Beirut selected as one of the top 7 urban cities on planet

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Beirut was among seven cities selected as a "New7Wonders" city, beating out more than 1,000 competitors, the organization’s chief announced Sunday.
Beirut was among seven cities selected as a “New7Wonders” city, beating out more than 1,000 competitors, the organization’s chief announced Sunday.
Beirut was selected from over 1,200 cities across the globe as one of seven “New7Wonders”, the organization’s chief announced Sunday. From glowing skylines to a city perched 12,000 feet in the air, these cities are among the seven most incredible urban hubs in the world. In addition to Beirut, Lebanon, the remaining seven are Doha, Qatar; Durban, South Africa; Havana, Cuba; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; La Paz, Bolivia; and Vigan, Philippines.

The honor comes courtesy of the New7Wonders Cities – an initiative to identify the top urban centers on Earth – and follows the campaign to find the seven modern wonders of the world as well as the seven natural wonders.

Created by Swiss-born filmmaker, Bernard Weber, the campaign hopes to encourage debate about how cities to respond to challenges of the future.

The campaign passed through several rounds of voting before reaching the election of the top seven cities. Of the 1,200, voters qualified 300 for the second round, before being shortlisted to 77 in the third.

Then a “panel of experts,” which included architects and urbanism scholars, chose 28 to pass through three shortlisting votes before the seven were decided on.

Individuals voted using the organization’s website, a special mobile phone app, by calling in, and sending SMS.

Beirut was destroyed and rebuilt 7 times. The 1st law school in the world was built in Beirut, Lebanon in 239 A.D. by the Roman Empire.
Beirut was destroyed and rebuilt 7 times. The 1st law school in the world was built in Beirut, Lebanon in 239 A.D. by the Roman Empire.
Weber hoped that the voting process, from which 28 cities were whittled down to 7 finalists, would create a ‘forum for discussing everything from urban planning to metropolitan governance, from tourism to architecture.’

This is the third time Weber has set out to find the seven ‘best.’

In 2007, he received over 100 million votes when he asked which seven world wonders were the greatest.

In 2011, he began the hunt for the best natural wonders.

Voting for final seven cities first began in October 2013, when 28 finalists were voted down to 21.

From July 2014 until October 2014, the 21 were further reduced to 14 – with the final 7 announced on December 7, 2014 in Dubai.

Weber recorded a video to announce the winners (see embedded video below), naming the top seven cities in alphabetic order.

‘We began with more than 1200 nominees from 220 different countries and here have seven cities that represent the global diversity of urban society,’ Weber said.

‘For the first time in human history, more than half of our planet’s population lives in cities and this election emphasizes the dramatically challenging character of our changing world.’

The Daily Mail

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12 responses to “Beirut selected as one of the top 7 urban cities on planet”

  1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
    nagy_michael2

    Imagine if we didn’t have to deal with Assad, Iran, hezbollah and ISIS we could be number 1..

  2. Drug Dealer Avatar
    Drug Dealer

    Imagine if there was electricity? Imagine if the country had real leaders that worked for Lebanon? I guess we can do a lot of imagining Lebanon.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      One wonders how long a cameraman had to stand and wait for the lights to come on for that picture.
      Too bad it doesn’t show the blackness of the second-biggest city over the horizon.
      But yes, everything is about Beirut, isn’t it? All the politicians ramble there. First dibs on the power go to it.
      Must keep up ‘The Show’, after all. Seems they put on a good one.
      But I think all that ‘street lighting’ is from car headlights over a one-hour time-lapse at midnight.

      1. 7thDrawer Avatar

        Thank you Jesus for inventing for tri-pods!

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar

          hohohohohoho …
          (emulation .. the sincerest form of flattery …)

          1. You really lost it, You think You can fool people with Your split personality? You are the plus ultra of ridicule, HONESTLY!

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Ya Yeux … And I’m sure you saw the discussion of 7’s … which was weird … and now there’s 7 cities AND 7 drawers too. Amazing. Is this ‘Prophetic’ or just coincidence?
            Get Wargame on this … quick. :-))))

            (I’m sure it’s good to be the ‘plus ultra’ of something … hmmm … I will take it under advisement )

  3. arzatna1 Avatar

    We are not allowed to imagine any longer in Lebanon. All we are allowed to think of is which came first Hezbollah or ISIS . Even though we all know the answer we are not allowed to say it . This is happening in a country where the world’s first ever law school was built.

    1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
      nagy_michael2

      Iamgine there is no heaven.. imagine there is no country. imagine all the Lebanese people who are working against their country. Yes there is no heaven in lebanon and there is no country called Lebanon.
      There is only Hezbollah, Suleimaini, Bashar, Daiesh and Aoun is dragged along as a cloun of Hezbollah.
      How could a could we accept hezbollah and Mustaqbal assign a President for us? how can we run a country without eletricity, water and basic needs. yet you see these people with fancy cars, women all blondes and makeup. we sing away sort of forgetting our problems and we walk all over the trash and we ignore it because it doesn’t exists in our minds. Imagine there is no country and that imagination is real my friend..

  4. MekensehParty Avatar
    MekensehParty

    More Hurryaba…

  5. 7thDrawer Avatar

    Incredible achievement for Beirut! To think how many times Beirut has been down and out, yet it keeps coming back. Once we start to reverse this brain drain, the future will start to look even stronger. Cheers to Beirut!!

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      When Beiruties look north and say: ‘Be careful if you go to Tripoli – it’s a different country’, you can see why there’s a brain-drain. Even within the city there are different ‘ancient villages’ … and not much more work available for Lebanese than there is in Tripoli, for that matter.
      The ONLY reason for pumping ‘University Educations’ is for the purpose of ‘getting out’.

      Allow me to say, however, there is a creeping and isipid stupidity in ‘The West’ as well, that says everyone should have a ‘certificate’ or a piece of ‘paper’ which defines what they can do. Seems many don’t do it well, either … but restricting jobs to ‘paper-holders’ is creating a pile of people who only DO ‘a course’, and take a job based on how much it pays, or it’s ability to allow escape, and not for the sake of true interest in it. (prime example – ‘Political Science’ courses…)
      Apprenticing is going the way of the Dodo … Big Business hates Unions (people) so much.
      (you’d think they would supply condoms for free …. 😉 )

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