Taj on top of Wonders list

VIJAY UPADHYAY
INDIA (AGRA) 4 Dec. Ever since Philo of Byzantium compiled his declaration of the 'Seven Wonders of the World' in 200 BC, it has been the only documented and historically approved "wonders list", even though only one of these Wonders, all located in the Mediterranean basin, remains intact and there has never been any true public consensus of opinion on the last 2000 years of human achievement.

Only recently, efforts have begun to compile a new list of Wonders through a massive global referendum.

Shortly after the former Miss World Aishwarya Rai re-nominated the Taj Mahal on the list of Wonders being compiled on the Internet on Wednesday, the Taj Mahal has topped this list, scoring 98.86 per cent of the total votes cast during the past week, leaving the Great Wall of China far behind with just 0.14per cent votes.

This is a significant achievement for the Taj, celebrating its 350th anniversary this year, keeping in mind the fact that the voting process also includes making an international call to Switzerland for authentication.

But in the overall scenario, the Taj Mahal still lags behind six other monuments of the world on this list, including the China Wall which still rides at the top, and has come very close to losing its place among the seven Wonders.

According to the most recent statistics posted at the New 7 Wonders website, out of over 17.5 million votes cast by 200 countries so far, the Taj Mahal's nomination has been supported by just 1.90 per cent of the total votes, a number quite insignificant when compared even with the Internet aware population of India, making the Taj teeter at the seventh place on this list, when the Great Wall of China ranks at the top collecting more than 50 per cent of the votes.

Tourism analysts indicate that a place for the Taj Mahal on this list, though unofficial, could do wonders to the tourism trade in India, attracting tourists afresh to this architectural masterpiece, though losing this place would not make much difference to the tourist traffic arriving in India.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)


Comments

Amit Agarwal said…
Can you post the website of the 7 Wonders site ?

Amit @ Digital Inspiration
8:31 PM
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