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Last update - 14:59 25/08/2009
Dead Sea reaches finals in vote on world's 7 natural wonders
By Reuters and Haaretz Service
Tags: Israel News, Dead Sea 

The Dead Sea is among 14 finalists in a global Internet poll to choose the seven wonders of the natural world, organizers said on Tuesday.

The salty lake at the lowest point in the world is in the running for a place alongside spectacular natural phenomena such as the Amazon River, the Galapagos Islands, the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef.

Other contenders include Venezuela's Angel Falls, Canada's Bay of Fundy, the Maldives islands, Italy's Vesuvius volcano, Halong Bay in Vietnam, Iguazu Falls on the border between Brazil and Argentina, Lebanon's Jeita Grotto, Indonesia's Komodo national park and the Puerto Princesa underground river in the Philippines.
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The Dead Sea is shared by Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. It was almost eliminated from the contest earlier this year when the Palestinian Authority threatened a boycott over the participation of an Israeli settler council.

But a last-minute compromise allowed the candidacy to proceed to the next stage. Final results are due in 2011, by which time the organizers expect one billion people will have voted online.

Over 100 million people participated in choosing the seven new, man-made wonders of the world announced in July 2007. Winning the title nearly tripled tourist visits to Jordan's ancient ruins of Petra, to the east of the Dead Sea.

The New 7 Wonders of Nature is a global Internet contest under the slogan: "If we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it." In 2007 it chose the new seven man-made wonders of the world.

For the Dead Sea, a win would highlight the environmental threat to a unique lake which has shrunk dramatically in the past 30 years due to human exploitation of the Jordan River feed waters and Dead Sea mineral extraction.

Voting is being conducted at www.new7wonders.com.

Related articles:
  • Dead Sea advances to final in 'Seven Natural Wonders of the World' contest
  • Palestinians backtrack, support Dead Sea for '7 wonders'
  • Palestinian boycott keeps Dead Sea off '7 wonders' list

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