This article is about natural and constructed phenomena and structures of the world.

For other uses

of "Wonders of the World", see Wonders of the World (disambiguation).

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (from left to right, top to bottom): Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging
Gardens of Babylon, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Mausoleum at
Halicarnassus (also known as the Mausoleum of Mausolus), Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of
Alexandria as depicted by 16th-century Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck.

Map of places listed in various Wonders of the World list (interactive map)

Various lists of the Wonders of the World have been compiled from antiquity to the present day, to
catalogue the world's most spectacular natural wonders and human-built structures.
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the first known list of the most remarkable creations
of classical antiquity; it was based on guidebooks popular among Hellenic sightseers and only
includes works located around the Mediterranean rim and in Mesopotamia. The number seven was
chosen because the Greeks believed it represented perfection and plenty, and because it was the
number of the five planets known anciently, plus the sun and moon.[1] Many similar lists have been
made.
 Contents

 1Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

 2Lists from other eras
 3Recent lists
o 3.1American Society of Civil Engineers
o 3.2USA Today's New Seven Wonders
o 3.3Seven Natural Wonders of the World
o 3.4New7Wonders of the World
o 3.5New7Wonders of Nature
o 3.6New7Wonders Cities
o 3.7Seven Wonders of the Underwater World
o 3.8Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
o 3.9Seven Wonders of the Solar System
o 3.10Other lists of wonders of the world
 4See also
 5Notes
 6References
 7Further reading
 8External links

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Main article: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The Great Pyramid of Giza, the only wonder of the ancient world still in existence

The historian Herodotus (484 – c. 425 BC) and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (c. 305–240 BC),

at the Museum of Alexandria, made early lists of seven wonders. Their writings have not survived,
except as references.
The classic seven wonders were:

 Great Pyramid of Giza, El Giza, Egypt the only one that still exists.

 Colossus of Rhodes, in Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name.
 Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in Babylon, near present-day Hillah, Babil province, in Iraq.
 Lighthouse of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt.
 Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, in Halicarnassus, Achaemenid Empire, modern day Turkey.
 Statue of Zeus at Olympia, in Olympia, Greece.
 Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, in Ephesus (near the modern town of Selçuk in present-
day Turkey).

Lists from other eras

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, some writers wrote their own lists with names such as Wonders
of the Middle Ages, Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages, Seven Wonders of the Medieval Mind, and
Architectural Wonders of the Middle Ages. However, it is unlikely that these lists originated in
the Middle Ages, because the word "medieval" was not invented until the Enlightenment-era, and the
concept of a Middle Age did not become popular until the 16th century. Brewer's Dictionary of
Phrase and Fable refers to them as "later list[s]",[2] suggesting the lists were created after the Middle
Ages.
Many of the structures on these lists were built much earlier than the Medieval Ages but were well
known.[3][4]
Typically representative are:[2][3][5][6]

 Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa located in Alexandria, Egypt.

 Colosseum in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy.
 Great Wall of China built across the historical northern borders of China.
 Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.
 Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy.
 Porcelain Tower of Nanjing located on the south bank of external Qinhuai
River in Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
 Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.
Other sites sometimes included on such lists:

 Cairo Citadel[7] is a medieval Islamic fortification in Cairo, Egypt.

 Cluny Abbey[8] in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France.
 Ely Cathedral[9] in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.
 Taj Mahal[10] on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the India city of Agra.

Recent lists
Following in the tradition of the classical list, modern people and organisations have made their own
lists of wonderful things ancient and modern. Some of the most notable lists are presented below.

American Society of Civil Engineers

CN Tower in Toronto, Canada

In 1994, the American Society of Civil Engineers compiled a list of Seven Wonders of the Modern
World, paying tribute to the "greatest civil engineering achievements of the 20th century".[11][12]

American Society of Civil Engineers Wonders

Date Date
Wonder Location Significance
started finished

The longest undersea

Channel December May 6, Strait of Dover, between the United
portion of any tunnel in
Tunnel 1, 1987 1994 Kingdom and France
the world

Tallest freestanding
February June 26,
CN Tower Toronto, Ontario, Canada structure in the world
6, 1973 1976
1976–2007

Tallest structure in the

world 1931–1954,
tallest freestanding
Empire structure in the world
March 17, April 11, New York City, New York, United
State 1931–1967, tallest
1930 1931 States
Building building in the world
1931–1970, first
building with 100+
stories
 Golden The longest suspension
January 5, May 27, Golden Gate Strait, north of San
Gate bridge main span in the
1933 1937 Francisco, California, United States.
Bridge world from 1937 to 1964

The largest operating

hydroelectric facility in
Itaipú January May 5, Paraná River, between Brazil and
the world in terms of
Dam 1970 1984 Paraguay
annual energy
generation[13]

The largest hydraulic

Delta and Zeeland, South Holland, North engineering project
May 10,
Zuiderzee 1920 Holland, Friesland and Flevoland, undertaken by the
1997
Works Netherlands Netherlands during the
twentieth century

One of the largest and

Panama January 1, January most difficult
Isthmus of Panama
Canal 1880 7, 1914 engineering projects
ever undertaken

USA Today's New Seven Wonders

Old City of Jerusalem

In November 2006 the American national newspaper USA Today and the American television
show Good Morning America revealed a list of "New Seven Wonders" as chosen by six judges.
[14]
 The Grand Canyon was added as an eighth wonder on November 24, 2006, from viewer
feedback.[15]

USA Today's New Seven Wonders

Wonder Location
 Potala Palace Lhasa, Tibet

Old City of Jerusalem Israel and Palestine [n 1]

Polar ice caps Polar regions

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National

Hawaii, United States
Monument

Internet

Mayan ruins Yucatán Peninsula, México

Great Migration of Serengeti and Masai Mara Tanzania and Kenya

Grand Canyon (viewer-chosen eighth wonder) Arizona, United States

Seven Natural Wonders of the World

Victoria Falls

Similar to the other lists of wonders, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the
world, and there has been debate over how large the list should be. One of the many existing lists
was compiled by CNN in 1997:[16]

 Aurora in the high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic).

