THERE’S SOME bad news for fans of Irish tourist attraction the Cliffs of Moher today – the site did not succeed in making the final cut for the New7Wonders of Nature.
Over 440 sites around the world were initially entered to be considered for the shortlist of 28 locations.
Voting to whittle the 28 (including the Cliffs of Moher) down to a final seven ended at 11.11am yesterday and the first count has already been taken by the Swiss foundation behind the project.
However, New7Wonders founder Bernard Weber said that further independent checks and recounts will now follow which could see some of those currently in the top seven ousted. The final list is expected to be announced by the private foundation early next year at a special ceremony.
Check out the current top seven finalists for the New7Wonders of Nature:
Halong Bay, Vietnam
Iguazu Falls, Argentina and Brazil
Komodo, Indonesia
Table Mountain, South Africa
Puerto Princesa Underground River, Philippines
Jeju Island, South Korea
Amazon, South America
Meanwhile, the Cliffs of Moher tourist office said in a statement that it was a “wonderful achievement” for the site to make it to the shortlist of 28 and thanked everyone who had voted for the cliffs and had supported their campaign for the New7Wonders.
Here’s a video tour of the Cliffs of Moher made by the site’s official tourist office and posted online by lahinchdreamcatcher:
You can take a range of other virtual tours of the cliffs and O’Brien’s Tower (the highest point looking out over the cliffs) on the Cliffs of Moher site.
Several years ago, a similar project by the New7Wonders Foundation announced a modern list of the man-made Wonders of the World. Traditionally, this list of seven included six lost ancient treasures and sites including the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The only surviving one of the original seven is the Great Pyramid of Giza.
However, the pyramid didn’t make the list announced in 2007 but was instead granted honorary status in addition to a new list of seven locations.
The foundation named the following sites as the new man-made wonders after claiming that over 100 million votes were cast around the world: Chichen Itza (Mexico), Christ the Redeemer (Brazil), Great Wall of China, Machu Pichu (Peru), Petra (Jordan), Roman Colosseum (Italy), Taj Mahal (India).
