Nobody has seen the original list of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Greek historian Herodotus and later Callimachus are purported to have created this list more than two millennia ago, but their original writings on this topic haven’t survived — we only know they included sites like the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria based on the writings of others later on.
The only surviving wonder of these original seven that still stands is the Great Pyramid of Giza — the other six are either completely lost to time or only exist in fragments. People sometimes even question whether the most mysterious of them all — the Hanging Gardens of Babylon — existed at all. Ruins of the Temple of Artemis in Turkey can be visited today while some of those of the Lighthouse of Alexandria are submerged under the Mediterranean. Earthquakes destroyed the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus — the second last standing of the seven original wonders — by the 15th century.
Given that only one of the original seven survives today, a Swiss foundation began a worldwide vote to choose seven new wonders in 2001. More than 100 million votes were counted on a list of 21 final candidates that a panel of experts chose. Prominent snubs included such amazing structures at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Stonehenge, and the Moai statues of Easter Island. Even the Great Pyramid of Giza didn’t make the cut this time around. Here is a list of the new seven wonders of the world.
1. Great Wall of China — Northern China
Stretching for 5,500 miles across parts of northern China, the Great Wall is more a series of walls than a single piece of architecture — some of the pieces actually run parallel to each other. The Great Wall runs from the Korean Peninsula all the way past Beijing and into the northwestern Gansu province.
Parts of the wall are natural, as the masonry, which includes stone, brick, wood and earth, with mountain ridges and rivers. While parts of the wall were built as early as the 7th century B.C., the majority of what still stands today, in some form, was built in the Ming Dynasty. The wall was built to defend against nomadic people to the north, but it also helped various administrations control trade and immigration.
2. Machu Picchu — Peru
The Inca were famous for building an epic series of roads that cross the mountains, deserts and coastlines of South America. But perhaps their most resilient architectural achievement was the building of Machu Picchu, a citadel that sits about 8,000 feet in elevation in the Andes of southern Peru. Due to its remoteness, the site had limited European visitors, and was only rediscovered in the 19th century.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), there are around 200 structures that sit on top of the mountain ridge, which connects the peaks of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu. The Quechua name translates to something like "old summit."
It was likely built for the emperor Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, who ruled in the mid-15th century, but was then subsequently abandoned, possibly due to a lack of water. It took workers from all over to build and maintain the place, a recent DNA study found.
3. Chichén Itzá — Yucatán, Mexico
Chichén Itzá has been an architectural puzzle for archaeologists for years. The UNESCO World Heritage site was a major city in the Maya Late Classic period, but in the Postclassic period starting in 900 A.D., the site changed.
Parts of the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars, the Skull Platform and the Temple of the Warriors show significant influence from the Toltec of Tula in central Mexico. Historical accounts from both Tula and Chichén Itzá allude to this exchange. Chichén Itzá also had the Sacred Cenote, a large sinkhole where residents and the elite casted offerings.
In any case, the city has been partly preserved and rebuilt. This includes the Temple of Kukulcán, which today boasts an optical effect every year at spring equinox. A feathered serpent descends from the stairs of the pyramid.
4. Petra — Southwest Jordan
The ancient Nabateans built parts of their capital city right into the rock faces of cliffs in southwestern Jordan. The capital was well-situated on busy trade routes between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, and between Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and Phoenicia starting in the 4th century B.C.
The site flourished up until Romans conquered the Nabateans in the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. Earthquakes also took their toll on parts of the ancient capital, ending most residency there in 551 A.D.
5. Christ the Redeemer — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The work on the towering statue symbol of Rio de Janeiro on Cristo Redentor was completed in 1931, making it the most recently built of the new seven wonders.
A French-Polish sculptor and Brazilian and French engineers created the statue. It stands nearly 100 feet tall on the top of a 26-foot pedestal, which itself sits on top of the Corcovado mountain in a national park in the city. The embrace of the figure stretches 92 feet from arm to arm.
6. Colosseum — Rome, Italy
The Colosseum stands strong as the rest of ancient Rome lies in rubble. Emperor Vespasian began work on the structure in 72 A.D. and his successor Titus completed it eight years later.
The giant arena held gladiator contests, the reenactments of battles, and animal hunts of all sort in front of up to 80,000 spectators. Complex machinations in the underbelly of the Colosseum even allowed it to be filled with water to enact sea battles.
7. Taj Mahal — Agra, India
Mughal emperor Shah Jahan contracted a marvel of architectural precision built in memory of one of his wives, Mumtaz Mahal, after her death. The Taj Mahal was completed in 1648 after 17 years of construction in Agra, and nearly every grand detail of the mausoleum provides a lesson in symmetry, from the placing of the four corner towers to the way it reflects off a pond in the facing garden.
The building was such a masterpiece that Jahan and Mahal’s son, Aurangzeb, buried him there alongside his mother when he died. As it stands, Jahan’s sarcophagus sits off to the side of his wife’s, nearly the only exception to the incredible symmetry of the tomb.
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
World.new7wonders.com. New 7 Wonders of the World
World.new7wonders.com. Great Wall of China
Britannica. Machu Picchu
Britannica. Petra
World.new7wonders.com. Cristo Redentor
World.new7wonders.com. Colosseum
Joshua Rapp Learn is an award-winning D.C.-based science writer. An expat Albertan, he contributes to a number of science publications like National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian, New Scientist, Hakai, and others.
