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Egypt is scoffing at a global contest to name the new seven wonders of the world, saying it is a disgrace that the ancient Pyramids of Giza — the only surviving structure from the traditional list of architectural marvels — must compete for a spot. ADVERTISEMENT Top Egyptian officials have criticized the popular contest that urges people around the world to vote for their top sites from a list of 21 finalists that lumps the pyramids with upstart wonders like the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and Peru's Machu Picchu. The pyramids are "living in the hearts of people...

Ever since the peak of the Hellenic empire, visiting the seven wonders of the ancient world has been the way to pay homage to the early achievements of human civilisation. But there was one catch for those who wanted to see them all. The farthest one from Athens, the famed Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in what is now central Iraq, existed in reports but its exact location had never been definitively proven. Of the other six, the pyramids of Giza remain relatively intact and there are ruins or at least traces of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the statue...

Competing against the world’s most breathtaking locales, the Dead Sea is just three months away from potentially being named one of the world’s seven natural wonders as part of the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition. The online voting contest seeking to name seven natural wonders of the world is years in the making and is set to finish on November 11, 2011. The organizers want to have 1 billion votes cast on their website, www.new7wonders.com. The current results are confidential, but Israel’s Tourism Ministry said they feel the Dead Sea is doing well so far, even if they don’t...

The murky water in Dock No.1 in Cospicua has witnessed much history over the years. Nobody ever imagined, however, that lying underneath could be the remains of an ancient Turkish wonder - the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. No one, that is, but oncologist Stephen Brincat, who came across this precious piece of information while reading an article about the excavations of the site by the British in the 19th century in the Turkish magazine Cornucopia. "There was one sentence which said that the wall of the mausoleum was dismantled to build a dock in Malta," Dr Brincat said. Blocks of marble...

The original seven wonders of the ancient world were selected by the Greek philosopher Philon more than 2,000 years ago. The Pyramids of Giza are the only one of the original wonders still standing. They have been given honorary status in addition to the new seven wonders, after Egyptian officials complained that it was undignified that the pyramids had to compete in an online poll.

The Vatican has complained that a competition to elect the new seven wonders of the world has ignored all churches. Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, the president for the Pontifical Council for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, said it was "unexplainable, surprising and suspicious" that there were no churches on a shortlist of 21 sites. The online competition, which has been organised by Bernard Weber, a Swiss-Canadian billionaire, has attracted more than 90 million votes. The voting closes tonight and the new seven wonders will be announced tomorrow. Among the nominees are Rome's Colosseum, Moscow's Kremlin and Red Square, and Istanbul's...

LISBON, Portugal  —  Monuments in three Latin American countries were named among the new seven wonders of the world Saturday. Brazil's , Peru's , and Mexico's pyramid were chosen alongside the Great Wall of China, Jordan's Petra, the Colosseum in Rome and India's Taj Mahal. The sites were selected according to a tally of around 100 million votes cast by people around the world over the Internet and by cell phone text messages, the nonprofit organization that conducted the poll said.(snip)Many in the 50,000-member audience at a soccer stadium jeered when the United States' Statue of Liberty was announced...

The seven wonders of the ancient world 8 Jul 2007, 0513 hrs IST, REUTERS The results were announced on Sunday: the Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer, Peru's Machu Picchu, Mexico's Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, the Colosseum in Rome and the Taj Mahal in India. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the traditional Seven Wonders of the ancient world still standing. Here are some details on the original seven: The historian Herodotus (ca 484-425 BC), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca 305-240 BC) at the Museum...

GENEVA (AFP) - More than 45 million people have voted so far in an Internet campaign to choose the seven "new" wonders of the world out of 21 shortlisted historical buildings or monuments, the organisers said Monday. The contest, aimed at raising global awareness about the world's shared cultural heritage, was set up by a Swiss filmmaker, curator and traveller Bernard Weber, following the destruction of Afghanistan's giant Buddha statues at Bamyan by the Taliban in 2001. In the most recent count published on May 7, the top 10 were the Acropolis in Greece, the ancient Mayan city of Chichen...

LONDON (Reuters) - Only one of the ancient wonders of the world still survives -- now history lovers are being invited to choose a new list of seven. Among 21 locations shortlisted for the worldwide vote is Stonehenge, the only British landmark selected. The 5,000-year-old stones on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, will be up against sites including the Acropolis in Athens; the Statue of Liberty in New York; and the last remaining original wonder, the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo.