Egypt fumes over fresh seven wonders competition for pyramids

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2007

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt is fuming over a competition to choose the world's "new seven wonders," deriding it as a marketing stunt that demeans the pyramids of Giza, the only surviving ancient wonder.

"They are the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that still exists, it's ridiculous, they don't need to be put to a vote," Egypt's antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass was quoted as saying in local newspapers.

Culture Minister Faruq Hosni echoed the complaint, describing the project as "absurd" and its creator, Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Bernard Weber, as a man "concerned primarily with self-promotion".

Weber has embarked on a tour of the 21 short-listed sites but got a frosty reception in Egypt.

The hotel function room near the pyramids where Weber...