An initiative started in 2000 as a Millennium project to choose Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments
The popularity poll was led by Swiss-born Canadian filmmaker, author and adventurer Bernard Weber to contribute to the protection of the world’s human-built and natural heritage and to foster respect for our planet’s diversity. Organized by the New7Wonders Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland, with winners announced on July 7, 2007 in Lisbon.
The New7Wonders Foundation claimed that more than 100 million votes were cast through the Internet or by telephone driving “the largest poll on record”. It has so far generated more than US$5 billion worth of economic, tourism and national promotional value for locations participating in its campaigns. A major, global-scale business concept based on mass virtual online dynamics creating concrete economic positive outcomes in the real world.
New7Wonders has pledged to dedicate 50% of its surplus net revenues to the main New7Wonders Foundation cause: the promotion of Global Memory, specifically the documentation and 3D virtual recording of all New7Wonders.
Locations of the New 7 Wonders
Chichen Itza – Yucatan, Mexica
Chichén Itzá, the most famous Mayan temple city, served as the political and economic center of the Mayan civilization. Its various structures – the pyramid of Kukulkan, the Temple of Chac Mool, the Hall of the Thousand Pillars, and the Playing Field of the Prisoners – can still be seen today and are demonstrative of an extraordinary commitment to architectural space and composition. The pyramid itself was the last, and arguably the greatest, of all Mayan temples.
Machu Picchu – Cuzco Region, Peru
In the 15th century, the Incan Emperor Pachacútec built a city in the clouds on the mountain known as Machu Picchu (“old mountain”). This extraordinary settlement lies halfway up the Andes Plateau, deep in the Amazon jungle and above the Urubamba River. It was probably abandoned by the Incas because of a smallpox outbreak and, after the Spanish defeated the Incan Empire, the city remained ‘lost’ for over three centuries. It was rediscovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911.
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