Criteria for Candidacy & Rules

TIME SPAN

The Official New 7 Wonders of the World cover the whole span of human history, from the earliest time that Man began to make his mark upon the Earth, to the year 2000 A.D.

SRUCTURE QUALITY

All monuments and buildings must have been human-built and in an acceptable state of preservation. “Human built” means that people must have been involved in the fashioning of the monument or building. All candidates for The Official New 7 Wonders had to have been in a sufficient state of preservation that the originators’ vision could still be perceived without artificial aids – ruins, however well tended or reconstructed with visual aids, could not be nominated.

GEOGRAPHIC DIMENSION

Monuments and buildings from all countries and continents in the whole world were eligible and invited to be nominated. However, only 21 Candidates from 21 countries were selected as Finalists (see Authority entry below) to be brought to vote. (Only 1 Finalist Candidate was allowed per country).

ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL VALUE

Monuments and buildings had to have artistic or architectural value. Purely technological wonders, whose sole purpose is the application or use of technology, and untouched natural wonders which have had no human intervention, will be included in future projects of New7Wonders.

RECOGNITION FACTOR

All of the nominated monuments and buildings were universally recognizable.

DIVERSITY

Monuments and buildings reflected and celebrated the cultural and social diversity of the peoples of the world.

AUTHORITY

An Expert Panel, chaired by Prof. Dr. Federico Mayor Zargoza, anonymously rendered a list of 21 Finalists on January 1, 2006 from the original list of 77 candidates. Dr. Mayor, former Director-General of UNESCO, built a consensus from panelists’ recommendations and input from the following prominent architects: Cesar Pelli, Harry Seidler, Zara Hadid, Tadao Ando, Yung Ho Chang and Aziz Tayob.