<p><strong>Water cascades down <a href="http://www.new7wonders.com/archives/wonder/iguaza-falls">Iguazú Falls</a> on the border between <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/brazil-guide/?source=newstravel_travel">Brazil</a> and <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/argentina-guide/">Argentina</a> in <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/continents/south-america/?source=newstravel_travel">South America</a>. The crescent-shaped waterfalls are one of the provisional winners of a controversial global contest that allowed people to vote, American Idol style, by Internet and phone to choose the <a href="http://www.new7wonders.com/">seven natural wonders of the world</a>.</strong></p><p>A total of 220 countries paid a registration fee of U.S. $199 in 2007 to enter 440 candidate sites in the latest <a href="http://www.new7wonders.com/">New7Wonders campaign—</a>the brainchild of Swiss filmmaker and museum curator <a href="http://world.n7w.com/about-n7w/the-founder/">Bernard Weber</a>.</p><p>The hundreds of candidate sites were <a href="http://www.new7wonders.com/28-finalists">whittled down to 28</a> by a New7Wonders panel led by a former head of UNESCO. The winners were chosen in a global public vote that ended November 11.</p><p>"We congratulate each of these participants on achieving the New 7 Wonders of Nature status and look forward to completing the confirmation process to celebrate each one in their own official inauguration ceremonies in early 2012," Weber said in a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsayRzDWcfI">video posted online</a> to announce the winners.</p><p><a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/members/robertreid">Robert Reid</a>, the U.S. travel editor for <a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/">Lonely Planet travel guides</a>, said Iguazú Falls is widely considered to be one of the great falls of the world. "It's like Niagara Falls plus the Taj Mahal," he said.</p><p>(Related: <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/argentina-photos/#/brazil-towards-argentina_6605_600x450.jpg?source=newstravel_travel">See Argentina pictures</a> and <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/brazil-photos/#/brazil-towards-argentina_6636_600x450.jpg?source=newstravel_travel">Brazil pictures</a>)</p><p>The site's grandeur may have as much to do with sound as with vision. "Last year I was talking to <a href="http://www.tonythetraveller.com/">Tony Giles</a>, a blind traveler who's been all around the world," Reid said, "and he said you just go there and it sounds like a symphony."</p><p>The New 7 Wonders of Nature contest is the second such contest organized by the New7Wonders Foundation. In 2001, it orchestrated a similar vote for the <a href="http://world.n7w.com/new-7-wonders/lisbon-on-07-07-2007/">man-made </a><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/07/photogalleries/seven-wonders/">New 7 Wonders of the World (pictures)</a>. Winners were announced in 2007.</p><p>"When the New 7 Wonders of Nature are confirmed, they will join the man-made New 7 Wonders of the World as being part of [the] global memory of humankind forever," Weber said.</p><p><em>—Ker Than</em></p>