Wonders of the World - Old, New and Eternal

Lake Baikal, Peterhof, St Basil's Cathedral, the Valley of Geysers in Kamchatka, the Moscow Kremlin, the Hermitage and St Isaac's Cathedral have all been named as national wonders by Russian voters taking part in a poll conducted by the online hotel booking site Hotels.com. Around 56.5% of those questioned voted for Lake Baikal.

The website Hotels.com and the welcome rewards loyalty program wanted to find out which wonders of the world travellers knew and which sights they would like to see added to the list of the planet's major tourist attractions. More than 2,500 people from 24 countries took part in the survey, with 53.3% of them voting for Peterhof.

The questions were about old and new wonders of the world, as well as more modern objects deemed worthy of being regarded as wonders, on both a local and global scale. The study reflects the knowledge and interests of Russians and the inhabitants of 23 other countries in Europe, Asia and America. 35.4% of respondents voted for St Basil's Cathedral.

32.9% voted for the Valley of Geysers in Kamchatka.

The Moscow Kremlin attracted the votes of 32.5% of respondents.

30.5% voted for the Hermitage.

In seventh place was St Isaac's Cathedral with 29.3%.

The only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing, the Great Pyramid of Giza, has been visited by 16.2% of those questioned from around the world, with 39.1% of respondents from France, 32.5% of those from Russia and 27.8% from India having visited this historic monument.

The Coliseum makes the top three of the most visited of the new wonders of the world on 33.4%…

…The Great Wall of China (17%) (photo) and Chichen Itza (9.4%). The Great Wall of China is most popular among the Asian population: 77.5% of the inhabitants of China, 47.9% of respondents from Hong Kong, 44.4% of the inhabitants of India and 32.5% of survey participants from South Korea have already visited this remarkable sight. About 14.6% of Russian speaking respondents have also been to this famous fortified construction.

Asked about what they would like to see added to the list of wonders of the world, almost one in five users of Hotels.com around the world (19%) thought that the Grand Canyon, which lies in the park of the same name in the U.S. state of Arizona, deserves to be included.

Russian opinion on this question is slightly different: 22.8% of Russian speaking survey participants thought that the list of the wonders of the world should definitely include the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace, a view shared by 12.5% of those questioned from Germany.

However, 20.3% of Russians also agreed that Stonehenge should be included and 21.1% voted for the inclusion of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (photo).