Wonders of the World
Humans are generally good at noticing beautiful things. Humans are also generally good at building beautiful things. A Wonder of the World is a landmark or a natural phenomenon that is significant enough to be noticed by any person around the world. Many different lists of the Wonders of the World were made over the course of history, so let’s have a look at some!
The first of such lists was made by a Greek historian Herodotus. Only three places were mentioned in it. Eventually the list was expanded up to seven Wonders. Probably everyone can name at least some of those monuments: the Great Pyramid of Giza; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Lighthouse of Alexandria; the Colossus of Rhodes; the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the Temple of Artemis; the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. The curious thing about these Wonders is that almost all of them represent the Greek culture. Another thing to note is that the ancient Greeks haven’t actually used the term ‘wonder’, but instead it was a list ‘of things to see’, making such lists essentially just a travel guide. Almost all of these Wonders were destroyed one way or another, and today only the Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as the Pyramid of Cheops or the Pyramid of Khufu, still stands.
This wasn’t the only list of supposed Wonders though. Later on, many attempts were made (with a little to no consensus) to either make a new list or add more Wonders to the existing one. The most remarkable candidates were Colosseum of Rome, Hagia Sophia of Istanbul, Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.
Another peculiar attempt was made in 1994. The American Society of Civil Engineers made a list of Seven Wonders of Modern World, focusing mainly on an engineering scope of selected projects. Among other projects, this list features Panama Canal, Channel Tunnel and CN Tower of Toronto, which was the tallest structure in the world up to 2007.
There is also a list of Natural Wonders of the World. It included the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Everest, the Grand Canyon of Arizona and, curiously enough, aurorae, making it the first list of its kind to include a phenomenon instead of a place.
But what about the world beyond Earth? Surely, it must have its wonders too! And indeed, in 1999, an attempt was made to list Seven Wonders of the Solar System. Amongst those were the rings of Saturn, the asteroid belt and the Great Red Spot of Jupiter.
Ultimately, the world is too big of a place to make an exhaustive list of all landmarks worth visiting. But those that didn’t make into any prominent list are still protected and treasured by their neighbours. The organization that manages the lists of such landmarks and attends to any legal matters regarding them is called UNESCO.
Подсказки:
1-landmark – достопримечательность;
2-significant – значительный;
3-represent – представлять, быть примером (кого-либо/чего-либо);
4-essentially – по сути;
5-peculiar – необычный, своеобразный;
6-aurorae (множ.) – полярные сияния;
7-attends (контекст.) – поддерживать что-либо в порядке, обслуживать.
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