Sunday, July 08, 2007

Colosseum - Still a Current - Seven Wonders of the World??

The ANNOTICO Report

 

A Poll to determine the CURRENT " Seven Wonders of the World" was conducted by a group of Amateurs with a voting system susceptible to "ballot stuffing" and giving great advantage to the more populous countries, and I have some argument with some of the selections.

A panel of "experts" culled a list of 200 down to a final 21, that was narrowed to a Final 7 +1 

 

In Rome, a campaign was non existent. Neither the city government or the Culture Ministry could find no one who had even heard of the competition.Fortunately for the 2,000-year-old Rome Colosseum, there is enough popular sentiment among legions of foreign visitors to catapult the amphitheater into the winner's circle.

 

In China, millions of people enthusiastically cast votes.  In Cuzco, Peru, Internet cafes had been full for weeks with supporters clicking their votes for the nearby majestic ruins of Machu Picchu.In Jordan, Queen Rania lobbied (successfully) on behalf of the ancient city of Petra. The Spanish royals, along with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, did their bit (unsuccessfully) to promote the candidacy of the Alhambra, the 13th century Moorish citadel in Granada. Apathy and disdain in England, apparently doomed Stonehenge.

 

The winners were: The Great Wall of China,  the Colosseum in Rome  the ancient city of Petra in Jordan,  the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Machu Picchu in Peru,  the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico, and India's Taj Mahal.

 

The +1 designation earlier reflects the initial plans to include the Pyramids of Giza  as a candidate for the new list , but it so incensed Egyptian officials who argued that the pyramids already enjoyed wondrous status, and was above being voted on, and the organizers agreed to put the carved-stone monuments automatically on the new list as the eighth wonder.

 

 

By Popular Vote, the 'New 7 Wonders'

 

A global Internet poll decides, unscientifically, mankind's most popular landmarks as of 7/7/07.

 

Los Angeles Times

By Tracy Wilkinson
Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2007

LISBON  The world's most wondrous wonder is actually the computer.

Millions of people from across the globe joined in what was essentially a huge publicity stunt, voting via the Internet to choose a new list of the Seven Wonders of the World, announced Saturday.

And the seven winners, announced on the seventh day of the seventh month in the year '07, were: The Great Wall of China,  the Colosseum in Rome,  the ancient city of Petra in Jordan,  the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro,  Machu Picchu in Peru,  the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico, and India's Taj Mahal.

The lucky seven represented a collection of mystical, centuries-old places and more modern constructions of limited transcendence  chosen in a decidedly unscientific poll.

"We are celebrating the cultural diversity of our world," proclaimed actor Ben Kingsley, co-host of a glitzy ceremony late Saturday in Lisbon's Stadium of Light, where the winners were announced amid highly orchestrated fanfare.

The popularity contest was the creation six years ago of Bernard Weber, a Swiss filmmaker and self-styled adventurer. Nearly 200 early candidate sites chosen by Internet balloting were scaled down by a panel of experts to 21 finalists, each from a different country, from Greece's Acropolis to the Statue of Liberty.

Online and telephone call-in voting on the finalists began a little over a year ago. Nothing prevented repeat voting by fans, citizens, governments, tourism agencies, you name it.

Weber promoted the project with flashy appearances in hot-air balloons, on camelback and inside a blue blimp, traveling to each of 21 fin al candidates.

The reception was mixed.

In developing countries where the Internet is taking off, such as China, millions of people enthusiastically cast votes for their favorite monuments. Since the Great Wall was one of the candidates (and a winner), it was an easy guess just where most of those votes went.

In the fabled Incan capital of Cuzco, Peru, Internet cafes reportedly had been full for weeks with supporters clicking their votes for the nearby majestic ruins of Machu Picchu.

In Jordan, Queen Rania lobbied (successfully) on behalf of the ancient red-stoned desert city of Petra. The Spanish royals, along with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, did their bit (unsuccessfully) to promote the candidacy of the Alhambra, the 13th century Moorish citadel in Granada.

Elsewhere, there was indifference, and even indignation.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, referring to the enormous volcanic-rock carvings on Chile's remote Easter Island, said: "None of us need a vote to know that Easter Island is a marvel."

