On February 8, 2022, the unveilings of the Wonder Markers continued. The Wonder Marker in honour of the Colombian portion of the Amazon rainforest and river was revealed at the Colombian pavilion. The Wonder Marker clearly states the distance between the pavilion and the largest rainforest in the world. “Colombia has a special position within the Amazon,” New7Wonders Director Jean-Paul de la Fuente comments. “It features both the Amazon forest on its territory and the Amazon river on its border. It is therefore touched by the planet’s largest forest known as the lungs of the world, as well as the longest river in the world. And from today onwards, it is symbolically touched, from thousands of kilometres away, by the Wonder Marker connecting the historic World Expo in Dubai all the way to the Amazon itself.”
Similarly, the Jordan pavilion played host to the unveiling of the Wonder Marker in honour of Petra, the country’s New 7 Wonder of the World, which dates back to around 300 B.C. The President of New7Wonders Bernard Weber expressed his joy at the unveiling of the Wonder Markers as a “great symbols of unity that respect and celebrate the cultural and natural diversity on our planet. At Expo 2020 in Dubai, where a great number of nations come together, the unveiling of the Wonder Markers connects the heart of Expo directly with all the Wonders across our world.”
In the evening, a dinner inspired by the Amazon rainforest and river was held at the Peru pavilion, where guests were able to enjoy mouth-watering food while also witnessing the unveiling of the Wonder Marker in honour of the Amazon, one of the New 7 Wonders of the Nature.
As the events of the day drew to a close, the New7Wonders President Bernard Weber drew everybody’s attention to the fact that we need nature in order to survive and that it is essential that we give it the respect that it deserves: “The diversity of nature of course is not only perceived with sites of great natural beauty and significance but certainly also includes our diverse culinary traditions, and for those who have forgotten, we still are part of nature and feed from it.” This co-reliance and the acknowledgement of mankind’s role as part of a natural system rather than master of it felt like a fitting close to a meal inspired by the lungs of the Earth, this planet’s life-support system, which should be treasured not only for its beauty, but also for its undeniably important function.