The Colosseum in Rome is among the 21 finalists in a contest to choose today's Seven Wonders of the World.
The initiative is the brainchild of Swiss filmmaker and adventurer Bernard Weber, who says he will use some of the proceeds from his contest to help pay to restore the Bamiyan Buddhas, which were blasted to pieces by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in March 2001.
The winners will be announced in a gala event staged at the Benfica soccer stadium here on July 7, which can also be written as 07-07-07 to highlight the 'magic' number 7.
The bash is expected to cost 12 million dollars and include performances by a slew of entertainers including tenor Jose' Carreras, dancer Joaquin Cortes, fado singer Dulce Pontes and Italian tenor Alessandro Safina.
The 90-minute event will be broadcast by some 160 TV channels worldwide.
A total of 50,000 tickets will be sold to the public at prices ranging from 55 euros to 140 euros.
Voting has already begun for the final seven through 21 venues, most of them websites, and almost 50 million have already been received.
Other candidates include such landmarks as the Acropolis in Athens, the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, China's Great Wall, the Machu Pichu Inca ruins of Peru, India's Taj Mahal, New York's Statue of Liberty, the 'Mad' Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle in Baveria, the Sydney Opera house and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt.
The Pyramids are the only site which was also one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one which still stands.
