UNESCO’s 46th Session of the World Heritage Committee is going on now in New Delhi, India, and it has brought the total of new World Heritage Sites up to 24 this year, with new additions like Rome’s beloved Via Appia and the fairytale-esque Schwerin Residence Ensemble in Germany.
The U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Site list is made up of more than 1,220 natural, historic, and cultural sites across the globe, ranging from critically important ecosystems to architectural wonders that are found nowhere else on the globe.
According to the organization, it “seeks to encourage the identification, protection, and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.”
“This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972,” it stated.
The 24 new World Heritage Sites include 19 cultural sites, four natural sites, and one mixed cultural and natural site. Travelers interested in learning more about each site can visit the list on UNESCO’s website.
- Beijing Central Axis: A Building Ensemble Exhibiting the Ideal Order of the Chinese Capital, China
- Brâncuși Monumental Ensemble of Târgu Jiu, Romania
- Cultural Landscape of Kenozero Lake, Russian Federation
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire—Dacia, Romania
- Hegmataneh, Iran
- Human Rights, Liberation, and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites, South Africa
- Melka Kunture and Balchit: Archaeological and Palaeontological Sites in the Highland Area of Ethiopia
- Moidams—the Mound-Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty, India
- Phu Phrabat, a testimony to the Sīma stone tradition of the Dvaravati period, Thailand
- Royal Court of Tiébélé, Burkina Faso
- Sado Island Gold Mines, Japan
- Saint Hilarion Monastery/Tell Umm Amer, State of Palestine
- Schwerin Residence Ensemble, Germany
- The Archaeological Heritage of Niah National Park’s Caves Complex, Malaysia
- The Cultural Landscape of Al-Faw Archaeological Area, Saudi Arabia
- The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa
- The Historic Town and Archaeological Site of Gedi, Kenya
- Umm Al-Jimāl, Jordan
- Via Appia, Italy
- Badain Jaran Desert—Towers of Sand and Lakes, China
- Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil
- The Flow Country, the UK and Northern Ireland
- Vjetrenica Cave, Ravno, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Te Henua Enata—The Marquesas Islands, France
