The votes, 100 million of them, are all in. The most wondrous human constructions in the history of the world have been determined by an elaborate and multilingual online voting system. The results for these new Seven Wonders of the World, splashed across newspaper headlines worldwide, reveal a great deal about the values and ideas of globalization. There are many things to wonder about these wonders.
Set up as the pet project of Swiss-Canadian adventurer Bernard Weber, the New7Wonders project rode on waves of publicity. A star-studded ceremony was held July 7 in a Portuguese soccer stadium. Monuments that have stood for hundreds and thousands of years, the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal, Jordan's Petra, Peru's Machu Picchu, Brazil's Statue of Christ the Redeemer, and Mexico's Chichen Itza Pyramid, received finalist awards from stars, singers and celebrities whose current fame will be far more fleeting.
The voting was perhaps the biggest online poll ever taken. The system of international promotion and vote tabulations in 12 different languages is a wonder in and of itself, one more proof of the Internet's dominion. However, the results reflect less a genuine expression of informed opinion than the personal reactions of only those people worldwide who can access the Net. By the end of the voting, a rough guide to the world's architectural treasures emerged, though not an entirely convincing one.