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You can’t rewrite history, although some people try.
In the 2nd century BC, the Greeks named “The Seven Wonders of the World”. They were (1) the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, (2) the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, (3) the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, (4) the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, (5) the Colossus of Rhodes (6) the Pyramids of Egypt and (7) the Pharos lighthouse off Alexandria. Their names were engraved in stone, never to be forgotten. This was the glory of what once was Greece.
Now, it seems, millions of people from around the world have joined in on what was essentially a huge publicity stunt, voting via the Internet, to choose a new list of the Seven Wonders of the World. And so they decided the seven winners are (1) The Great Wall of China, (2) the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, (3) the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, (4) Machu Picchu in Peru, (5) the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico, (6) the Colosseum in Rome and (7) India's Taj Mahal.
After looking at the list, I wonder if many of these voters ever visited the sites. The majority, I suspect made their decision on what they read or heard. Favoritism could have played an important role. Take China, for example, where 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 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. Naturally for shop owners this was big business.
In Jordan, Queen Rania lobbied (successfully) on behalf of the ancient red-stoned desert city of Petra. I wonder how many people before this have ever heard of Petra.
One of the problems with choosing The Seven Wonders is a question of definition. What Seven Wonders? The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World or the Seven Wonders of the Natural World? Then too it could be the Seven Wonders of the Modern World or the Seven Man-made Wonders.
If you decide you want to visit the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, you're 2,000 years too late. Only one still exists – the Pyramids of Egypt. The others, the Natural Wonders and the Modern Wonders, are all still around and Thai Airways International flies to many of these destinations. So, let’s hop aboard a Thai Airways International flight and see what we can see. But first, let’s clear up the meaning of “Seven Wonders”.
Generally speaking, whenever someone mentions “Seven Wonders of the World”, we can assume they mean a specific list of notable objects in the world. The practice of listing the "seven wonders" is nothing new. It began in ancient times when Greeks and Romans compiled lists of memorable man-made things travellers should see. They were considered at the time to be the seven most remarkable structures of the ancient world. There were many other attractions, of course, created by the Greeks during the Hellenistic Period, like the Parthenon. But these were not included among the seven. This original list of the Seven Wonders was compiled in the Alexandrian period when Alexandria, the city in Egypt founded by Alexander the Great, was the center of Western civilization. It was the time between the cultural glory of Athens and the dominance of Rome.
For the Greeks this was an era of sophistication and travel even though travel was limited to their known world, the eastern Mediterranean. In some ways it was much like our own modern times in which sightseeing is fashionable. Tourism had its beginning two thousand years ago and the list of the Seven Wonders of the World was a product of travel at the time.
In subsequent ages there were efforts to bring the list of wonders up to date. In A.D. 550 St. Gregory of Tours revised it according to Christian principles. He struck off the Pyramids, the Olympian Zeus, and the Temple of Artemis as being too pagan. For these he substituted Noah's Ark, the Temple of Solomon, and the Theatre of Heracles.
St. Gregory started still another trend when he drew up a second list of wonders: the tides of the ocean, the growth of plants from seeds, the volcano Mount Etna, the rebirth of the phoenix, the cycle of the Sun, and the cycle of the Moon. These he called "the wonders of nature."
In 1913, Scientific American magazine chose a list of seven wonders from inventions of the day – the airplane and automobile, reinforced concrete, the X-ray machine, the phonograph, and motion pictures.
In 1937, Current History magazine asked such experts as Admiral Richard Byrd, explorer Richard Curie, mining engineer Carleton Beals and author Richard Halliburton for their selections. This time the New York subway made the grade!
Veteran globetrotter Burton Holmes, inventor of the word "travelogue," compiled a list in l946 for This Week magazine, and included Los Alamos, home of the atomic bomb. The American Society of Civil Engineers had to get into the act and selected their seven, one which included the sewage system in Chicago. I wonder what the Greeks would have said about that.
But what are the Seven Natural Wonders of the world today? World travellers and explorers list the following natural wonders: (1) Mount Everest in the Himalayas, (2) Victoria Falls in Africa, (3) Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, (4) Great Barrier Reef of Australia, (5) the caves in France and Spain with their prehistoric paintings, (6) Paricutin, a young volcano in Mexico and (7) the Harbour at Rio de Janeiro. Many people find Sydney Harbour, or San Francisco's harbour, or even Pago Pago's harbour in Samoa just as dramatic as Rio de Janeiro.
For caves, the experienced traveller might choose the Niah Caves in Borneo, or those at Ko Phi Phi near Phuket. These are certainly dramatic caves filled with history and intrigue.
But for certain, for those who are looking for adventure, Mount Everest, the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef have much to offer. Many of these wonders, from harbours to caves, can be arranged through ROH tours and that includes Everest, the world's highest mountain. They now have special excursion airplanes that leave Kathmandu and make a circle tour of Everest.
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The original Seven Wonders: (1) Hanging Gardens of Babylon
(2) the Statue of Zeus at Olympia
(3) the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
(4) the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
(5) the Colossus of Rhodes
(6) the Pyramids of Egypt with the author on a
camel
(7) the Pharos lighthouse off Alexandria.
Some believe the Golden Gate in San Francisco
should be a wonder
The Great Wall never made of original list
The Eiffel Tower, a true wonder
The Avenue of the Giants in California, natural
wonder
What more wonder can there be than 3,000 year old Redwoods in California
What about the Grand Canyon
The Panama Canal never made the list, yet it was an engineering wonder
Steam shovels at the Panama Canal
The Alcan Highway across Canada to Alaska is a
wonder
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