Wonders of the World
Various lists of the Wonders of the World have been compiled from antiquity to the present day, to catalogue the world's most spectacular natural wonders and manmade structures.
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the first known list of the most remarkable creations of classical antiquity, and was based on guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim. The number seven was chosen because the Greeks believed it to be the representation of perfection and plenty because it was the number of the five planets known anciently plus the sun and moon. Many similar lists have been made.
The Great Pyramid of Giza, the only wonder of the ancient world still in existence
The Colosseum in Rome
The Great Wall of China
Hagia Sophia
Stonehenge
Machu Picchu
Taj Mahal
Empire State Building
Golden Gate Bridge
The Victoria Falls contain the largest sheet of falling water in the world in terms of area
CN Tower
Chichen Itza
Old City of Jerusalem
The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights
Grand Canyon
The Great Barrier Reef
The London sewerage system's original Abbey Mills pumping station
The historian Herodotus (484 – ca. 425 BCE), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca. 305 – 240 BCE) at the Museum of Alexandria, made early lists of seven wonders. Their writings have not survived, except as references.
The seven wonders were:
Great Pyramid of Giza
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
Colossus of Rhodes
Lighthouse of Alexandria
The earliest lists had the Ishtar Gate as the seventh wonder of the world instead of the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
The list known today was compiled in the Middle Ages—by which time many of the sites were no longer in existence. Today, the only ancient world wonder that still exists is the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Lists from other eras
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, some writers wrote about lists with names such as Wonders of the Middle Ages, Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages, Seven Wonders of the Medieval Mind, and Architectural Wonders of the Middle Ages. However it is unlikely that these lists originated in the Middle Ages because the word medieval was not invented until the Enlightenment-era, and the concept of a Middle Age did not become popular until the 16th century. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable refers to them as "later list[s]" suggesting the lists were created after the Middle Ages.
Many of the structures on these lists were built much earlier than the Medieval Ages, but were well known.
Typically representative are:
Stonehenge
Colosseum
Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
Great Wall of China
Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
Hagia Sophia
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Other sites sometimes included on such lists:
Taj Mahal
Cairo Citadel
Ely Cathedral
Cluny Abbey
Recent lists
Following in the tradition of the classical list, modern people and organisations have made their own lists of wonderful things ancient and modern. Some of the most notable lists are presented below.
American Society of Civil Engineers
The American Society of Civil Engineers compiled a list of wonders of the modern world:[10]
Wonder Date started Date finished Location
Channel Tunnel December 1, 1987 May 6, 1994 Strait of Dover, between the United Kingdom and France
CN Tower February 6, 1973 June 26, 1976, tallest freestanding structure in the world 1976–2007. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Empire State Building January 22, 1930 May 1, 1931, Tallest structure in the world 1931–1967. First building with 100+ stories. New York, NY, U.S.
Golden Gate Bridge January 5, 1933 May 27, 1937 Golden Gate Strait, north of San Francisco, California, U.S.
Itaipu Dam January 1970 May 5, 1984 Paraná River, between Brazil and Paraguay
Delta Works/ Zuiderzee Works 1920 May 10, 1997 Netherlands
Panama Canal January 1, 1880 January 7, 1914 Isthmus of Panama
New7Wonders Foundation
Main article: New7Wonders of the World
In 2001 an initiative was started by the Swiss corporation New7Wonders Foundation to choose the New7Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments. Twenty-one finalists were announced January 1, 2006.Egyptians were not happy that the only surviving original wonder, the Great Pyramid of Giza, would have to compete with the likes of the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Opera House, and other landmarks, calling the project absurd. In response, Giza was named an honorary Candidate.The results were announced on July 7, 2007, in Lisbon, Portugal :Wonder Date of construction Location
Great Wall of China Since 7th century BC China
Petra c. 100 BC Jordan
Christ the Redeemer Opened October 12, 1931 Brazil
Machu Picchu c. AD 1450 Peru
Chichen Itza c. AD 600 Mexico
Colosseum Completed AD 80 Italy
Taj Mahal Completed c. AD 1648 India
Great Pyramid of Giza (Honorary Candidate) Completed c. 2560 BC Egypt
USA Today's New Seven Wonders
In November 2006 the American national newspaper USA Today in conjunction with the American television show Good Morning America revealed a list of New Seven Wonders as chosen by six judges. The wonders were announced one per day over a week on Good Morning America. An eighth wonder was chosen on November 24, 2006 from viewer feedback.Number Wonder Location
1 Potala Palace Lhasa, Tibet, China
2 Old City of Jerusalem Jerusalem[n 1]
3 Polar ice caps Polar regions
4 Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Hawaii, United States
5 Internet Earth
6 Mayan ruins Yucatán Peninsula, México
7 Great Migration of Serengeti and Masai Mara Tanzania and Kenya
8 Grand Canyon (viewer-chosen eighth wonder) Arizona, United States
Seven Natural Wonders of the World
Similar to the other lists of wonders, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the world, and there has been debate over how large the list should be. One of the many existing lists was compiled by CNN:
Grand Canyon
Great Barrier Reef
Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
Mount Everest
Aurora
Parícutin volcano
Victoria Falls
New7Wonders of Nature
Main article: New7Wonders of Nature
New7Wonders of Nature (2007–11), a contemporary effort to create a list of seven natural wonders chosen through a global poll, was organized by the same group as the New7Wonders of the World campaign.
