Mountain Kilimanjaro has finally entered into the top 10 list in the land features category as Africa’s highest peak races to become one of the new “Seven Wonders” of the world, the local Sundaynews reported on Sunday.
Kilimanjaro has experienced a jump start from the previous 32nd position to the eighth in the category rankings, after Tanzania finally signed endorsement contract forms, announced Tia Viering, information officer for the New Seven Wonders organization.
Africa’s highest peak almost missed out when Tanzania had previously failed to sign contract forms sent from the New Seven Wonders organization with the deadline of July 7, 2009, according to the report.
The mountain is now well positioned to fight for a spot among the Top 77 nominees in the global campaign to choose the official New Seven Wonders of Nature. The race includes over 260 locations to compete to become one of the eligible for finalist selection, it added.
In Africa, the Capetown based-Table Mountain of South Africa leads at No. 7 in the land features category, while the Sahara desert leads in the world under another category of landscapes, according to the report.
Seven wonders are normally voted by people and over 226 million people have been mobilized to vote for this new list. The first New7Wonders campaign chose the man-made Official New 7 Wonders of the world with more than 100 million votes in the world’s first- ever global vote in 2006 via Internet, SMS text messages and telephone. The result was officially announced in July 2007 in Portugal.
The winners and participants have recorded increased tourism and economic benefits with a 70 percent rise in some cases.