'How could you leave out…?'

In a search for the 8th Wonders, our readers give us the stars

November 28, 2004

The Eighth Wonder of the World is in Bartlett, Ill.

Or it would have been if our recent challenge to readers to pick their Eighth Wonders had been a contest.

But it wasn't.

Earlier this fall when we wrapped up our Wonders of the World series, we invited you to give us your Eighth Wonder in each of the three categories: Wonders of Man, Wonders of Nature and Wonders of Man-and-Nature.

Though we promised to hand out "something nice" to one of you who took the time to respond (see below), this wasn't a contest or poll in which we tabulated "votes" so we could declare a "winner."

Rather, after telling you for the last decade what we at the Chicago Tribune thought the Wonders were, it was your chance to tell us what Wonders we'd missed. And you did.

Borobodur. Iguazu Falls. The Badlands. Yellowstone National Park. Michelangelo's David. The Acropolis. The Marianas Trench.

The Marianas Trench?

You had your picks and your reasons.

Some of you didn't follow the rules. You gave us not just Eighth Wonders, but Ninths and Tenths too. You told us which of our Seven Wonders weren't yours. Or your own lists of Sevens.

But since this wasn't a contest, who cares?

Well, maybe whoever spread the word on the Internet that we were taking a poll or holding an election on this. That's how we got some 1,000 "entries" nominating BAPS Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, a Hindu temple in Bartlett. We're sure it's a very nice place, but . . . .

What follows are dozens of responses that weren't part of any campaign that we could detect. Though we didn't have space for everyone, we trimmed and tightened some of your letters to make room for as many as we could. (For the Tribune's lists of Seven Wonders in each category, see Page X.)

And a special thanks to everyone who's followed along during this series and this follow-up. You've been Wonderful.

[Nature] Arches and Canyonlands National Parks—both near Moab, Utah. Arches is filled with orange slickrock and great hiking trails that allow you to climb on the rock while viewing spectacular arches of all sizes. Canyonlands looks like the set of every Western you've ever seen; it's filled with canyons, arches and buttes of the most beautiful colors nature can offer.

—Alexandra Kaplin, Palatine

[Man-and-Nature] The Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China. These caves were carved out of the mountain by Buddhist monks starting in the 4th Century. Over 2,000 statues and 484,000 square feet of mural paintings decorate the hundreds of individual caves.

—Joan C. West, Glenview