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NEW World Wonders
The Seven Wonders of the World invite you to revel in humans’ early marvels,
but a recent campaign put the spotlight on even more spectacles, three of which are in Latin America.
Story and photos by Mark Holston
For decades , their monumental importance to the cultural identity of their countries and their magnetic appeal as world-class tourist destinations have been well known. Today, however, the Mayan pyramid at Mexico’s Chichén Itzá, Machu Picchu, Peru’s fabled “Lost City of the Incas,” and Corcovado, the statue of Christ that blesses the skyline of Rio de Janeiro, are attracting more attention than ever.
Thanks to the results of an Internet campaign to identify the planet’s most popular archeological sites, these three staples of the Latin American cultural tourism circuit are in the spotlight as never before.
It all began in 1999 when Bernard Weber, a Swiss-born Canadian adventurer, museum curator and filmmaker came up with the idea of an international competition to identify the New 7 Wonders of the World. His overriding goal of promoting cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments quickly caught the public’s attention.
In an eight-year period ending last summer, close to 200 nominations were made and almost 100 million votes cast. The other winning monuments were widely dispersed, in both geographical and cultural terms—India’s Taj Mahal, the Palace Tombs of Petra in Jordan, the Great Wall of China and Italy’s Roman Colosseum.
The resulting wave of new publicity has already produced dramatic results. In Peru, for example, a jump of more than 20 percent in visitations to Machu Picchu was experienced within just a few months of the announcement.
For most visitors to Latin America, however, few extra incentives are needed to make these three destinations virtual must-visit attractions while in the region. Those who have experienced any of these three sites already know an excursion to Chichén Itzá, Machu Picchu or Corcovado involves much more than just spending a few hours soaking up the splendors of an architectural marvel. The experience also provides open door to a much broader and rewarding cultural encounter full of uncounted and unexpected pleasures.
The most ancient of the three monuments is Mexico’s Chichén Itzá, the country’s second most visited archeological site—the Aztec capital of Teotihuacán near Mexico City is No. 1—and the most important attraction that lures visitors to the Yucatán Peninsula.
The gateway for many will be majestic Mérida, a city noted for its broad boulevards, gardens and leisurely, courtly lifestyle. To truly appreciate the cultural variety of the Yucatán, several days in Mérida is all but requisite. For others, particularly those who arrive in Mexico aboard Caribbean-based cruise ships, Cancún provides another common, yet more distant, starting point for a Chichén Itzá adventure.
Built before 800 A.D., the temple city was served as an important economic and political center of the Mayan empire in its waning years. Reflective of the obsession of the Maya with mathematics, the city was built to stunningly perfect geometric standards. While the site boasts many examples of architectural brilliance, including the military-like precision of the pillars that line the courtyard of the Hall of the Thousand Warriors and the domed observatory dubbed El Caracol, it was the commanding presence of Pyramid of Kukulcán that captured the imagination of Internet voters in the New 7 Wonders competition.
Also called El Castillo, the temple was named for the Feathered Serpent God known today as Quetzalcoatl. The 90-foot high pyramid is by far the largest and most important ceremonial structure at Chichén Itzá and has provided archeologists with a plethora of information about the workings of the Mayan calendar.
From the summit of El Castillo, visitors can gain a sense of the city’s isolation in the vast interior of the Yucatán as they gaze for miles in every direction across the flat expanse of surrounding scrubland. This privileged vantage point is much coveted by the thousands of visitors who make the trek to Chichén Itzá every year to observe such astronomical events as seasonal equinoxes and solstices.
Precariously straddling the summit of a knife-edged mountain high above the churning Urubamba River, Machu Picchu is also believed by many visitors to be a center of mystical powers. Constructed by the Inca just a few decades before the Spanish conquistadors’ arrival in the New World, the city was designed to be a self-sustaining and highly defensible sanctuary. Befittingly, an air of mystery still surrounds the site, which was inhabited for less than 100 years.
Much remains to be unearthed about Machu Picchu’s function in Inca society. Some speculate that it served as a kind of prison. Others believe that it was a personal retreat for an Inca emperor. In any event, it was never discovered by the invading Spaniards and avoided the kind of destructive pillaging that took place at other Inca settlements.
The existence of this one-of-a-kind archeological site became known to the world-at-large in 1911 when a Yale University professor, Hiram Bingham, was led by local villagers to the ruins and the era of “The Lost City of the Incas” began.
