A man set a Guinness World Record by visiting all seven new wonders of the world in under seven days, but he almost missed one of his destinations.
A man set out to visit all of the New Seven Wonders of the World in just under seven days, but he almost didn’t make it. Magdi Aissa, 45, from Egypt, stopped off at the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, the Colosseum in Rome, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, and finally the Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico.
He’s now being celebrated on the Guinness World Records Instagram page with a video of his adventure, captioned “Fastest time to visit a New Seven Wonders of the World,” followed by “6 days, 11 hours and 52 minutes, Magdi Ayssa.”
People were quick to congratulate the travel enthusiast on his amazing trip, with one person writing: “Congratulations,” followed by a series of emojis, while another added: “Jet lag scares this guy.”
Meanwhile, others asked him for advice on how he planned the trip, with a third adding: “Oh that’s great, let me know how you planned it.”
But the planning was no easy feat and took Aisa almost a year and a half to complete. He told Guinness World Records: “We had to navigate a complex network of planes, trains, buses, subways and walking between transport hubs and World Heritage sites. One single disruption could have ruined our entire itinerary and meant we would have had to fly home.”
Eissa nearly failed at his final hurdle, forcing him to buy a one-way ticket to Cairo instead. He nearly missed his flight from Peru to Mexico, meaning he never made it to the Seventh Wonder. Kind airline staff even reopened the check-in counters for him when he explained he was trying to break a world record.
He also overslept and missed the daily bus to Petra, forcing the resourceful Aisa to find another public bus to the historic site instead, which proved nearly impossible as the site is almost entirely serviced by tour companies and taxis.
But setting the record was worth it, and he also had an unexpected encounter with an old friend from Egypt along the way. “In the midst of the record attempt, being reunited with a familiar face, even for a short while, was a special moment,” he said.
The previous record holder was Briton Jamie MacDonald, who completed the journey last year, just four hours slower than Aisa.