Editor’s note: The IJ is reprinting some of the late Beth Ashley’s columns. This is from 2007.

When the voting got underway, I was in Africa.

People from all over the globe were invited to vote on the seven wonders of the modern world, to replace such disappeared monuments as the Colossus of Rhodes and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

It was fun trying to decide what were modern man’s most awesome achievements.

Whenever I see a skyscraper or watch a shuttle take off in space, I am overwhelmed at the thought that mere mortals made them happen.

There’s no denying that humans keep doing miraculous things!

Voting on the new seven wonders — a contest launched by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber — went on for more than a year, mostly via the internet or on cellphone text messages.

The winners, of course, were completely subjective, and no doubt inflated by hometown campaigns.

I’m not even sure what the winners should be, although my favorite is the city of Petra in Jordan.

Of all the places I’ve seen in my travels, it was one of the few that lived up to its hoopla. Visitors ride into the ancient city on horseback through a dark and narrow passage that opens into bright sunlight and the city’s most famous building, the Treasury. Stunning. The whole city is stunning.

The pyramids in Giza, Egypt, are among the newly blessed wonders, although they were among the old “seven wonders,” too, so the new list is really eight.

The pyramids are pretty amazing, of course, although, like many of the winners, they are almost a tourist cliche. Of course I went to see them, but I couldn’t help being disappointed — too many vendors, too many rubberneckers, too many camels to ride for a fee and a photo. The Great Sphinx of Giza, another ancient marvel, was likewise a letdown. Cheek by jowl with the Sphinx’s famous paws were a lineup of fast-food outlets: Burger King and KFC.

The pyramid at Chichén Itzá in the Yucatan, another winner, seemed more noble somehow, although Mexico and Guatemala have plenty of dazzling pyramids available for scaling. Chichén Itzá is the largest of the pre-Colombian sites in the Yucatan, and includes other fascinating structures as well — ballfields and baths.

My grandmother used to spin tales of “Colonel” Edward Thompson, the U.S. consul to Yucatan, who explored the site for three decades — from 1894 onward — and uncovered riches in gold, copper and carved jade that he brought to Harvard, where my grandmother met him.

How proud she would be!

Latin America was represented by two other sites: the 125-foot-high statue of Christ the Redeemer that looks down on Rio de Janeiro from Mount Corcovado, and Machu Picchu in Peru, a 15th-century Incan sanctuary 8,000 feet up in the Andes Mountains.

This is a place of awesome silence and mystery. How did they build it? Why did they leave?

The day we were there, we watched from a distance as an avalanche of stone was unloosed on a group of hikers walking the Inca Trail. The hikers escaped injury — blessed by the gods whose presence seemed to surround us.

The Colosseum in Rome was probably honored just for continuing to stand inside a bustling city, a city replete, of course, with historical treasures — the Roman Forum, the catacombs, the fountains, fountains, fountains. Driving around the city and coming upon the Colosseum is like running into an old friend. Ahh, you think. There she is!

My friend Ursula and I went there one Easter, when Pope John Paul II held a service inside.

The Taj Mahal — I guess we should have expected that this most beautiful structure, built by Muslim Emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife, would be represented.

We saw it at dawn and again in the evening. Light glowed on the white marble domes and slender minarets, and outlined the carvings of calligraphy and flowers. It was breathtaking, just as advertised.

The final “wonder” was the Great Wall of China, which is vast enough to be seen from outer space. I’ve been there three times — always in the rain — the last time with my son Gil, who refused to be downhearted. He loped up and down the snake-like paths while I walked slowly behind.

My friend and I once saw the far end of the wall in western China, where it dwindles into ruins.

The wall wasn’t too successful as the fortification it was intended to be, but it remains an astonishing sight, an echo of history.

I loved voyaging through these places again, knowing I’m blessed to have seen them.

So, did the voting prove anything?

Not really. Just that tourists will be tourists, and they’ll go where the travel books tell them.

For me, it stirred up old yearnings.

Just hand me a travel brochure — Angkor Wat? The skyscrapers of Dubai? Any old place far away?

Just give me a ticket, and I’m out of here.