Gozo’s Azure Window has failed to reach the final round of the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition.

Judges short listed 28 sites from a total of 77 but the Azure Window at Dwerja was not among those chosen.

The 28 chosen finalists will now be subject to another worldwide round of voting, with the final winners being announced in 2011.

San Lawrenz mayor Noel Formosa explained that although the Azure Window did not make it to the final, the competition was a great opportunity to promote the natural beauty of the Maltese islands, which must not be overlooked.

The mayor is satisfied that the natural monument ranked in the top 77 despite that it did not make it within the final 28. “The number of people who accessed the site and noticed our small country and even smaller locality is impressive,” went on Mr Formosa.

“I think that the Maltese and Gozitans did all they could do to see the Azure Window as a world monument,” said Mr Formosa.

Around 100 million people were said to have cast votes for a similar competition searching for the seven man-made wonders, which was held over the past years. Although Malta could have easily competed by means of its temples, no site for Malta was then officially endorsed by the authorities.

On 8 January, The Malta Independent had announced that the Azure Window had been nominated for the competition after which authorities endorsed it so that it could officially be recognised as taking part in the competition.

A Facebook group called “Let us put Azure Window as one of the new seven wonders of the world” increased its members to nearly 5,000 from some 1,000 members since when it was created in January. The group was posted by the San Lawrenz mayor.

The Gozitan feature competed with great wonders of nature such as the Grand Canyon, among other magnificent sites within its category of caves, rock formations and valleys.