Editorial: Searching for new wonders

Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006 | 7:09 a.m.

The Egyptian pyramids are the only remaining structures of the original Seven Wonders of the World, so the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is choosing seven "new" wonders from a list of very old and a few not-so-old candidates.

Six of the original seven wonders that have crumbled or otherwise vanished include the hanging gardens of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympia and the lighthouse at Alexandria, located on what was once the ancient island of Pharos.

According to a story by the Associated Press, the 21 candidates for the new wonders include such old - even ancient - sites as the Acropolis in Greece, Brazil's 125-foot-tall Christ the Redeemer statue, the Great Wall of China, England's Stonehenge and the massive stone busts on Easter Island, west of Chile. But the U.N. committee also is considering newer architectural marvels, such as the Eiffel Tower, Australia's Sydney Opera House and the Statue of Liberty.

Given the relatively young age of the latter, it is too bad that Nevada's Hoover Dam isn't a candidate. Considered the engineering marvel of its time, the Great Depression-era dam required rerouting of the mighty Colorado River before construction could even begin. Workers used hand-placed explosives and moved mountains of rock and dirt - some by hand - to make way for the 726-foot-tall concrete structure that brought hydroelectric power to the desert Southwest.

Still, even without Hoover Dam, the list of candidates is an impressive show of what the human imagination can dream up and what the human intellect can build. It is mind-boggling how the massive monoliths of Stonehenge were moved into place 3,000 years ago or how the prehistoric Rapanui culture carved Easter Island's hulking stone busts by using primitive hand tools. And it is reassuring to know that even when older wonders die, new ones will never cease to replace them.