Vote for Machu Picchu!

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That is the mantra of Peruvian officials and media outlets urging citizens to cast ballots for the Inca citadel in a global contest naming the ``new’’ Seven Wonders of the World. The competition has generated extraordinary interest and much civic boosterism in Peru, where the Inca site reigns as the biggest tourist draw.

Machu Picchu made the Top 7 among 21 ``finalist’’ sites in results announced last month by the New7Wonders Foundation, the Swiss-based contest sponsor. People can vote online, by phone or text message. Peruvian newspapers are providing voting links in online editions.

Other top-7 vote-getters: the Mayan city of Chichén Itzá in Mexico; the Colosseum in Rome; the Great Wall of China; Petra in Jordan; the Pyramids of Giza; and the Taj Mahal. The statutes of Easter Island, a Chilean territory, fell from the front-runner group.

The seven ``winners’’ are to be announced in Lisbon, Portugal on July 7—or, as the organizers like to say, 07/07/07.

Posted by Patrick J. McDonnell and Andrés D’Alessandro in Buenos Aires