For years, naming the Seven Wonders of the World has been a staple question in any good pub quiz. Now the quiz-masters will have to re-assess their answers following the results, to be announced over the weekend, of a global competition to name seven new ones.

The internet competition to name the new Wonders of the World attracted votes from more than 20 million people and, although not officially sanctioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), the process has captured the imagination of people throughout the world.

The Egyptian pyramids at Giza are the only structures still remaining from the original list of seven architectural marvels likely to be retained on the new list. Long gone are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos lighthouse off Alexandria.

The Colosseum, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal and Petra in Jordan are among the leading contenders to make the new list while the Acropolis and the Statue of Christ Redeemer, which stands on a mountain overlooking Rio di Janeiro, are also strong contenders.

The Statue of Liberty in New York and Sydney Opera House are unlikely to make the top seven with Angkor in Cambodia, the Alhambra in Spain, Turkey's Hagia Sophia, the Kiyomizu Temple in Japan, the Kremlin and St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle, Stonehenge and Mali's Timbuktu also struggling to make the cut.

The ancient city of Petra in south-western Jordan, popularised by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and famous for its water tunnels and stone structures carved in the rock, has attracted many votes, largely thanks to campaigning by the Jordanian royal family and thousands of Jordanians voting by text message over their mobile phones.

Choosing world wonders has been a continuing fascination over the centuries with Unesco continuing to update its list of World Heritage Sites, which now totals 830 properties.

The new Seven Wonders of the World campaign was begun in 1999 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber, with almost 200 nominations coming in from around the world.

Weber felt it was "time for something new to bring the world together" and to "symbolise a common pride in the global cultural heritage".

His Swiss-based foundation aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments, and relies on private donations to keep it going.

The number of nominations for the new Seven Wonders of The World was pared down by internet and telephone voting to 77 last year.

Then the campaign assembled a panel of architectural experts, chaired by the former Unesco chief Federico Mayor, which shortened the list to the final 21. Interest has been growing this year as Weber and his 10-member team visited the 21 sites, which will be reduced to seven at a series of meetings in Lisbon over the weekend.

In May, the Channel Tunnel was named as one of the Seven new Wonders of the World in a poll. Voters selected Sydney Opera House as the top new wonder, followed by the Eiffel Tower.

Third in the www.tele-textholidays.co.uk poll was the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, which is shaped like a sailing vessel.

In a separate poll asking people to name the top seven UK wonders, Big Ben was first, with the new Wembley Stadium seventh. Second in the UK list was the Eden Project in Cornwall, with the London Eye third and Buckingham Palace fourth. There were no Scottish entries in the poll.

In the running...