These sites and monuments are popularly known as the “new Seven Wonders of the World,” modern additions to the ancient Seven Wonders laid out by Philo of Byzantium in 250 B.C., which included the hanging gardens of Babylon and the pyramids of Giza. (Of those ancient seven, only the pyramids remain.)
The new wonders were chosen in 2007 through an online contest put on by a Swiss company, the New 7 Wonders Foundation, in which more than tens of millions of people voted. All are Unesco World Heritage sites.