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Cape Town holds Wonder!
Cape Town’s primary landmark, Table Mountain, has been named as one of the New Seven Wonders of the Natural World.
The New7wonders foundation allowed anyone around the world to vote using telephone, text messaging or social networks on the Internet. The exclusive list has been four years in the making, with people initially allowed to nominate and vote on their favourite natural wonders around the world back in 2007. There were 440 entries for that list, which was eventually pared down to a shortlist of 28 finalists.
The 28 Official Finalists were chosen by the New7Wonders Panel of Experts under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Federico
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Mayor, former Director-General of UNESCO and announced on 21 July, bearing in mind the following general criteria:
- Unique beauty of the nominated site;
- Diversity and distribution (accounted for in 7 groups);
- Ecological significance (in terms of either stand-alone eco-systems and/or their significance for human beings);
- Historical legacy (relation that human beings and/or indigenous populations have or have had with the site);
- Geo-location (even distribution of the 28 Official Finalists between all continents).
| On the 11th of the 11th, 2011 at 11 past 11, the top 7 results were announced, bringing with them cheers of joy from all Capetionians and indeed South Africans, as their beloved city took its place amongst the new found elite.
"South Africa will gain an additional 108,000 international tourists a year due to the increased exposure of Table Mountain as a New 7 Wonder," said spokesperson Martin Jansen van Vuuren.
"The value of this tourism increase is estimated to be approximately R1.4 billion per year for the first five years following the inclusion."
"The voting calculation is now being checked, validated and independently
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verified, and the confirmed winners will be announced early next year," said accounting firm Grant Thornton.
The results could change during this time and the winners were provisional.
Aside from Table Mountain, making the list were:
- Philippine Puerto Princesa Underground River,
- Argentina's Iguazu Falls,
- South Korea's Jeju Island,
- South Africa's Table Mountain.
