Cav's Place

The results have been revealed and I’m not impressed. Though when you look at them they’re all obviously wonders, something is bothering me about this list.

But before I get to that, I said last time that I’ll tell you which ones I voted for, in the order in which I picked them. So here it goes, along with explanations:
– The Great Wall of China – Doubt I need any explanations for this. If I had to pick only one wonder to vote for, it would have certainly been this. You just can’t compare it to anything else.
– Stonehenge – While certainly far from the greatness of The Great Wall, I strongly feel that it’s an undeniable wonder of the world. It was an incredible feat of engineering for it’s time, and it’s durability it’s still a reason for awe. Shrouded in a mist of mystery and legend, yet still having a deep significance even today, this place deserves reverence.
– The Easter Island Statues – They’re even more mysterious than Stonehenge and their very existence is a wonder. Even if for this fact alone, I think they deserved to be on the list, albeit to a lesser extent than The Great Wall and Stonehenge.
– Angkor Wat – I couldn’t tell you why did this place stick in my mind, but it did. It simply felt right to vote for it.
– Taj Mahal – Exquisite… And this might sound strange, but Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat are somehow linked in my mind. If I think about one, I immediately also think about the other. That said, I only picked Taj Mahal after Angkor Wat because the list was sorted alphabetically.
– Neuschwanstein Castle – I know, there was no point in voting for this. But it looks to be not only from another time, most of the candidate sites look like that, but from another world as well, transporting you into a fantasy realm. I’m not talking only about the castle itself, but also about the setting. And no, I didn’t know about it before I went to vote, it was a decision made on the spur of the moment. Actually, Neuschwanstein Castle and Alhambra were the only candidates that I didn’t know about, or you could also add Kiyomizu Temple to that list in the sense that I didn’t exactly know about it, just about what it represented. I wanted to vote for Petra instead of Neuschwanstein Castle even before sending in my vote, and even more so after, but I didn’t change my initial list, not even to include Petra at #7.
– Acropolis – Choosing the last one was probably the hardest. After eliminating Petra as an option for #7 because I didn’t initially put it as #6, I was left with Acropolis, Chichen Itza, Colosseum and Machu Picchu. Seeing as I couldn’t make a rational choice between them, I allowed myself to go to the more familiar territory, ancient Europe, which narrowed it down to two. And the final choice between them was pretty much random.
Need to note that I voted for The Great Wall of China and Stonehenge by phone as well.

Now, the official list in alphabetical order:
– Chichen Itza
– Christ the Redeemer
– The Colosseum
– The Great Wall of China
– Machu Picchu
– Petra
– Taj Mahal
Plus the honorary position of the only ancient wonder still standing, The Great Pyramid.

When I first saw the official list I was very disappointed, but then I started thinking. Clearly, Stonehenge just has to be on that list, but was there any other reason? I mean, if I look at that list, they are all obviously wonders of the world, albeit of different kinds.
Firstly, out of all the five (including Petra) I considered for my last vote, the one that I finally voted for was the only one that didn’t make it into the seven! Secondly, if I’m to remove from my votes the sites that I had no real reason relating to the structure itself to vote for and replace them with those that I ended up not voting for despite the fact that I did have real reasons directly relating to the structure itself to vote for them, the only difference left would be having Stonehenge instead of Christ the Redeemer.
That’s six that I approve of out of seven. You’d think that’s quite enough, wouldn’t you? The problem is that the one that’s missing is one of the two that I’m convinced have to be on the list. So, yes, basically I’m very disappointed at the result simply because Stonehenge isn’t on the list.

As a final note, a newspaper from here published what they claim were the top ten sites less than a month before the voting deadline, right before this list was taken off the official site. That list, also ordered alphabetically, is as follows: Acropolis, Chichen Itza, The Colosseum, The Eiffel Tower, The Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Petra, The Statues from Easter Island, Stonehenge, Taj Mahal.
Which is the only one of the final seven that is not on this list of ten? Exactly… Something suspicious seems to have happened there, having one site go up at least four places in the final couple of weeks.