Dead Sea Advances to Final in 'Seven Natural Wonders of the World' Contest
Dead Sea now one of 28 sites vying to be named one of the 'Seven Natural Wonders of the World.'
The Dead Sea has reached the final stage of a competition to be named one of the "Seven Natural Wonders of the World," the contest's organizing body announced Tuesday.
The lowest place in the world will now compete over the coming two years, until 2011, for the votes of about a billion people across the world.
The Dead Sea will be up against 27 other sites, including: the Amazon River, the Galapagos Islands, the Grand Canyon and the Maldives.
Bernard Weber, the founder and president of the competition, praised the supporters of the Dead Sea for their determination and dedication in bringing the site to the final.
The site made an earlier list of 77 candidates two weeks ago, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to support the initiative.
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.
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