Socotra among nominations for New Seven Wonders of Nature

Yemen’s Socotra Island ought to be among the new seven natural wonders of the world, said Minister of Tourism Nabil al-Faqih this week. Socotra has been registered in the list of nominees for the New Seven Wonders of Nature. The New Seven Wonders of Nature is a proposed revision of the Seven Wonders of the World, organized by a Swiss-based, for-profit corporation called New Open World Corporation. The same organization just created a new list of man-made wonders.

Yemen hopes to rally support for Socotra’s inclusion in the new list. The island of Socotra has been declared to be among the best natural tourist sites in the world, said al-Faqih. “The Ministry of Tourism has completed the island registration procedures. The registration site is ready and is waiting for the public to visit and start to vote in favor of the island,” he said. An unusual island sprawled in the Indian Ocean, at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, Socotra is 3,625 square kilometers large. It lies about 220 miles from the coast of the Yemeni mainland, and has about 50,000 inhabitants, though no official census exists.  The name of the island is believed to come from Sanskrit dvipa sakhadara, which can be translated to “Island of Bliss.”

Socotra is part of an archipelago, but all the other islands are small. The largest of these are Abdul-Kuri and the al-Ikhwan Islands.  Socotra has been isolated biologically for several million years, and about a third of its plants are unique to the island.  Socotra has 24 endemic reptiles, six endemic types of birds, like the Socotra sparrow, and other creatures, such as centipedes, one sort of dragonfly, land crabs, and 25 types of jumping insects. Socotra has a number of distinct flora species, like myrrh, frankincense and the dragon’s blood tree. The selection process for the new seven natural wonders will be similar to the selection process for the man-made wonders just completed. The New Seven Wonders of the World were announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007. 

The 105-foot-tall (38-meter-tall) “Christ the Redeemer” statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was among the New Seven Wonders of the World announced July 7, following a global poll to decide a new list of human-made marvels. The winners were voted for by Internet and phone, American Idol style. The other six new wonders are the Colosseum in Rome, India’s Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Jordan’s ancient city of Petra, the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, and the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá in Mexico. The first vote is free to registered members and additional votes may be purchased through a payment to NOWC.

In addition to the sale of votes, NOWC relies on private donations, the sale of merchandise such as shirts and cups, and revenue from selling broadcasting rights.   The NOWC organization is now working on the new event, the New Seven Wonders of Nature. Nominations will run through August 8, 2008. Then a panel of experts will create a list of 21 candidates from which voters worldwide will elect the seven wonders of nature.  Nominations must be for a clearly defined natural site or natural monument that was NOT created or significantly altered by humans. Physical or natural phenomena like the northern lights, the Gulf Stream or shooting stars are not eligible.

The nominees must be one of the following: a natural site, a natural monument, or a landscape.   Categories for the new contest include: Animal Reserve, Canyon, Fjord, Cave, Grotto, Coastline, Cliff, Forest, Woo, Geological site, Glacier, Mountain, Volcano, Rocks, Nature Conservancy Park, Oasis , Deserts, Prehistoric, natural site, Underwater World, Reef, Water, Sea, Lake, River, Waterfall, or other.   UNESCO has said that such contests are too subjective, and their results in no way can influence the current official list of the world cultural heritage sites.

Related Content

•  U.S. committee reviews files of a number of the Yemeni detainees, Swartz
•  No bodies found, investigations of Yemenia crashed airbus continue, al-Wazeer
•  (UPDATES) More than 3 million Euros compensation for Yemenia victims
•  Health Ministry declares all cases of swine flu in Yemen cured
•  Houthis threaten sixth war
•  (UPDATES) One survivor found from Yemeni airbus crashed today
•  (UPDATES) One survivor found from Yemeni Airbus crashed in Island of Comoros
•  Yemenia airbus with 153 passengers crashed in Island of Comoros
•  Confusion still prevails in German hostage case
•  Appeals court, death penalty for murderer of Yemeni Jew