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Wonders of the Ancient World. why not Newgrange?

  • 08-02-2007 11:33am
    #1
    Archeron
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,414 ✭✭✭


    A little question that I've been thinking, I'd love to hear your opinions.

    I've been doing a bit of reading and viewing in relation to the wonders of the ancient world, and the various lists of them that are available. I think the generally accepted list today of the ancient world is the one that was decided upon during the renassiance, and which includes pretty much only wonders from inside the ancient Greek world.

    Admittedly, the wonders in this list are utterly breathtaking, my own personal favourite being the mausoleum at Hallicarnassus, The great pyramid, and the temple of ephesus. No-one could argue that these momuments were not incredible in every conceivable way.

    Others say that the list of ancient wonders should be expanded or amended to include structures from outside the Greek world such as the Great Wall, the Colliseum, the clay army, Stonehenge etc. However, no-one ever seems to make any reference to Newgrange. While I know it is a UNESCO world heritage site, I feel that considering its age, size and the phenomenal precision in its construction, it seems to be overlooked by most people. It has app 200,00 visitors per year, but I would have thought for such a monument that would be much higher.

    On my last visit to Newgrange, I was, as always taken aback at the size of Newgrange and how it was built. I love the way they use artificial light to recreate the effects of the Solstice.

    With the pyramids estimated to be from app 2600BC, and Newgrange reckoned to be up 600 or 700 years older than that, I always thought that Newgrange would figure higher in popularity in the worlds ancient wonders, but its never mentioned. Anyone any idea why? In all my time, I found Newgrange listed only once in a popular book of ancient wonders.

    I think perhaps my own opinion of Newgrange is biased by the fact that I live not too far from it, and would love to see it get more global recognition, but in your opinion, is Newgrange a unique and amazing structure, or is it just another of many such structures around the world, and therefore not worthy of any more exposure than it currently gets?


Comments

  • #2
    mdebets
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,747 ✭✭✭mdebets


    There are different reasons, why Newgrange is not included in any of theses
    list.

    The original list was created by Hellenistic writers, so they only included buildings which were in Hellenistic countries at the time.

    When the renaissance list was compiled, Newgrange wasn't rediscovered, so it couldn't be included.

    In modern lists it is probably not included, because it is not so unique like the others (there are more than one passage tomb) and to spread the monuments a little bit more over the world and not have them all clustered.


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