Cuivienen]

The Taj Mahal is the most worthy of those they have, though the Great Wall of China certainly also deserves a spot. After that, I think Tikal, Potala Palace, The Forbidden City, Easter Island and Macchu Picchu should go on the list. The Colosseum and The Kremlin are close runners-up.