Three of the New 7 Wonders of the World Are from Latin America

In an official declaration celebration, held on 07.07.07 in Lisbon (Portugal), the New 7 Wonders of the World were announced. As you can see, three of those 7 New Wonders are located in Latin American countries (Brazil, Perú, and México).

The Official List of The New 7 Wonders of the World

-The Great Wall of China,

-The Ruins of Petra, from Jordan

-The Chichén Itzá Pyramid, from México

-The Statue of Christ Redeemer, from Brazil

-The Colosseum, from Italy

-Machu Picchu, from Perú

-The Taj Mahal, from India

How were those 7 new Wonders of the World selected?

The campaign to select the New 7 Wonders of the World was started in 1999 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. His foundation, New7Wonders received circa 200,000 nominations from all over the world. The cast was held during the past six years. More than 100 million votes were cast worldwide. Votes were accepted by cellular phone (SMS) and on the official website of the New7Wonders campaign

A official celebration was held las t July 7 (interesting that it was held on 07/07/07). Many celebrities were invited including famous Spanish opera singer Jose Carreras and US popular idol Jennifer Lopez. Also, among the celebrities present at the celebration were: Neil Armstrong, Bertrand Piccard, Frederico Mayor, and famous soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.

Many sites of the sites originally proposed were left outside as time passed. Among the sites originally proposed that did not make the cut are: Isla de Pascua, from Chile; Angkor, from Camboya: Haghia Sofia, from Turkey; the Kremlin from Russia, etc.

The counting of the more than 100 million votes made the jury select the New 7 wonders stated above. Interesting enough, 42.87% of the votes went to sites located in the American Continent and specifically to three sites located across Latin America. Three countries (Brazil, Perú, and México) have the honor to be countries that hold one of the new 7 wonders of the world within its territory.

Since the Giza Pyramid is the only one of the original wonders that has resisted the passage of time it was named "honorary wonder of the world" in addition to the New 7 Wonders selected by the New7Wonders campaign.

Here is a brief description of each of the New Wonders located in Latin America.

The Chichén Itzá Pyramid, from Mexico

Chichen Itza (from Yucatec Maya chich'en itza', "At the mouth of the well of the Itza") is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, present-day Mexico.

The site contains many fine stone buildings in various states of preservation; the buildings were formerly used as temples, palaces, stages, markets, baths, and ballcourts.

Chichen Itza is today a World Heritage Site and is the second most visited of Mexico's archaeological sites. Many visitors to the popular tourist resort of Cancún make a day trip to Chichen Itza, usually with time to view only a portion of the site.

Machu Picchu, from Perú

Machu Picchu is sometimes called the "Lost City.# It is a pre-Columbian city created by the Inca Empire. Machu Picchu is located above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, about 44 miles northwest of Cusco. Since 1983 the site has been designated as a World Heritage Site by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Machu Picchu was constructed around 1450, at the height of the Inca empire, and was abandoned less than 100 years later, as the empire collapsed under Spanish conquest.

The "Lost city" is made of 140 constructions including temples, sanctuaries, parks and residences, houses with thatched roofs.

The Statue of Christ Redeemer, from Brazil

Christ the Redeemer (Portuguese: Cristo Redentor), is a statue of Jesus Christ located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The statue stands 105-feet tall, weighs 700 tons, and is located at the peak of the 2296-feet Corcovado mountain overlooking Rio de Janeiro.

The statue has become an icon of Rio and Brazil although originally was created as potent symbol of the Christianity. The monument was opened on October 12, 1931.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in a press release on June 20, 2007 reaffirmed that it has no link with the initiative. One of the main critisism is that the selection of the new 7 wonders only reflect the opinion of the people that has acces to the Internet and not of all of the citizens of the world.

Sources:

http://www.new7wonders.com

Unesco.org Press release. URL: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=38482&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html