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MADURAI, INDIA, December 20, 2004: Swedish adventurer Weber’s global voting for the new seven wonders of the world has kicked off an aggressive campaign in favour of the world famous Meenakshi temple in Tamil Nadu. If the present voting pattern continues, India may have two new world wonders to its credit. The people of Madurai are determined to see their favorite Meenakshi temple as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Hoteliers and traders provide the public free internet and ISD facility to cast their votes online. While the worthy top 21 nominations alone will be short-listed for the final selection, already this temple has risen to the twenty-sixth position in the total voting, with .34%. The Taj Mahal is listed third in the total voting, with 7.5%. The leader is the Wall of China with 11.08%, followed by Potala Palace in Tibet with 8.58%. “The very fact that last week’s voting pattern seems to be favouring the Meenakshi temple over all the others including the Taj Mahal, I am fully confident that it will become one of the seven world wonders in the year 2006,” said Dr Vasudevan, Director, Pandian Hotel. Although this attempt by Weber is based on popular perception, if elected, experts say the temple will attract a huge number of foreign tourists to India and develop a new tourist circuit in the south. And many believe this will help in the conservation of this ancient architectural splendor. “It will keep the monument for the coming generation. Everybody’s attention will be there. It’ll be nicely preserved and I feel that will do a lot of good,” said Ravi Khandige, General Manager, Taj Garden Retreat. While any seven people can propose a building for the list, already more than twenty from India are in the race. In the votes cast last week, the Meenakshi Temple came in second, next only to the Taj Mahal. A sustained campaign can certainly take these two to the final seven.



The New Seven Wonders project, here, is a private effort to identify important historical creations for the purpose of helping preserve them for future generations.



A large number of places in India are on the list, including Arunachaleshwara Temple, Brihadeshwara Temple, Golden Temple in Amritsar, Saint Thiruvalluvar Statue, Mahabalipuram, Tanjore (actually the same as Brihadeshwara), Ajanta and more.

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