 Grand Canyon in Arizona, United States.
 Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
 Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
 Mount Everest claimed by Nepal, as well as China.
 Parícutin volcano located in the Mexican state of Michoacán, Mexico.
 Victoria Falls at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
New7Wonders of the World

El Castillo at Chichen Itza

In 2001 an initiative was started by the Swiss corporation New7Wonders Foundation to choose
the New7Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments through online votes.
[17]
 The Great Pyramid of Giza, the only remaining of the Seven Ancient Wonders, was not one of the
winners announced in 2007 but was added as an honorary candidate.[18][19]

Wonder Date of construction Present-day Location

Great Wall of China Since 7th century BC[20] China

Petra c. 100 BC Jordan

Christ the Redeemer Opened October 12, 1931 Brazil

Machu Picchu c. AD 1450 Peru

Chichen Itza c. AD 600 Mexico

Colosseum Completed AD 80 Italy

Taj Mahal Completed c. AD 1648 India

Great Pyramid of Giza (honorary

Completed c. 2560 BC Egypt
candidate)
New7Wonders of Nature

Jeju Island

New7Wonders of Nature (2007–2011), a contemporary effort to create a list of seven natural

wonders chosen through a global poll, was organized by the same group as the New7Wonders of
the World campaign.

 Iguazu Falls on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state

of Paraná.
 Hạ Long Bay in Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam.
 Jeju Island in the Jeju Province of South Korea.
 Puerto Princesa Underground River in Palawan, Philippines
 Table Mountain overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa.
 Komodo one of the 17,508 islands that comprise the Republic of Indonesia.
 Amazon rainforest located
in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and France (French
Guiana)
New7Wonders Cities

Calle Crisologo, Vigan City

New7Wonders Cities is the third global vote organized by New7Wonders.

 Durban, South Africa
 Vigan, The Philippines
 Havana, Cuba
 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
 Beirut, Lebanon
 Doha, Qatar
 La Paz, Bolivia
Seven Wonders of the Underwater World
The Great Barrier Reef

The Seven Underwater Wonders of the World was a list drawn up by CEDAM International, an
American-based non-profit group for divers, dedicated to ocean preservation and research. In 1989
CEDAM brought together a panel of marine scientists, including Dr. Eugenie Clark, to pick
underwater areas which they considered to be worthy of protection. The results were announced at
The National Aquarium in Washington DC by actor Lloyd Bridges, star of TV's Sea Hunt:[21]

 Palau.
 Belize Barrier Reef, Belize.
 Great Barrier Reef, Australia.
 Deep-Sea Vents.
 Galápagos Islands, Republic of Ecuador.
 Lake Baikal, Russia
 Northern Red Sea, bordered by Saudi Arabia and Yemen on the eastern
shore, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti on the western shore.
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World

Bell Rock Lighthouse

British author Deborah Cadbury wrote Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a book telling the
stories of seven great feats of engineering of the 19th and early 20th centuries.[22] In 2003,
the BBC aired a seven-part docudrama exploring the same feats, with Cadbury as a producer. Each
episode dramatised the construction of one of the following industrial wonders:[23]

 SS  Great Eastern

 Bell Rock Lighthouse, off the coast of Angus, Scotland.
 Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, United States.
 London sewerage system, serving London, England.
 First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States.
 Panama Canal, Panama.
 Hoover Dam, on the border between Nevada and Arizona in the United States.
Seven Wonders of the Solar System

Enceladus

In a 1999 article, Astronomy magazine listed the "Seven Wonders of the Solar System". This article
was later made into a video.[24]

 Enceladus, a moon of Saturn

 The Great red spot of Jupiter
 The Asteroid belt
 The surface of the Sun
 The Oceans of Earth
 The Rings of Saturn
 Olympus Mons on Mars
Other lists of wonders of the world
 Many authors and organisations have composed lists of the wonders of the world that have
been published in book or magazine form.

 Seven Wonders of the World is a 1956 film in which Lowell Thomas searches the world for
natural and artificial wonders and invites the audience to try to update the ancient Wonders of
the World list.

See also
 Eighth Wonder of the World
 National Seven Wonders
o Seven Wonders of Canada
o Seven Wonders of Colombia
 o Seven Wonders of Poland
o Seven Wonders of Portugal
o Seven Natural Wonders of Romania
o Seven Wonders of Romania
o Seven Wonders of Russia
o Seven Wonders of Ukraine
o Seven Wonders of Wales
 12 Treasures of Spain
 Seven Wonders of Fore (Fore Abbey, Ireland)
 World Heritage List – a list of over 900 sites deemed by UNESCO to be of "outstanding
universal value"

Notes