The Dead Sea was not among the winners in the New7Wonders of Nature contest despite a high profile campaign by the Israeli government, according to a list of provisional results released at about 9:30 p.m. on Friday.
Among the winners, were the Amazon of South America, Halong Bay of Vietnam, Iguazu Falls of Argentina and Brazil, Jeju Island of South Korea, Komodo of Indonesia, Puerto Princesa Underground River of the Philippines and Table Mountain of South Africa.
Knesset members that had been involved with promoting the Dead Sea's cause stressed that Israelis must continue to fight for the salty body despite the loss.
"Precisely because it didn't win, we must restore the Dead Sea and preserve its status as a world wonder of nature," said MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz). "We urgently need to deal with the dropping level in the northern basin as a result of dehydration and over-pumping, and rapidly performing the harvest of salt in the southern basin. If the government does not do this and continues to bury its head in the sand, the Dead Sea will gradually disappear."
Read the full article at JerusalemPost.com
From Israel's Minister of Tourism: VoteDeadSea.com