Photo: Terry Shean

Table Mountain has made it into the final round of the New 7 Wonders of Nature contest, beating the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Azure Window in Malta and the Rock of Aphrodite in Cyprus for a hot place on the shortlist.

The list of the world’s top 28 natural wonders were announced this week by the New7Wonders Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland.

The short list includes such heavyweight spectacles as the Amazon, the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the Grand Canyon, the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, the Great Barrier Reef, Vietnam’s Halong Bay and the smoking volcano of Vesuvius.

The New7Wonders of Nature bid began in 2007 following a successful campaign to elect the man-made Official New 7 Wonders of the World in which over 100 million votes were cast.

From an initial selection of 440 sites in 220 countries, the choice has been whittled down to a shortlist of 77 sites and then subsequently to an official finalist candidate list of 28 sites.

Now it’s down to the voters who will cast an estimated 1 billion votes to choose the official New7Wonders of Nature. The final votes will be counted in 2011.

Democracy rules! So, does Table Mountain deserve this honour? Comments, please …

You can find out more about the New 7 Wonders of the world – or vote – here.

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