Amazon, Halong Bay, Puerto Princesa among seven new natural wonders

Nov 12, 2011, 13:30 GMT

Manila - The Amazon rainforest, Vietnam's Halong Bay and the Puerto Princesa underground river in the Philippines have been named among the world's new seven wonders of nature, according to provisional results from a global competition.

The new wonders also include the Iguazu Falls in South America, the Jeju Island in South Korea, the Komodo national park in Indonesia and the Table Mountain in South Africa.

The Geneva-based New7Wonders foundation launched the project four years ago, when it originally received 440 contenders from 220 countries. Experts then made a short-list of 28 finalists.

World citizens were then invited to vote by telephone, text message and online for the 28 finalists, which also included the Dead Sea, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef and the Black Forest.

The final results will be announced in 2012.

The Philippines's presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda welcomed the inclusion of the country's Puerto Princesa underground river among the world's new seven wonders of nature.

'We congratulate everyone, especially the people, who made this all possible,' he said. 'With this, we sincerely hope that the rest of the world will stand up and notice the majesty not just of the underground river but the rest of the Philippines'.

Puerto Princesa is located in the southern province of Palawan. It has an 8.2-kilometre navigable underground river, the world's longest.

The Amazon rainforest, which spreads across seven million square kilometres in nine countries, makes up half of the planet's remaining rainforests and accounts for about one-fifth of the world's river flow.