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Taj Mahal short-listed for 7 wonders' list

The other 20 entries include Britain's Stonehenge, Great Wall of China, the Colosseum in Rome and Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Published on: Jan 2, 2006, 20:52:00 IST
PTI | By , London
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India's Taj Mahal has been short-listed in a seven-year poll to identify the seven wonders of the modern world.

HT Image
HT Image

The other 20 entries include Britain's Stonehenge, Great Wall of China, the Colosseum in Rome and Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The Kremlin, Machu Picchu in Peru, the Sydney Opera House and New York's Statue of Liberty are also finalists.

Voting will now continue throughout the year to select the seven wonders, which will be announced on New Year's Day 2007. The poll was launched in 2000 by the New 7 Wonders Society, a Swiss group which aims to alert the world to the destruction of man-made heritage.

The rules are strict, with all nominations having to be man-made and to have been completed by 2000. They must also be in an "acceptable" state of preservation, which excludes all ruins.

The list of the seven wonders of the ancient world was drawn up by Philon of Byzantium in the second century BC. His choices were essentially a travel guide for fellow Athenians and were all located around the accessible Mediterranean basin.

Only the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is still standing and that makes it on to the new short-list along with another magnificent pyramid at Chichen Itza in Mexico.

The other six ancient wonders were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

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