Leaning Tower of Pisa: Wonder of the World The New Seven Wonders Website from National Geographic website: The Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages: The Colosseum of Rome The Catacombs of Alexandria The Great Wall of China Hagia Sophia of Constantinople Stonehenge The Leaning Tower of Pisa The Porcelain Pagoda of Nanjing The Seven Wonders of Today: (compiled in 1931 after the completion of the Empire State Building): The Great Pyramids (Egypt) Hagia Sophia (Turkey) Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italy) Washington Monument (U.S.) Eiffel Tower (France) Taj Mahal (India) Empire State Building (U.S.) Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Pyramids of Giza The Hanging Gardens of Babylon The temple of Artemis at Ephesus The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus The Pharos (lighthouse) of Alexandria The statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece Colossus of Rhodes (statue of the sun god Helios) Seven Natural Wonders of the World (Content varies from different sources): The Grand Canyon (U.S.) Iguazú Falls (Argentina) Yosemite Valley's Giant Sequoias (U.S.) Mount Everest (Tibet/Nepal) The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) The Nile River (Egypt) The Aaurora Borealis (the northern lights) Niagara Falls (U.S./Canada) Rainbow Natural Bridge (U.S.) The Petrified Forest (U.S.) among others. Listing the seven wonders of the world began during the time of the Greeks. The first lists were for travelers of that time, listing man-made objects of particular architectural or sculptural note. Today there are many such lists, including the Seven Modern Wonders, the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World, the Seven Natural Wonders, the Seven Wonders of Medicine, etc. There are many other such lists; none are definitive, of course. The United Nations’ World Heritage Convention (part of UNESCO) has compiled an inventory of the world’s wonders that it plans to preserve and protect. To qualify, a site must be judged to have “outstanding universal value,” either “natural” like Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, or “cultural” like Haiti’s Citadel and Sans Souci and France’s Chartres Cathedral. Among the hundreds of sites listed by the World Heritage Convention are the ancient city of Cuzco in Peru, Virunga National Park in Zaire, the U.S.’s Statue of Liberty, Altamira Cave in Spain, and Sri Lanka’s sacred city of Anuradhapura. You can read more about some of the World Heritage Sites in the Society’s book Our World’s Heritage, published in 1987. Leaning Tower of Pisa Information Leaning Tower of Pisa History Leaning Tower of Pisa Articles Leaning Tower of Pisa News Leaning Tower of Pisa Web Links Leaning Tower of Pisa Humor Leaning Tower of Pisa Gallery This Page maintained by: Gary Feuerstein