Tujuh Keajaiban Dunia

Tujuh Keajaiban Dunia biasanya menunjuk ke Tujuh Keajaiban Dunia Kuno. Pencetus awal daftar ini adalah Antipater Sidon, yang membuat daftar struktur dalam sebuah puisi (sekitar 140 SM).

"I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, 'Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.'" (Antipater, Greek Anthology IX.58)

Sejarawan Herodotus, orang pintar Callimachus dari Cyrene (kira-kira 305 SM - 240 SM), teknisi Philon dari Byzantium telah membuat daftar yang lebih awal namun tulisan-tulisan ini tidak ada yang terselamatkan, kecuali hanya sebagai referensi.

Enam set Tujuh Kejaiban

Ada beberapa pertentangan di antara sumber mengenai Tujuh Keajaiban Dunia, dan dengan alasan yang cukup baik. Setiap jaman telah menambah beberapa pencapaian dan penemuan, memberikan kita banyak keajaiban untuk dilihat dan dikagumi. Banyak orang beranggapan ada enam set Keajaiban Dunia.

1. Keajaiban Dunia Kuno
2. Keajaiban Dunia Pertengahan
3. Keajaiban Dunia Alami
4. Keajaiban Dunia Bawah Air
5. Keajaiban Dunia Modern
6. 7 Keajaiban Dunia Baru

Keajaiban Dunia Kuno

Tujuh Keajaiban Dunia Kuno, dengan Pharos Aleksandria, berasal dari jaman Pertengahan. Menurut daftar Antipater tertulis Tembok Babylon dan bukan menara lampu. Dalam urutan sesuai huruf:

1. Colossus of Rhodes — patung Helios yang sangat besar, dibuat pada tahun c. 292–280 SM oleh Chures, sekarang Yunani.
2. Hanging Gardens of Babylon — dibuat oleh Nebuchadnezzar II, c. 8th–6th century BC, sekarang Irak.
3. Mausoleum of Halicarnassus — makam Mausolus, Persian satrap Caria, dibuat pada tahun 353–351 SM, di kota Halicarnassus, sekarang Bodrum, Turki.
4. Pharos of Alexandria — mercusuar dibangun pada tahun c. 270 SM di pulau Pharos dekat Alexandria pada masa pemerintahan Ptolemy II oleh arsitek Yunani Sostratus, sekarang Mesir.
5. Piramid Giza — dipakai sebagai makam untuk pharaoh Mesir Khufu, Khafre, dan Menkaure, sekarang Mesir. Dibangun pada dinasti ke 4 Egypt's (c. 2575–ca 2465 SM)
6. Patung Zeus — berada di Olympia, di pahat oleh pemahat Yunani Phidias, kira-kira 457 SM sekarang Yunani.
7. Kuil Artemis — 550 SM, di Ephesus, sekarang Turki.

Dua dari masing masing keajaiban dunia sekarang berada di wilayah Yunani, Mesir, dan Turki, dan satu berada di Irak. Satu satunya keajaiban dunia kuno yang masih bertahan adalah pembuatan pertama, Piramid Giza. Keajaiban dunia kuno yang berumur paling pendek adalah Colossus of Rhodes, yang hanya bertahan selama 56 tahun sebelum dihancurkan oleh earthquake. Ada beberapa perdebatan tentang apakah Hanging Gardens of Babylon pernah dibangun.

Keajaiban Dunia Pertengahan

Setelah keruntuhan peradaban kuno, ingatan akan keajaiban dunia kuno yang hancur perlahan menghilang. Scholars and philosophers reviewed and rewrote the lists of wonders, removing old ones and replacing them with "newly built" as tales of them spread. Over the centuries a consensus emerged in the form of the Seven Wonders of the Medieval Mind list:

1. Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
2. Colosseum
3. Great Wall of China
4. Hagia Sophia
5. Leaning Tower of Pisa
6. Porcelain Tower of Nanjing (Nanjing, China)
7. Stonehenge (United Kingdom)
8. Borobudur (Indonesia)

Natural Wonders

Similar to other lists of wonders, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the world. One of the lists was compiled by CNN [1]:

1. Grand Canyon
2. Great Barrier Reef
3. Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
4. Mount Everest
5. Northern Lights
6. Paricutín Volcano
7. Victoria Falls

Underwater Wonders

Though the Underwater Wonders of the World are also all natural and not made by man; these wonders are either bodies of water, occur underwater, or are surrounded by water.

