The list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was originally compiled around the second century BC but not finalised until the Middle Ages.

Even by then most of the structures were long gone, and ever since poets, writers and historians have nominated “replacements”, some proposing more recent construction, others arguing for recognition for those absent from the original seven, like the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Temple of Angkor.

No single list has earned unanimous approval among historians, artists and architects. Here is an alphabetical listing of some Forgotten, Modern and Natural Wonders, from the University of San Francisco.

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The Great Wall of China barely shows up at all on current imagery at Google Earth that a debate’s been going on for a while as to exactly where it is.

The structure, also known in China as the Great Wall of 10,000 Li’, was built from the end of the 15th century until the beginning of the 16th, during the Ming Dynasty, in order to protect China from raids by the Mongols and Turkic tribes. It was preceded by several walls built since the third century BC.

The Wall stretches over 6,700 kilometres (4,200 miles), from Shanhai Pass on the Bohai Gulf in the east, at the limit between China proper and Manchuria, to Jiayu Pass in western Gansu province in the west, at the limit of the Gobi Desert and the oases of the Silk Road.

The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala after a failed uprising in 1959. Today it’s a state museum, a popular tourist attraction and a Unesco World Heritage site.

The palace, with its vast inward-sloping walls broken only in the upper parts by straight rows of many windows, and its flat roofs at various levels, is like a fortress in appearance.

A series of tolerably easy staircases, broken by intervals of gentle ascent, leads to the summit of the rock. There is in the central hall much rich decorative painting, with jewelled work, carving and other ornament.

Unfortunately nearly invisible on GE, the Taj Mahal has been meticulously built in 3D on the right spot in Agra, India, by a forum member.

The Taj Mahal was commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, the son of Jahangir, as a mausoleum for his Persian wife, Arjumand Banu Begum. It took 23 years to complete, from 1630 to 1653.

Rome’s Colosseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheater, was capable of seating 50,000 spectators for gladiatorial combat.

Its construction began under the Emperor Vespasian in 72 AD and was completed by his son, Domitian, in the 80s. It was built at the site of Nero’s enormous palace, the Domus Aurea, which had been built after the great fire of Rome in 64.

Dio Cassius said 9,000 wild animals were killed in the 100 days of celebration which inaugurated the amphitheatre opening. The Colosseum’s name was derived from a 130-foot-tall statue of Nero nearby. This statue was later remodeled by Nero’s successors into the likeness of Sol, the sun god, by adding the appropriate solar crown.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or bell tower, of Pisa’s cathedral. It began leaning soon after construction started in 1173. The height is 55 metres, the weight an estimated 14,500 tonnes. The current inclination is about 10 per cent. There are 296 steps.

Another poor satellite image has been improved with a better photo overlay in the Google Earth database.

The Moai (pronounced MO-eye) are the stone statues on Easter Island. The more than 600 known moai are distributed around the entire island, most carved out of the rock at Rano Raraku, where nearly 400 more moai remain in various stages of completion.

The quarry there seems to have been abandoned abruptly, with half-carved statues left in the rock. Practically all of the completed moai were subsequently toppled by native islanders in the period after construction ceased.

Although usually identified as “heads”, many of the moai have shoulders, arms and torsos, which have become buried over the years. Their meaning remains unclear.

El Castillo, or Chichen Itza, is the most impressive and intact ruins of Mayan civilisation.

This popular tourist attraction is located on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and has fast become the best restored record of the spiritual, domestic and agricultural lives of these people.

Mayan ruins in central America like Chichen Itza are remnants of cities that were abandoned long before Columbus reached the area, yet this culture influenced areas of architecture, art and astronomy.

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Some also-rans, still running:

The Abu Simbel Temple in Egypt (a rotten view on GE)

Angkor Wat in Cambodia

The Aztec Temple in Tenochtitlan, as Mexico City used to be known *shown here, Temple Mayor)

The Banaue Rice Terraces in the Philippines

Borobudur Temple in Indonesia

The Inca city of Machu Picchu, Peru

The Mayan Temples of Tikal in northern Guatemala

Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France, also pictured at the top of this post

The Throne Hall of Persepolis in Iran

The Parthenon in Athens, Greece, seen here in both the GE satellite view and a forum member’s model

Petra, the rock-carved city in Jordan

The Shwedagon Pagoda in Burma

Stonehenge in England; see also Mediaeval Wonders of the World

The Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque, Mexico

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If you’re still wondering:

* Ancient Wonders
* Mediaeval Wonders
* Natural Wonders
* Underwater Wonders
* Modern Wonders
* Endangered Wonders
* “New” Wonders