A view of
Argentina's Iguazu Falls, on the Brazilian side of the Iguazu
River. The …
A tourist boat
sails past the stone islands of Halong Bay, Vietnam. The Amazon
rainforest, …
The Amazon rainforest, Vietnam's
Halong Bay and Argentina's Iguazu Falls were named among the
world's new seven wonders of nature, according to organisers of a
global poll.
The other four
crowned the world's natural wonders are South Korea's Jeju Island,
Indonesia's Komodo, the Philippines' Puerto Princesa Underground
River and South Africa's Table Mountain, said the New7Wonders
foundation, citing provisional results.
Final results will
be announced early 2012, said the Swiss foundation, warning there
may yet be changes between the provisional winners and the final
list.
Sites that have
failed to make the cut include Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, the
Dead Sea and the US Grand Canyon.
Residents of Jeju
welcomed the announcement, with a 2,000-strong crowd bursting into
cheers of "We made it", the Yonhap news agency reported.
Jeju Govenor Woo
Geun-Min said the listing would open "a new chapter" for the
island's tourism industry.
"This will greatly
help attract tourists to Jeju, enhance investment and bolster
awareness about Jeju's agricultural products," he told journalists.
The island is renowned for its tangerines.
The poll organised
by Swiss foundation New7Wonders has attracted great interest,
mobilising celebrities including Argentinian football star Lionel
Messi calling on fans to pick his home country's Iguazu Falls.
The results come
after a long consultation process lasting from December 2007 to
July 2009, when world citizens were asked to put forward sites
which they deemed were natural wonders.
More than a
million votes were cast to trim the list of more than 440
contenders in over 220 countries down to a shortlist of 77.
The group was then
further cut to 28 finalists by a panel of experts.
Anyone in the
world was then able to vote for the final seven via telephone, text
messages or Internet social networks.
Founded in 2001 by
filmmaker Bernard Weber in Zurich, the foundation New7Wonders is
based on the same principle on which the seven ancient wonders of
the world were established. That list of seven wonders was
attributed to Philon of Byzantium in ancient Greece.
New7Wonders said
its aim is to create a global memory by garnering participation
worldwide.
But even as the
natural wonders poll came to a close, the New7Wonders foundation
has set its eyes on a new survey -- the top seven cities of the
world. Participating cities will be announced on January 1,
2012.
