The hunt is on to discover England’s most popular National Lottery funded project of the last 20 years - and the Eden Project has been selected to compete for the honour.

The National Lottery has launched the search as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations this year.

The ‘What’s Your National Treasure’ campaign asks people to visit Facebook.com/LotteryGoodCauses to choose the best from a range of iconic venues, landmarks and facilities that are vying for the title of National Treasure.

The Eden Project, which houses the largest indoor rainforest in the world, has received more than £37 million of National Lottery funding distributed by the Millennium Commission and the Big Lottery Fund.

Vicki Kennedy, Director of the National Lottery Good Causes, said: “This is a fun way for people to show their backing for the projects they care most about and also gives us a great chance to celebrate the massive impact National Lottery players have had.

"England is packed full of National Treasures and we’re proud that National Lottery funding has been able to benefit so many of them. It will no doubt be tricky for people to pick just one as their favourite!”

Sir Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project, said: “When the history of the last twenty years is written up a century from now, it will show that we have lived through a moment of sublime transformation across the whole of the United Kingdom.

"More wonderful buildings have been created, more investment in social spaces and initiatives which have reached into every nook and cranny of this marvellous country of ours than could have been dreamed of.

"The investment that has directly come from the National Lottery - overseen by good men and women distributing funds without fear or favour to create opportunity where there was none – is breath-taking and represents, in terms of investment the best return on capital in British History and it has given the country its Mojo back.

"There is hardly a city, town or village that has not seen the benefit. For me, its greatest achievement has been to silence cynics who thought Britain couldn’t be the creative and social powerhouse it once was.

"We at Eden are honoured to have been short-listed as one of the National Lottery’s most inspirational projects which is especially humbling when you see the sheer range of what so many people have achieved, the lives it has changed for the better and the pleasure those projects have given.

"However, in voicing our appreciation it should be said somewhere that The National Lottery and the citizens who have taken responsibility for making it work for everybody should be as proud of their achievement as we are.”

As well as voting for England’s favourite place, the public are also being asked to vote for the celebrity who is most deserving of the title.

With 12 projects and five celebrities to choose from in England, the competition is set to be fierce.

The projects competing in England are: Beamish Museum (County Durham), Eden Project (Cornwall), The Hepworth (Wakefield), The Lowry (Manchester), Manchester SportCity, The Mary Rose Museum (Portsmouth), The Museum of Liverpool, National Memorial Arboretum (nr Lichfield), National Space Centre (Leicester), Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (London), Turner Contemporary (Margate), Wembley Stadium (London).

The well-known names to feature in the voting for England’s National Treasure are pop band Rizzle Kicks, comedian Stephen Fry, athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, actor Colin Firth and presenter Esther Rantzen.

A winning face and place for England, along with those from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, will be announced from the full list of 68 later this year.

Votes can be cast on Facebook.com/LotteryGoodCauses from 9am on Monday, May 19 until midnight on Tuesday, May 27. People taking part in the survey will be able to share their participation and will also have a chance to win one of five iPad Airs.