A provisional list of the seven new wonders of nature in the world has been issued, and famous locations like Mt Kilimanjaro and the Grand Canyon have failed to make the cut.
According to the results (so far) of a global poll run by the Swiss foundation New7Wonders, the leading seven are:
- The Amazon rainforest
- Halong Bay, Vietnam
- The Iguazu Falls, Argentina
- Jeju Island, Republic of Korea
- The komodo lizard of Indonesia
- The Puerto Princesa underground river, Philippines
- Table Mountain, South Africa
The foundations says the final results will be announced early next year, the ABC reports, and the list may yet change.
The results come after a long consultation process lasting from December 2007 to July 2009, when world citizens were asked to put forward sites they deemed natural wonders.
More than a million votes were cast to trim the list of more than 440 contenders in more than 220 countries to a shortlist of 77.
The group was then further cut to the 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, New7Wonders is based on the same principle on which the seven ancient wonders of the world were established - a list attributed to Philon of Byzantium in ancient Greece.
The foundation's next survey will be aimed at determining the top seven cities of the world.
