b'JONATHAN VAN BILSENThe original wonders of the world werechosenbyafewindividuals around 2000 years ago, however in 2007, a massive, global survey was done and tens of millions of people participatedinwhattheythought should be the new Seven Wonders of the World. The age of the monumentsThe Colosseum in Rome as seen from the gladiators training school.does not matter, however they had to be man-made.VISITING THE NEW I will go through them in the orderEWW ONDERSof my visits, which happened over theN SEVEN WONDERSpast 30 years. OF THE WORLD IllstartwiththeColiseuminis one of Romes most popular touristtake you 18 months to walk its length.Rome.Thisamazingstructure,builtattractions and has links to the RomanOur next journey takes us to North ofconcreteandsand,isthelargestCatholicChurch.EachGoodFridayAmerica,andtheMayanruinsof amphitheatre ever built. Constructionthe Pope leads a torchlight Way of theChichenItza,inMexicosYucatan began in 72 BCE, and was completedCrossprocession,thatstartsinthejungle.Thismassivestep-pyramid 7 years later. It held between 50,000area around the Coliseum. dominates the center of the Chichen and 80,000 spectators, and was used . Itza archaeological site and was built for contests by gladiators and publicContinuing our adventure, our nextby the Maya civilization sometime be-spectacles. stop is China and its great wall. Initiallytween the 9th and 12th centuries CE.Althoughpartiallyruinedbecausethis structure was built as a series ofI managed to climb the 91 stairs ofdamagecausedbyearthquakessections across the northern bordersto the top and back down again, but and stone-robbers, the Coliseum is stillofancientChinaasprotection.Thefounditextremelydif cult,asthe an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome. Itwall stretches 8,000 km and it wouldsteps are quite high. Shortly after my Please turn to page 47FOCUS - SEPTEMBER 202145'