Iguazu Falls
Jeju Island
Komodo Island
Puerto Princesa Underground River
Table Mountain
Halong Bay
Amazon Rainforest
Seven Wonders of the Underwater World
The Seven Underwater Wonders of the World was a list drawn up by CEDAM International, an American-based non-profit group for divers, dedicated to ocean preservation and research.
In 1989 CEDAM brought together a panel of marine scientists, including Dr. Eugenie Clark, to pick underwater areas which they considered to be worthy of protection. The results were announced at The National Aquarium in Washington DC by actor Lloyd Bridges, star of TV's Sea Hunt:
Palau
Belize Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
Deep-Sea Vents
Galápagos Islands
Lake Baikal
Northern Red Sea
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
Main article: Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
British author Deborah Cadbury wrote Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a book telling the stories of seven great feats of engineering of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 2003 the BBC made a seven-part documentary series on the book, with each episode dramatising the construction of one of the wonders. The seven industrial wonders are:
SS Great Eastern
Bell Rock Lighthouse
Brooklyn Bridge
London sewerage system
First Transcontinental Railroad
Panama Canal
Hoover Dam
Other lists of wonders of the world
Numerous other authors and organisations have composed lists of the wonders of the world. Travel writer Howard Hillman published two books on the subject, one with 10 man-made wonders, and one with 10 natural wonders. British biographer, science writer, and novelist Ronald W. Clark published a book of man-made and natural wonders titled Wonders of the World, which lists 52 wonders, one for each week of the year.
Seven Wonders of the Solar System
In a 1999 article, Astronomy magazine listed the Seven Wonders of the Solar System.
Enceladus
The Great red spot
The Asteroid belt
The surface of the Sun
The Oceans of Earth
The Rings of Saturn
Olympus Mons
Various lists of the Wonders of the World have been compiled from antiquity to the present day, to catalogue the world's most spectacular natural wonders and manmade structures.
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the first known list of the most remarkable creations of classical antiquity, and was based on guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim. The number seven was chosen because the Greeks believed it to be the representation of perfection and plenty because it was the number of the five planets known anciently plus the sun and moon. Many similar lists have been made.
The Great Pyramid of Giza, the only wonder of the ancient world still in existence
The Colosseum in Rome
The Great Wall of China
Hagia Sophia
Stonehenge
Machu Picchu
Taj Mahal
Empire State Building
Golden Gate Bridge
The Victoria Falls contain the largest sheet of falling water in the world in terms of area
CN Tower
Chichen Itza
Old City of Jerusalem
The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights
Grand Canyon
The Great Barrier Reef
The London sewerage system's original Abbey Mills pumping station
The historian Herodotus (484 – ca. 425 BCE), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca. 305 – 240 BCE) at the Museum of Alexandria, made early lists of seven wonders. Their writings have not survived, except as references.
The seven wonders were:
Great Pyramid of Giza
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
Colossus of Rhodes
Lighthouse of Alexandria
The earliest lists had the Ishtar Gate as the seventh wonder of the world instead of the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
The list known today was compiled in the Middle Ages—by which time many of the sites were no longer in existence. Today, the only ancient world wonder that still exists is the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Lists from other eras
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, some writers wrote about lists with names such as Wonders of the Middle Ages, Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages, Seven Wonders of the Medieval Mind, and Architectural Wonders of the Middle Ages. However it is unlikely that these lists originated in the Middle Ages because the word medieval was not invented until the Enlightenment-era, and the concept of a Middle Age did not become popular until the 16th century. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable refers to them as "later list[s]" suggesting the lists were created after the Middle Ages.
Many of the structures on these lists were built much earlier than the Medieval Ages, but were well known.
Typically representative are:
Stonehenge
Colosseum
Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
Great Wall of China
Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
Hagia Sophia
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Other sites sometimes included on such lists:
Taj Mahal
Cairo Citadel
Ely Cathedral
Cluny Abbey
Recent lists
Following in the tradition of the classical list, modern people and organisations have made their own lists of wonderful things ancient and modern. Some of the most notable lists are presented below.
