7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD
[1]The seven wonders of the ancient world are seven man-made structures around the rim1 of the Mediterranean Sea that have been widely considered to be extraordinary feats2 of human engineering and design. [2]While the commonly-accepted3 list of wonders focuses on the Mediterranean area, there are certainly many other wonderful and extraordinary4 structures from other parts of the world that the writers of this list were likely not familiar with. [3]Some wonders are made for glory5 or representing their cultures.
[4]Humans are predominantly6 good at noticing beautiful things. [5]Humans are also generally good at building beautiful things. [6]A Wonder of the World is a landmark7 or a natural phenomenon that is noteworthy8 enough to be noticed by any person around the world. [7]Many different lists of the Wonders of the World were made over the course of history, so let’s have a look at some!
[8]The first of such lists was made by a Greek historian Herodotus. [9]Only three venues9 were mentioned in it. [10]Eventually the list was expanded up10 to seven Wonders. [11]Probably everyone can name at least some of those reliquaries11: the Great Pyramid of Giza; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Lighthouse12 of Alexandria; the Colossus of Rhodes; the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the Temple of Artemis; the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. [12]The curious thing about these Wonders is that almost all of them represent the Greek culture. [13]Another thing to note is that the ancient Greeks haven’t actually used the term ‘wonder’, but instead it was a list ‘of things to see’, making such lists essentially13 just a travel guide. [14]Almost all of these Wonders were demolished14 one way or another, and today only the Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as the Pyramid of Cheops or the Pyramid of Khufu, still stands.
[15]This wasn’t the only list of supposed Wonders though. [16]Later on, many attempts were made (with a little to no consensus15) to either make a new list or add more Wonders to the existing one. [17]The most remarkable candidates were Colosseum of Rome, Hagia Sophia of Istanbul, Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.
[18]Another peculiar16 attempt was made in 1994. [19]The American Society of Civil Engineers made a list of Seven Wonders of Modern World, focusing mainly on an engineering scope17 of selected projects. [20]Among other projects, this list features Panama Canal, Channel Tunnel and CN Tower of Toronto, which was the tallest structure in the world up to 2007.
[21]There is also a list of Natural Wonders of the World. [22]It included the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Everest, the Grand Canyon of Arizona and, curiously enough, aurorae18, making it the first list of its kind to include a phenomenon instead of a place.
[23]But what about the world beyond Earth? [24]Surely, it must have its wonders too! And indeed, in 1999, an attempt was made to list Seven Wonders of the Solar System. [25]Amongst those were the rings of Saturn, the asteroid belt and the Great Red Spot of Jupiter.
[26]Ultimately, the world is too big of a place to make an exhaustive19 list of all landmarks worth visiting. [27]But those that didn’t make into any prominent20 list are still protected and treasured by their neighbours. [28]The organization that manages the lists of such landmarks and attends to any legal matters regarding them is called UNESCO.
[29]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 such a list should be. [30]One of many existing versions of this list was compiled by CNN in 1997.