Located 50 miles from the regional Inca capital of Cusco, Machu Picchu means “old mountain” in the language of the Quechua, the indigenous group that traces its ancestry to the ancient Incas. As with Chichén Itzá, the distinctive quality of the setting’s natural features and the imposing structures that dominate it make Machu Picchu one of the world’s most entrancing locales.
As visitors wander, often in a mountain-hugging mist, through the maze-like pathways that connect dwellings and garden plots to such spiritual sites as the Temple of the Sun, many will ponder the planning and arduous toil that went into creating this complex urban expanse in such a remote and virtually inaccessible place.
Although today’s visitors enjoy relative comfort in their journey to and from the site, an excursion to Machu Picchu is still a true adventure. Most will arrive in Cusco via a flight from Lima, Peru’s capital city. From there, a four-hour train ride in the shadow of glacier-capped mountains provides a spectacular prelude to Machu Picchu itself.
Many travelers will make a long day of it, spending eight hours in transit and a half a day at the site. Others will want to linger a while longer and book accommodations at the on-site lodge or the village on the river below. As with a visit to Chichén Itzá, the pleasure of the experience will multiply if more time is set aside to enjoy all that Cusco and its surroundings have to offer. One thing is guaranteed; a jaunt to Machu Picchu will be, for most, the experience of a lifetime.
The choice of Rio’s statue of Christ the Redeemer as one of The New 7 Wonders surprised many. It is by hundreds of years the most contemporary, the only one conceptualized and constructed in the 20th century. It is also by far the most diminutive. Its overtly religious character is a further defining characteristic, as is its location in the heart of a major city, which makes it visible to and potentially accessible to millions of people every day of the year.
Corcovado, the Portuguese word for “hunchback,” is the pointed pinnacle of solid granite that stands in the very heart of this metropolis of some 10 million souls. It was so inaccessible that it took over 250 years after the founding of the city before an organized effort was made to scale the peak.
By the early 20th Century, Catholic Church officials began to ponder the location of a religious monument on Corcovado’s summit. A competition to select a design eventually produced the now familiar, strongly Art Deco-influenced figure of Christ, his arms spread wide in a fatherly fashion over Rio’s spectacular setting of bays, beaches and sprawling barrios.
Inaugurated in 1931 after five years of construction, the monument became an overnight sensation and a veritable “postcard” symbol of both Rio and Brazil.
The initial design by a local artist, Heitor da Silva Costa, was refined by Polish sculptor Paul Landowski in his Paris studio. Constructed of reinforced concrete, the statue was covered with tiny, green-toned, triangular pieces of indigenous soap stone, giving the monument a distinctive Brazilian flair. Celebrated in song, literature and film, its iconic image has been the inspiration for a countless variety of objets d’art.
Tellingly, Corcovado is fraught by contradictions, a symbol of religious faith in a city renowned for its hedonism. But, for Cariocas, as the residents of Rio are known, whether they are religious or not, they are comforted by the statue’s presence. “When I look up at Christ the Redeemer,” says music producer Claudio Oliveira, “I feel like I’m being hugged by him.”
OTHER NEW WONDERS
The Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is the largest man-made monument ever to have been built, and is reputed to be the only one visible from space. Almost 4,000 miles long, it is actually comprised of a series of stone and earthen fortifications built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire.
The Roman Colosseum
An ancient amphitheater in the center Rome, the Colosseum is one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering. Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. Its design concept still stands to this very day, and virtually every modern sports stadium some 2,000 years later still bears the irresistible imprint of the Colosseum’s original design.
The Taj Mahal, India
This immense mausoleum was built on the orders of Shah Jahan, the fifth Muslim Mogul emperor, to honor the memory of his beloved late wife. Built out of white marble and standing in formally laid-out walled gardens, the Taj Mahal is regarded as the most perfect jewel of Muslim art in India. The emperor was consequently jailed and, it is said, could then only see the Taj Mahal out of his small cell window.
Petra, Jordan
Petra is an archaeological site in Arabah renowned for its rock-cut architecture. On the edge of the Arabian Desert, Petra was the glittering capital of the Nabataean empire of King Aretas IV (9 B.C. to 40 A.D.). Masters of water technology, the Nabataeans provided their city with great tunnel constructions and water chambers. Today, the Palace Tombs of Petra, with the 42-meter-high Hellenistic temple facade are impressive examples of Middle Eastern culture.
Finalists that did not make the list of New 7 Wonders include:
The Acropolis, Athens, Greece
The royal palace of Alhambra, Granada, Spain
Statues of Easter Island, Chile
The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
The Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan
The Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow, Russia
Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany
The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
The Statue of Liberty, New York City
Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom
Sydney Opera House, Australia
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