April 30th, 2012
When we recently ran a story about the Taj Mahal that seems to be slowly sinking, we decided to find out which of the world's famous man-made wonders our readers would most like to see.
So, we ran a poll at the bottom of the story asking our readers which of a wide selection of iconic buildings, statues and landmarks in a variety of countries are on top of their travel bucket lists.
The results were not altogether surprising, but rather fascinating nonetheless, as iconic places of the third world outshone their counterparts in the first by far.
See for yourself:
Right at the bottom of the log, with a measly 2% Big Ben *ahem* clocked in. And though they managed to garner 3% more than this London icon, the Statue of Liberty in New York and Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa were tied in the second last position on the list with only 5%.
Now, this could either mean that interest in expensive first world destinations has been steadily waning over the past few financially rigorous years... or possibly, that these places have long since been ticked off our readers' illusive travel bucket lists already.
Rome's classic Pantheon and our very own quaint Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda were one rung up with 6 %.
Paris' Eiffel Tower and the Angkor Wat Temple Complex in Cambodia provided another odd combination at 7% each.
After this, there's quite a big jump to a full 11% for Christ the Redeemer looking out over Rio De Janeiro from the top of Corcovado Mountain.
And now for the top two spots:
In second position, we have the oh-so-romantic, picturesque and sadly sinking (say it aint so!) Taj Mahal with a whopping 23% of our readers' votes. Whether it's the fact that people want to see it before the stately tribute to love is nothing more than a domed roof sticking out of the mud, or just because it's a desired destination, we don't know. But does it really matter?
Finally, with 27% of the votes, in first position, the most ancient of them all: Egypt's Pyramid's of Giza and the Sphinx.
So, there you have it folks. Just proving once again that - when it comes to travel - oldies are often goodies. Yup, they really don't make things like they used to, do they?
- Now, try our Man-Made icons quiz.
