Alright folks, buckle up. Today started like any other lazy Sunday, scrolling around looking for cool historical spots, dreaming of travel. Kept seeing folks talk about the Seven Wonders, right? Thought, "Hey, a map showing these all together must exist!" How hard could it be?
The Big Search Begins
Popped open my laptop, fired up my browser. Typed in something obvious like "Map of Seven Wonders". Hoo boy. What a mistake.
- Found maps so small you needed a microscope. Seriously, squinting didn't help.
- Others were all decorated and artsy – cool looking, I guess, but try finding Petra on that mess? Good luck.
- Some were super old, like ancient themselves, probably showing Babylon instead of Giza or something. Useless.
- A bunch were just plain wrong! Like showing the Great Wall of China instead of… any actual Wonder? Headache material.
Spent like an hour clicking around. Pure frustration. Most stuff was either for kindergarten classrooms or buried in some academic paper nobody reads.
Enough is Enough - DIY Time
Threw my hands up. "Fine," I mumbled. "Guess I'm doing this myself." How hard could mapping seven points be? Famous last words.
First step: double-check the current list. Everyone argues about what counts. Wanted the classics, the real big ones everybody talks about:
- The Great Pyramid (Giza, obviously)
- Christ the Redeemer (Rio)
- Machu Picchu (Peru, high up)
- Chichen Itza (Yucatan)
- The Roman Colosseum
- Taj Mahal (India)
- Petra (Jordan)
Okay. Seven spots. Got it. Sounded easy.
Drowning in Coordinates
Opened up Google Earth. Simple, right? Wrong again. Started pinning locations. Turns out, pinning "Machu Picchu" lands you roughly near it. The Colosseum? Easy. But some places? Maddening.
- Taj Mahal is big, man. Exactly where do you pin the center? Kept fiddling.
- Petra's entrance is one spot, the Treasury is another... which one counts? Broke down and read three travel blogs just to figure it out. Ugh.
- And Christ the Redeemer? He's standing on a mountain. Pin on the statue, or the viewing platform below? Felt like rocket science all of a sudden.
This took forever. Like, way longer than admitting defeat on finding an existing map.
Slapping It Together (For Real This Time)
Switched to a basic online map maker thing. Just wanted something clean and clear. Dropped my painstakingly researched points onto a world map.
- Made sure the pins were big and bold.
- Slapped a clear label on each one – no abbreviations!
- Zoomed in on the map view so Europe didn’t look like it was exploding with pins compared to, say, South America.
Played with the colors. Dark backgrounds made the pins pop better. Added a super simple key: "Modern Seven Wonders Locations". No fancy Latin, no cryptic symbols. DONE.
The "Final" Product... Kinda
Stared at my creation. It worked! Simple as heck. Shows the countries, shows roughly where each Wonder sits. Anyone could glance at it and get the idea.
BUT... here's the reality check. Is it beautiful? Nah. Does it have elevation profiles or walking paths to the Treasury? Double nah. Will it win any design awards? Lol, definitely not.
But you know what? It does the one job I needed: it gives explorers and history fans like me (and maybe you?) a quick and dirty lay of the land. It answers the basic question: "Where in the heck are these things actually located?"
Saved it, printed out a copy for my travel idea folder. Filed it under "Problems solved the hard way". Next time someone asks for a decent map? I'll just sigh and send them my ugly baby.
