15. New 7 Wonders

1.The ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico

2. Brazil's Statue of Christ the Redeemer

3. The Colosseum in Rome

4. The Great Wall of China

5. Peru's Machu Picchu

6. Jordan's Petra

7. India's Taj Mahal


About 100 million votes were cast by the Internet and cellphone text messages, said New7Wonders, the nonprofit organization that conducted the poll.

The seven beat out 14 other nominated landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island in the Pacific, the Statue of Liberty, the Acropolis, Russia's Kremlin and Australia's Sydney Opera House.

The pyramids of Giza, the only surviving structures from the original seven wonders of the ancient world, were assured of retaining their status in addition to the new seven after indignant Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace they had to compete.

The campaign to name new wonders was launched in 1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. Almost 200 nominations came in, and the list was narrowed to the 21 most-voted by the start of 2006.

Also among the losing candidates were Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Spain's Alhambra, Turkey's Hagia Sophia, Japan's Kiyomizu Temple, Russia's Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral, Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle, Britain's Stonehenge and Mali's Timbuktu.

Organizers admit there was no foolproof way to prevent people from voting more than once for their favourite - AP.