Candidates for the Eighth Wonder of the World
Natural places
- Burney Falls in California, United States; called so by Theodore Roosevelt [1]
- Deadvlei Clay Pan in Namibia [2]
- Giant's Causeway in County Antrim, Northern Ireland [3]
- Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada [4]
- Grand Canyon in Arizona, United States [5]
- Milford Sound in New Zealand; called so by Rudyard Kipling [6]
- Natural Tunnel, Virginia, United States, so dubbed by William Jennings Bryan [7]
- Niagara Falls, between the province of Ontario, Canada and the state of New York, United States. [8]
- Pink and White Terraces in New Zealand, prior to their disappearance following the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera. [9]
- Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia, with a series of tufa lakes that are connected by waterfalls, along with very deep caves. [10]
- Torres del Paine National Park, Chile. [11] [12]
- The great wildebeest migration in the Maasai Mara, Kenya and Serengeti, Tanzania [13]
Pre-1900 creations
- Amber Room in the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg, Russia [14]
- Angkor Wat, Cambodia [15]
- Banaue Rice Terraces, Philippines [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]
- Borobudur, in Magelang, Indonesia [22]
- The Citadelle Laferrière, Haiti [23]
- The Eads Bridge, St. Louis, Missouri, United States [24]
- The Erie Canal, New York, United States. [25]
- Monastery of El Escorial, Spain. [26]
- The First transcontinental railroad [27]
- The Forth Railway Bridge in Scotland [28]
- Great Wall of China, China [29]
- The original 1882 Kinzua Viaduct (railway bridge) in Pennsylvania, United States.
- The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy
- Machu Picchu, Peru [30]
- The moai statues of Easter Island, Chile [31]
- Newgrange, Ireland [32]
- The Obelisk of Axum, Ethiopia [33]
- The Polhem dry dock, Karlskrona, Sweden [34]
- The rock-hewn churches at Lalibela, Ethiopia [35] (Church of Saint George, Lalibela)
- Royal Palace in Amsterdam, Netherlands [36]
- Sigiriya, Sri Lanka [37] [38] [39]
- Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World), New York Harbor, United States [40]
- Stonehenge, England [41]
- The Taj Mahal, India [42] [43]
- Chapel of the Rosario, Puebla City, Mexico [44]
- The Terracotta Army, China [45]
- The original rail-only Victoria Bridge (Montreal), Canada. [46]
- Thames Tunnel, London, United Kingdom [47]
Post-1900 creations
- Aswan Dam in Egypt, called as such by Nikita Khrushchev [48]
- Bahá'í terraces, on Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel. [49]
- Delta Works, the Dutch provinces of Zeeland and South Holland, the Netherlands. The Delta Works has been called one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by Quest magazine and the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by several other sources. [50]
- Empire State Building, New York City, United States. [51] [52]
- George Washington Bridge, New York City, United States [53]
- Great Manmade River in Libya; given the title by Muammar Gaddafi. [54]
- Grotto of the Redemption, West Bend, Iowa [55]
- Hibernia Oil Platform, Newfoundland, Canada [56]
- Hoover Dam, Nevada, United States [57]
- Houston Astrodome, Texas, United States [58]
- Karakoram Highway connecting Pakistan and China. [59] Highest international highway in the world.
- Palm Islands of Dubai [60]
- Panama Canal, Panama [61]
- Pikeville Cut-Through in Pikeville, Kentucky, United States; given the title by The New York Times . [62] [63] [64]
- Queensway Tunnel, Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom [65]
- Rogers Centre, originally named SkyDome, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada [66]
- Statue of Unity , Kevadia, India, given the title by Shanghai Cooperation Organization. [67] [68]
- Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia; [69] the story of its construction was recounted in the opera The Eighth Wonder
- Thames Barrier, London, United Kingdom [70]
- Three Gorges Dam in Hubei, China [71]
- West Baden Springs Hotel in West Baden Springs, Orange County, Indiana, United States. [72]
- Leichhardt Oval, Lilyfield, New South Wales, Australia - Ground of the West Tigers and West Tigers Women NRL teams. [73]
In fiction
- King Kong, a fictional giant movie monster resembling a colossal gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. His captor promotes public exhibitions of the caged Kong with the tagline: "Eighth Wonder of the World". [74]
- Similarly, Gorgo, a fictional 65-foot tall dinosaur-like creature captured off the coast of the fictitious Irish isle of Nara Island from the British kaiju film of the same name is promoted as the "8th Wonder of the World" while on display at a circus in London. [75]