A Surplus of Wonderful

There seem to be way too many seven wonders of the world.

From a quick internet search:
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (AW)
Seven Natural Wonders of the World (NW)
Seven Wonders of the Underwater World (UW)
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World (IW)
New Seven Wonders of the World (N7)
USA New Seven Wonders of the World (UN7)
The New Seven Natural Wonders of the World (NN7)
Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages (MA – weirdly there are more than seven here)

Let’s list out all the wonders from the lists above and see if we can filter out the best of the best.

The list!

Great Pyramid of Giza (AW & N7)
Hanging Gardens of Babylon (AW)
Temple of Artemis (AW)
Statue of Zeus at Olympia (AW)
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (AW)
Colossus of Rhodes (AW)
Lighthouse of Alexandria (AW)
SS Great Eastern (IW)
Bell Rock Lighthouse (IW)
London Sewerage System (IW)
Brooklyn Bridge (IW)
First Transcontinental Railroad (IW)
Panama Canal (IW & MW)
Hoover Dam (IW)
Palau (UW)
Beliz Barrier Reef (UW)
Great Barrier Reef (UW & NW)
Deep-Sea Vents (UW)
Galapagos Islands (UW)
Lake Vaikal (UW)
Northern REd Sea (UW)
Iguazu Falls (NN7)
Jeju Island (NN7)
Komodo Island (NN7)
Puerto Princesa Underground River (NN7)
Table Mountain (NN7)
Halong Bay (NN7)
Amazon Rainforest (NN7)
Grand Canyon (NW & UN7)
Harbor of Rio de Janeiro (NW)
Mount Everest (NW)
Aurora (NW)
Paricutin volcano (NW)
Victoria Falls (NW)
Potala Palace (UN7)
Old City of Jerusalem (UN7)
Polar Ice caps (UN7)
Papahanaumokaukea (UN7)
The Internet (UN7)
Mayan Ruins (UN7)
Great Migration of Serengeti (UN7)
Channel Tunnel (MW)
CN Tower (MW)
Empire State Building (MW)
Golden Gate Bridge (MW)
Itaipu Dam (MW)
Delta Works (MW)
Great Wall of China (N7 & MA)
Petra (N7)
Christ the Redeemer (N7)
Machu Picchu (N7)
Chichen Itza (N7)
Colosseum (N7)
Taj Mahal (N7 & MA)
Stonehenge (MA)
Colosseum (MA)
Catacombs (MA)
Porcelain Tower of Nanjin (MA)
Hagia Sophia (MA)
Leaning Tower of Pisa (MA)
Cairo Citadel (MA)
Ely Cathedral (MA)
Cluny Abbey (MA)

Some of the wonders above appear on multiple lists. Let’s consider this a vote of confidence for these wonders. I wish my filter had naturally worked out to a list of seven, but alas… only six. So I hereby present to you…

MIKE D’s SIX WONDERS OF THE WONDERS

Great Pyramid of Giza
Panama Canal
Great Barrier Reef
Grand Canyon
Great Wall of China
Taj Majal

I love that five of the six items on this list have adjectives of grandeur (taj means ‘crown’)! How wonderful!

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