Taj Mahal in new 7 wonders candidate list

India's Taj Mahal, China's Great Wall, the Stonehenge monoliths in England and the desert city of Petra in Jordan are among 21 candidate sites to be named the new seven wonders of the world, organisers said Tuesday.

Other major world landmarks on the list include the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Rome's Colosseum and Sydney Opera House, said the Zurich-based New 7 Wonders of the World campaign.

Only one of the classical Seven Wonders of the World - the Pyramids of Giza, near Cairo - survives and is also on the candidate list of new wonders.

Voting to pick seven names from those 21 began on the Internet Sunday and will continue through 2006, the organisers said. The winners will be announced January 1, 2007.

The New 7 Wonders of the World campaign - which was founded in 2001 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber -assembled a panel of architectural experts to narrow the competition down to the final 21 shortlisted sites.

Half of the revenue raised by the campaign will be put toward restoration efforts, for example on the Bamiyan Buddha statue in Afghanistan, which was destroyed by the Taliban regime.

The list of candidate sites include: Taj Mahal (India), Acropolis (Greece), Alhambra (Spain), Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Chichen Itza (Mexico), Christ Redeemer (Brazil), Colosseum (Italy), Easter Isand statues (Chile), Eiffel Tower (France), Great Wall of China, Hagia Sophia (Turkey), Kyomizu Temple (Japan), Kremlin (Russia), Machu Picchu (Peru), Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany), Petra (Jordan), Pyramids of Giza (Egypt), Statue of Liberty (US), Stonehenge (England), Sydney Opera House (Australia) and Timbuktu (Mali).