1. Belize Barrier Reef
2. Deep-Sea Vents
3. Galapagos Islands
4. Great Barrier Reef
5. Lake Baikal
6. Northern Red Sea
7. Palau

Modern Wonders

Many people have since devised lists of wonders of the modern world. The most common list is:

1. Channel Tunnel (United Kingdom and France)
2. CN Tower (Toronto, Canada)
3. Empire State Building (New York, USA)
4. Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, USA)
5. Itaipu Dam (Brazil and Paraguay)
6. Delta Works (The Netherlands)
7. Panama Canal (Panama)

New 7 Wonders

A project that features the first global vote for the seven wonders. The most recent list is:

1. Great Wall of China
2. Potala Palace (Tibet, China)
3. Taj Mahal (Agra, India)
4. Roman Colosseum (Rome, Italy)
5. El Castillo (Chichen Itza, Mexico)
6. Moai (Easter Island, Chile)
7. Tower of Pisa (Pisa, Italy)

Additional Candidates

With so many conflicting sources regarding each of the five sets of Seven Wonders, one must consider the additional candidates for each list:

Ancient Candidates

Because these lists of seven wonders were the products of Western civilization, many ancient wonders remained unknown to the lists' authors. This list includes some of the wonders which existed outside the knowledge of Western explorers for centuries after their construction:

• Angkor Wat (Cambodia)
• Acropolis (Greece)
• Borobudur in Indonesia
• Chichen Itza (Yucatán, Mexico)
• Falak-ol-Aflak Castle (Persia)
• Great Sphinx of Giza (near the Great Pyramid, in Egypt)
• Great Wall of Gorgan (Persia)
• Persepolis (Persia)
• Ziggurat of Ur (Mesopotamia; modern Iraq)
• Machu Picchu in Peru

Medieval Candidates

• The Forbidden City (Beijing, China)
• Notre Dame (Paris, France)
• Hagia Sofia (Istanbul, Turkey)

Kandidat alam

• Air terjun Angel
• Bay of Fundy
• Laut Mati
• Fiordland
• Guilin
• Iguacu Falls
• Kakadu
• Krakatau
• Matterhorn
• Barringer Meteorite Crater
• Milford Sound
• Monument Valley
• Gunung Fuji
• Gunung Kilimanjaro
• Air terjun Niagara
• Sleeping Bear Dunes
• Uluru
• Taman Nasional Yellowstone

Underwater Candidates

Palau, A small archipelago in the Pacific Ocean.

The Belize Barrier Reef, Off the coast of Belize

The Galapagos Islands, 600 miles west of Ecuador

The Northern Red Sea, east of Egypt

Lake Baikal, near Irkutsk, Siberia

The Great Barrier Reef, Spanning more than 2000 km along the northeastern coast of Australia

The Deep Sea Vents, Several of these vents have been found and explored in both the Pacific and the Atlantic

Modern Candidates

• Eiffel Tower (Paris, Perancis)
• Forth Bridge, Skotlandia, UK
• The Kremlin dan Lapangan Merah (Moscow, Russia)
• Mamayev Kurgan (Volgograd, Russia)
• San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
• Rice terraces (Banaue, Philippines)
• Rio-Antirio bridge, Peloponnese,Yunani
• Patung Liberty (New York, USA)
• Sydney Opera House (Sydney, Australia)
• Taj Mahal (dekat Agra, India)
• Dam Tiga Jurang (China)

Pranala luar dan referensi

• "New 7 Wonders". NewOpenWorld Foundation - a global project on to vote (until December 2005) on wonders to be included in a modern list.
• The World's Top 100 Wonders - a list of architectural, engineering and natural wonders by Howard Hillman, a renowned travel writer.
• WonderClub.com - a "list of lists", with information about most wonders.
• Seven Wonders of the Modern World - a list of modern wonders compiled by the American Society of Civil Engineers

Bacaan lebih lanjut

• Cox, Reg, and Neil Morris, "The Seven Wonders of the Modern World". Chelsea House Publications: Library. October, 2000. ISBN 079106048
• Cox, Reg, Neil Morris, and James Field, "The Seven Wonders of the Medieval World". Chelsea House Publications: Library. October, 2000. ISBN 0791060470
• D'Epiro, Peter, and Mary Desmond Pinkowish, "What Are the Seven Wonders of the World? and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists". Anchor. December 1, 1998. ISBN 0385490623
• Morris, Neil, "The Seven Wonders of the Natural World". Chrysalis Books. December 30, 2002. ISBN 184138495X