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I was surprised Saint Peter's basilica didn't make it. I hear the vatican was hoping for the Cistine Chapel. Mistake. That's a beautiful space but all these buildings in the competition are "monumental". The vatican should have pushed St Peters rather than the cistine chapel. I'm not a big fan of the christ the redeemer sculpture; st peter's is much more significant, monumental and important.

So they were selected by 100 million people voting on the internet. Well that cinches it, it must be right.

The seven man made wonders of the world in order of importance are....Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. That's it. Those on the list are trivial by comparison. The pinacle of achievement of one of the two or three greatest musical minds that ever lived, it is a work of monumental proportions and titanic structure, it is unlikely that anyone will ever come close to equaling it. Being of purely transcendental nature, it is impervious to the ravages of time or the erosion of weather, it will last as long as rational human civilization exists, far far beyond the time when those on the list have turned to dust.

By the way, the only way to experience Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its true form is to hear a great symphony orchestra and chorus perform it live in a great concert hall. The best current technology for recording and reproducing sound we have today cannot even begin to do it justice, the result being the auditory equivalent to a snapshot of the Taj Mahal compared to visiting the real thing.