www.southafrica.info...hy/tablemountain.htm

Table Mountain is one of 28 finalists in the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition, in which the world's top natural sites are being whittled down to seven winners in an exercise in global democracy that is expected to draw over a billion participants.

In 2007, the New7Wonders Foundation, a Zurich-based non-profit organisation, announced the New 7 (man-made) Wonders of the World after more than 100-million votes were cast via the internet in "the first-ever worldwide election".

Its follow-up campaign, to choose the "Big Seven" of the natural world, entered its final stage on 21 July 2009, when a panel of experts led by former Unesco director-general Federico Mayor announced the 28 finalists in Zurich, Switzerland.

The panel made its selection from a list of 77 nominees that were chosen, from a list of 261 national and cross-national representative sites, by people around the world in internet voting.

The final, two-year round of voting to choose the New 7 Wonders of Nature, runs through 2010 and into 2011.

* Cast your vote online here
* Latest ranking
* Some reasons to vote for Table Mountain

Voting by SMS

Anyone can vote online (follow the link above), as well as via SMS, for the 7 Wonders of their choice.

South Africans can vote by SMS for Table Mountain in six of the country's 11 official languages, as follows:

* English: send TABLE to 34874
* Zulu: send ITAFULA to 34874
* Xhosa: send ITAFILE to 34874
* Afrikaans: send TAFEL to 34874
* Sesotho: send TAFOLE to 34874
* Tswana: send TAFOLE to 34874

SMS's cost R2.00 each, and can be sent on all mobile networks in South Africa.

South African Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the first person to use the SMS voting mechanism to vote for Table Mountain, urged South Africans to follow his example, saying it gave the country "the opportunity to be written into the history books for thousands of years to come".

Only two African candidates

"Congratulations to the supporters of Table Mountain from around the world for their passionate, inspiring work in bringing them up from over 440 participants into this elite finalist group of just 28," New7Wonders founder Bernard Weber said when the shortlist was announced.

"We look forward to an exciting and record-breaking final race, with the whole world coming together to choose the official New 7 Wonders of Nature, seven locations that will become part of global memory for ever."

Only one other African site – Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro – made the list of finalists, which include some of the world's most spectacular mountains, canyons, lakes, waterfalls, ocean reefs and a myriad other natural attractions.

These range from the extremely famous – the Grand Canyon in the USA, the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador, the Amazon Rainforest spanning nine South American countries – to relatively lesser-known sites such as the Mud Volcanoes of Azerbaijan and the Puerto Princesa Underground River in the Philippines.

The 28 finalists

* Amazon
* Angel Falls, Venezuela
* Bay of Fundy, Canada
* Black Forest, Germany
* Bu Tinah Island, United Arab Emirates
* Cliffs of Moher, Ireland
* Dead Sea (Israel, Jordan and Palestine)
* El Yunque, Puerto Rico
* Galapagos, Ecuador
* Grand Canyon, USA
* Great Barrier Reef (Australia and Papua New Guinea)
* Halong Bay, Vietnam
* Iguazu Falls (Argentina and Brazil)
* Jeita Grotto, Lebanon
* Jeju Island, South Korea
* Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
* Komodo, Indonesia
* Maldives Islands
* Masurian Lake District, Poland
* Matterhorn/Cervino (Italy and Switzerland)
* Milford Sound, New Zealand
* Mud Volcanoes, Azerbaijan
* Puerto Princesa Underground River, Philippines
* Sundarbans (Bangladesh and India)
* Table Mountain, South Africa
* Uluru, Australia
* Vesuvius, Italy
* Yushan, Chinese Taipei

Man-made Wonders

The New 7 (man-made) Wonders of the World, announced in 2007, are the Colosseum in Italy; the Great Wall of China; India's Taj Mahal; Jordan's Petra; Brazil's Christ the Redeemer Statue; Machu Picchu in Peru; and the Pyramid at Chichen Itza in Mexico.

A number of similar lists have been compiled over the ages, the best known being the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the first known list of the most remarkable man-made creations of classical antiquity – of which only the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is still in existence.

* See Wikipedia: Wonders of the World

Some reasons to vote for Table Mountain

# Whichever way you look at it, Table Mountain is simply stunning. If you don't believe us, take a look at the 20 000-plus photos on Flickr: Table Mountain.

# Table Mountain forms part of Table Mountain National Park, one of few conservation areas in the world that is entirely surrounded by a city.

# Table Mountain forms part of the Cape Floral Region, a Unesco World Heritage Site that is one of the richest areas for plants in the world. Table Mountain National Park has more plant species within its 25 000 hectares than the whole British Isles or New Zealand.

# For visitors, the trip up the Table Mountain Cableway to the plateau one kilometre above Cape Town is not to be missed. To the north you've got views overlooking the city, Table Bay and Robben Island, and to the west and south you're looking out on the Atlantic seaboard. Yes, there are panoramas in the world to beat this, but they're strictly reserved for high-end rock climbers.

# Speaking of rock climbers – and hikers, paragliders and casual adrenaline junkies (check out the world's highest commercial abseil) – Table Mountain offers an amazing yet accessible fix.

# Table Mountain, Wikipedia notes, is the only terrestrial feature to give its name to a constellation. The constellation Mensa – meaning The Table – is seen in the Southern Hemisphere, below Orion, around midnight in mid-July. According to Wikipedia, it was named by the French astronomer Nicolas de Lacaille during his stay at the Cape in the mid-eighteenth century.

SAinfo reporter