American Society of Civil Engineers
The American Society of Civil Engineers compiled a list of wonders of the modern world:[10]
Wonder Date started Date finished Location
Channel Tunnel December 1, 1987 May 6, 1994 Strait of Dover, between the United Kingdom and France
CN Tower February 6, 1973 June 26, 1976, tallest freestanding structure in the world 1976–2007. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Empire State Building January 22, 1930 May 1, 1931, Tallest structure in the world 1931–1967. First building with 100+ stories. New York, NY, U.S.
Golden Gate Bridge January 5, 1933 May 27, 1937 Golden Gate Strait, north of San Francisco, California, U.S.
Itaipu Dam January 1970 May 5, 1984 Paraná River, between Brazil and Paraguay
Delta Works/ Zuiderzee Works 1920 May 10, 1997 Netherlands
Panama Canal January 1, 1880 January 7, 1914 Isthmus of Panama
New7Wonders Foundation
Main article: New7Wonders of the World
In 2001 an initiative was started by the Swiss corporation New7Wonders Foundation to choose the New7Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments. Twenty-one finalists were announced January 1, 2006.Egyptians were not happy that the only surviving original wonder, the Great Pyramid of Giza, would have to compete with the likes of the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Opera House, and other landmarks, calling the project absurd. In response, Giza was named an honorary Candidate.The results were announced on July 7, 2007, in Lisbon, Portugal :Wonder Date of construction Location
Great Wall of China Since 7th century BC China
Petra c. 100 BC Jordan
Christ the Redeemer Opened October 12, 1931 Brazil
Machu Picchu c. AD 1450 Peru
Chichen Itza c. AD 600 Mexico
Colosseum Completed AD 80 Italy
Taj Mahal Completed c. AD 1648 India
Great Pyramid of Giza (Honorary Candidate) Completed c. 2560 BC Egypt
USA Today's New Seven Wonders
In November 2006 the American national newspaper USA Today in conjunction with the American television show Good Morning America revealed a list of New Seven Wonders as chosen by six judges. The wonders were announced one per day over a week on Good Morning America. An eighth wonder was chosen on November 24, 2006 from viewer feedback.Number Wonder Location
1 Potala Palace Lhasa, Tibet, China
2 Old City of Jerusalem Jerusalem[n 1]
3 Polar ice caps Polar regions
4 Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Hawaii, United States
5 Internet Earth
6 Mayan ruins Yucatán Peninsula, México
7 Great Migration of Serengeti and Masai Mara Tanzania and Kenya
8 Grand Canyon (viewer-chosen eighth wonder) Arizona, United States
Seven Natural Wonders of the World
Similar to the other lists of wonders, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the world, and there has been debate over how large the list should be. One of the many existing lists was compiled by CNN:
Grand Canyon
Great Barrier Reef
Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
Mount Everest
Aurora
Parícutin volcano
Victoria Falls
New7Wonders of Nature
Main article: New7Wonders of Nature
New7Wonders of Nature (2007–11), a contemporary effort to create a list of seven natural wonders chosen through a global poll, was organized by the same group as the New7Wonders of the World campaign.
Iguazu Falls
Jeju Island
Komodo Island
Puerto Princesa Underground River
Table Mountain
Halong Bay
Amazon Rainforest
Seven Wonders of the Underwater World
The Seven Underwater Wonders of the World was a list drawn up by CEDAM International, an American-based non-profit group for divers, dedicated to ocean preservation and research.
In 1989 CEDAM brought together a panel of marine scientists, including Dr. Eugenie Clark, to pick underwater areas which they considered to be worthy of protection. The results were announced at The National Aquarium in Washington DC by actor Lloyd Bridges, star of TV's Sea Hunt:
Palau
Belize Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
Deep-Sea Vents
Galápagos Islands
Lake Baikal
Northern Red Sea
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
Main article: Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
British author Deborah Cadbury wrote Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a book telling the stories of seven great feats of engineering of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 2003 the BBC made a seven-part documentary series on the book, with each episode dramatising the construction of one of the wonders. The seven industrial wonders are:
SS Great Eastern
Bell Rock Lighthouse
Brooklyn Bridge
London sewerage system
First Transcontinental Railroad
Panama Canal
Hoover Dam
Other lists of wonders of the world
Numerous other authors and organisations have composed lists of the wonders of the world. Travel writer Howard Hillman published two books on the subject, one with 10 man-made wonders, and one with 10 natural wonders. British biographer, science writer, and novelist Ronald W. Clark published a book of man-made and natural wonders titled Wonders of the World, which lists 52 wonders, one for each week of the year.
Seven Wonders of the Solar System
In a 1999 article, Astronomy magazine listed the Seven Wonders of the Solar System.
Enceladus
The Great red spot
The Asteroid belt
The surface of the Sun
The Oceans of Earth
The Rings of Saturn
Olympus Mons