Apathy and disdain apparently doomed Stonehenge, Britain's prehistoric collection of circularly arranged megaliths. "The polling arrangements" in the contest "are so flawed that they make even Eurovision Song Contest judges look objective," sniffed London's Independent newspaper.

And in Rome, the campaign never caught fire. Calls last week to both the city government and the Culture Ministry could find no one who had even heard of the competition.

Fortunately for the 2,000-year-old Colosseum near downtown Rome, there is enough popular sentiment among Italians and, especially, among legions of foreign visitors to catapult the onetime amphitheater of the gladiators into the winner's circle.

Stefania Morelli, an accountant in Rome, said a win for the Colosseum would be a good thing for residents and tourists alike.

"We drive past the Colosseum with our mo torini   day after day, and we don't appreciate it; we don't even look at it anymore," Morelli, 41, said ahead of Saturday's announced results. "Should the Colosseum win, I think Romans would look at it and think about how beautiful [it is] and how lucky we are to have it in Rome. Romans would finally lift their heads and look at it."

Speaking of Rome, the Roman Catholic Church complained that none of the finalists was a Christian church, noting instead the inclusion of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, a 6th century Byzantine church converted to a mosque by the Ottoman Turks nine centuries later. Christian prayer there today is prohibited.

Perhaps the Vatican took solace in the designation as a wonder of the 125-foot Christ the Redeemer statue, erected atop a mountain above Rio in the 1920s.

Weber's "New 7 Wonders" campaign has not received the backing of major mainstream monument-designation organizations. Officials at UNESCO's World Heritage agen cy, for example, questioned Weber's methodology and goals. He has promised that a portion of the money he raises will go to the preservation of precious sites.

Organizers of the Internet campaign cast themselves as successors to the Greeks who about 2,000 years ago compiled the original list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. At least one of those wonders may never have existed, and today only one survives: the 4,500-year-old pyramids of Giza, in Egypt.

Initial plans to include the pyramids as a candidate for the new list so incensed Egyptian officials that organizers were forced to back down. The Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt argued that the pyramids already enjoyed wondrous status, and the organizers agreed to put the carved-stone monuments automatically on the new list as the eighth wonder.
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Maria de Cristofaro of The Times' Rome Bureau contributed to this report.
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THE WONDER LIST

The winners of the contest to name the new Seven Wonders of the World. The Egyptian pyramids in Giza will retain their exalted status as an eighth wonder.
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Great Wall of China

The 4,160-mile barricade in northern China is the longest man-made structure in the world. The fortification, which largely dates from the 7th through the 4th century BC, was built to protect the dynasties from the Huns, Mongols, Turks and other nomadic tribes.

Colosseum, Italy

The 50,000-seat amphitheater in Rome was inaugurated in AD 80 by the Emperor Titus in a ceremony of games lasting 100 days. The Colosseum, which has influenced the design of modern sports stadiums, was an arena where thousands of gladiators

dueled to the death.

Taj Mahal, India

The white marble-domed mausoleum in Agra was built by Mogu l Emperor Shah Jahan from 1632 to 1654 to honor his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth.

Petra, Jordan

The ancient city of Petra in southwestern Jordan, built on a terrace around the Valley of Moses, is famous for its water tunnels and stone structures carved in rock.

Christ the Redeemer Statue, Brazil

The 125-foot-tall statue of Christ the Redeemer with outstretched arms overlooks Rio de Janeiro from atop Mt. Corcovado. The statue, which weighs more than 1,000 tons, was built by Polish-French sculptor Paul Landowski in pieces in France starting in 1926, then shipped to Brazil.

Machu Picchu, Peru

Built by the Inca Empire in the 15th century, the giant walls, palaces, temples and dwellings of the Machu Picchu sanctuary are perched in the clouds at nearly 8,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains.

Pyramid at Chichen Itza, Mexico

The majestic step-pyramid surmounted by a temple is one of several structures in the city, one of the greatest Maya centers on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. The pyramid is built according to the solar calendar so shadows cast at the fall and spring equinoxes appear like a snake crawling down its steps.

On the Web: http://www.new7wonders.com

 

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