Tuesday, May 9, 2017

The Latest Wonder of the World

By Tiffany Amber Stockton



Last month, I shared about the history of the game of soccer and who is cited as the founder of the sport. If you missed that post, you can read it here: http://www.hhhistory.com/2017/04/soccer-or-football.html.

This week, I decided to check out one of the many sources which feature a "this day in history" listing of events, dates, and people, etc.

THE LATEST WONDER OF THE WORLD

The Seven Wonders of the World have gotten a lot of attention over the years. Stories have been written and told about them time and time again, and thousands of people have planned vacations around visiting them. But did you know there are different groups of "wonders"? It all depends on whether you are referring to the ancient wonders or modern wonders. Even the modern ones have the potential to be "threatened" by *new* wonders.

Historically, the "7 Wonders" of the ancient world are listed as:

  1. Great Pyramid of Giza
  2. Hanging Gardens of Babylon
  3. Statue of Zeus at Olympia
  4. Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
  5. Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
  6. Colossus of Rhodes
  7. Lighthouse of Alexandria

But the modern "7 Wonders" are considered:

  1. Chichén Itza, Mexico
  2. Christ the Redeemer Statue, Brazil
  3. Colosseum, Italy
  4. Taj Mahal, India
  5. Great Wall of China
  6. Petra, Jordan
  7. Machu Picchu, Peru

Like I said above, however, even the modern ones are being challenged.

For example, The Channel Tunnel, linking England and France, was officially opened on May 6th, 1994, nearly 200 years after the idea was first suggested. The completed tunnel – stretching 31.4 miles under the sea – was hailed as one of the “seven wonders of the modern world" by the American Society of Civil Engineers. They rated it alongside the Empire State Building, the Itaipu Dam in South America, the CN Tower in Toronto, the Panama Canal, the North Sea protection works in the Netherlands, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

See? Yet another set of "7 Wonders" if you include the Channel Tunnel. (grins)

But the tunnel very well could be considered a wonder when you look at what it took to make it a reality. Six years to build at a cost of $17 billion. Everything and everybody goes by train. Up to 400 of them pass through the tunnel each day, carrying an average of 50,000 passengers, 6,000 cars, 180 coaches and 54,000 tonnes of freight on the 35-minute journey.

It's a far cry from the proposals in 1802 of French engineer Albert Mathieu, the first person to suggest a tunnel between the two countries. His plans included an artificial island halfway across, so horses pulling the wagons through could be changed. Later proposals for a tunnel came from Napoleon III in 1856, and the English prime ministers William Gladstone in 1865 and David Lloyd George in 1919.

All of them would have been astonished by the engineering technology employed in the modern-day project. The average depth of the tunnel is 50 meters below the seabed, and the lowest point 75 meters below. To accomplish the task, 11 boring machines were used, each as long as two football pitches. They weighed a total of 12,000 tons, which is more than the Eiffel Tower.

So, what do you think? "Modern wonder" or not?

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Have you ever visited one of the "wonders of the world"? Where and when?

* Is there a wonder you would *like* to visit? Which one?

* What is 1 fascinating fact about today's post which caught your eye today?

Leave answers to these questions or any comments on the post below. Come back on the 9th of June for my next appearance.


BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those childhood skills to become an author and speaker who has partnered with Nerium International in the anti-aging, health & wellness, and personal development industry, helping others become their best from the inside out.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, in Colorado. They have one girl and one boy, and a Retriever mix named Roxie. She has sold twenty (21) books so far and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can also find her on FacebookTwitterPinterest, and LinkedIn.

4 comments:

  1. I have never visited any of the 7 Wonders, but would like to visit all of them. I wasn't even aware there was a "new wonders" list, but the Colosseum in Italy, the Taj Mahal in India, and the
    Great Wall of China are all places that I would love to see, also.

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    Replies
    1. I have only been to Chichén Itza in Mexico, but I agree. It would be amazing to visit them all. Shame so many are on the other side of the world. :)

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  2. Something to think about with the different 7 Wonders, depending which ones you are taking about--ancient or modern. I haven't visited any of the ancient or modern Wonders, but I would like to visit Christ the Redeemer Statue, Brazil.

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  3. Yes, I wasn't even aware there were "modern" wonders. And I've only visited 1 so far. Not sure if I could narrow it down on which ones I'd want to see, though.

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