Jeita Grotto Fails to Become One of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Lebanon’s Jeita Grotto failed to garner enough votes to become one of the world's new seven wonders of nature, according to preliminary results announced Friday.
The Lebanese landmark, however, was among the 14 finalists.
The seven crowned the world's natural wonders are the Amazon rainforest, Vietnam's Halong Bay, Argentina's Iguazu Falls, South Korea's Jeju Island, Indonesia's Komodo, the Philippines' Puerto Princesa Underground River and South Africa's Table Mountain, said the organizer of the global poll, the New7Wonders foundation, citing provisional results.
Final results will be announced early 2012, said the Swiss foundation, noting however that there may yet be changes between the provisional winners and the final list.
Sites which have also failed to make the cut include Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, the Dead Sea and the U.S. Grand Canyon.
The poll has attracted great interest in Lebanon and around the world, mobilizing celebrities including Argentinian football star Lionel Messi calling on fans to pick his home country's Iguazu Falls.
The results come after a long consultation process lasting from December 2007 to July 2009, when world citizens were asked to put forward sites which they deemed were natural wonders.
More than a million votes were cast to trim the list of more than 440 contenders in over 220 countries down 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, the foundation New7Wonders is based on the same principle on which the seven ancient wonders of the world were established. That list of seven wonders was attributed to Philon of Byzantium in ancient Greece.
New7Wonders said its aim is to create a global memory by garnering participation worldwide.
But even as the natural wonders poll came to a close, the New7Wonders foundation has set its eyes on a new survey -- the top seven cities of the world. Participating cities will be announced on January 1, 2012.
12 November 2011, 00:37
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Pathetic how lebanese struggled for such a stupid competion? All of gods creation is a wonder. Why must lebanese always be so pathetic and work so hard to gain fame? If all the energy put on electing jeita would go to fixing lebanon and the silly not to mention fanatical minds of majority of lebanese then perhaps something good would have come out of it.
12 November 2011, 02:27
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Not a problem. Lebanon already has a grotto that is world famous, and that is the Grotto of Hariribaba and his 40 Thieves, namely Walid Jumblat, Fouad Siniora, Mini-Hariri (an idiot nevertheless) and his Christian Sunnis. However, one of these thieves, Fares Soaid, wasted all his money gambling at Casino du Liban and whatever was left by gambling with the future of Lebanon and the hopes of its youth. Another thief, Elias Atallah, is nowhere to be found. Two other ones are world-famous for also stealing candy from the charades that they used to hold at 5-star brothels and the Prostitute of the Mountain. 3eddo wel7a2ouni
12 November 2011, 09:10
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I am glad Geitta did not go through. It can hardly be classified as a wonder, let alone it is located in the most uncivilized country in the world.
12 November 2011, 09:10
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I am glad Geitta did not go through. It can hardly be classified as a wonder, let alone it is located in the most uncivilized country in the world.
12 November 2011, 09:59
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كيف بدها تربح و 90% من الشعب اللبناني مش داخل عليها بسبب ارتقاع التذاكر يعني اذا واحد بده ياخد عيلته زيارة رح اتكلفه نص معاشه.
او على القليلي يعطوا اسعار خاصة باللبنانيين زي بقية الدول المهتمة بالسياحة مثل مصر و الاردن و سوريا في اسعار خاصة للمواطنين و العرب و اسعار خاصة بالاجانب.
12 November 2011, 10:56
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لبنان من أجمل البلدان من دون أن يدخل في مسابقات ولكن فعلا التذاكر باهظة ومكلفة تخيلوا انو انا من حوالي سنة دخلتها وكانت قيمة التذكرة ليرة وين العدل يهني هلق ما منقدر ناخد ولادنا عليها ومع هيك صوتنا بركي هل الحكومة بتحس شوي
الله يحمي لبنان وشعبه
12 November 2011, 13:14
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I did vote for Jeiata for a patriotic reason. On the other hand Jeita is nice place but we shouldn’t exaggerate about it....Try to travel more and you will understand what I am saying….
Cheers
12 November 2011, 16:04
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Mr Brain, i agree with you, i did the same over patriotic reasons, but realisticly, Jeita grotto is far from beeing as great as many many other wonders of the world, one has to travel to know what the world holds of beauty and its stupid to think that Lebanon was the only country blessed witth a wonder, anyway on the other hand as well, as much as we vote, we can never be a wonder for 3 reasons :
- There is at max 13 million Lebanese worldwide and in Lebanon, so even if all of them vote, i dont think they will equal even a slight proportion of any country competing with its wonder
- As i said earlier, Jeita is beautiful but far from beeing the best thing for an eyesight
- Maybe the business men in Jeita grotto should diminish a bit the prices for their own kind ( lebanese ) at least to encourage the grotto from inside, charging 15 $ or more and not to mention the beverages that are expensive as well is total crap. And we still want tourist to come over to our country...
