[FACTBOX] About the New 7 Wonders contest

In June the New7Wonders foundation announced the 28 finalists from which seven will be chosen to comprise the new Seven Wonders of the Natural World. Here is a bit about the new campaign.

Mother Nature’s Seven wonders

Bu Tinah Shoals island

•With the success of its first campaign to name the new seven man-made “Wonders of the World” the New7Wonders Foundation has set out to identify a new list of wonders but this time created by nature.

Komodo National Park in Indonesia

•With its campaign slogan: “if we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it,” the New7Wonders Foundation project aims to raise awareness of mankind’s natural heritage in hopes of conserving what mother nature has to offer.

Mesopotamian Marshes in Iraq

•Bernard Weber, a Swiss entrepreneur and the founder of New7Wonders, kick started search campaign for The New Seven Wonders of Nature in 2008.

Machu Picchu in Peru

•Like the New Seven Wonders of the World, which were chosen by more than 100 million votes in the first truly global campaign, the list for the Natural wonders will be chosen by people through a global poll.

Al Hasa Oasis in Saudi Arabia

•Out of the top 77 nominees voted for so far, UNESCO will choose the 28 finalists to be announced Tuesday July 21 2009 in Zurich, where the effort is based.

Tree of life in Bahrain

•A global poll via the Internet, phone or text message on the lucky seven winners will begin once the 28 finalists are announced with the final official announcement to be made in 2011.

Natural wonder of Jeita Grotto in the Valley of Nahr al-Kalb in Beirut

•The list of 77 nominees includes natural wonders in the Middle East such as Lebanon’s Jeita Grotto in the Valley of Nahr al-Kalb and Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hasa Oasis.

Pyramids of Giza

•Canada’s Bay of Fundy and Australia’s Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) are also among the nominees. The only site in the U.S. is the Grand anyon.

Man-Made Wonder List

Petra in Jordan

•In 2005 Bernard Weber, thought it was time to launch a search for the Seven Wonders of Today's World to update the original list of ancient wonders of classical antiquity, of which only one, the Pyramid of Giza, still exists.

River in Jeita Grotto

•The seven man-made wonders were picked from a selection of 200 existing monuments and were announced July 7, 2007, at a gala event in Lisbon Portugal in front of an audience of 50,000 and millions watching the broadcast at home.

Volcanic fireworks in Indonesia

•The new seven man-made wonders are: The Great Wall of China, Petra, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu, Chicken Itza Roman Coliseum, Taj Mahal, and the Great Pyramid.

Komodo dragon

•The other original wonders, compiled by several ancient Greeks, were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.