In July 2017 UNESCO
announced an additional 21 sites to the list of locations it has deemed World
Heritage Sites. To date there are now 1,073 UNESCO World Heritage Sites
throughout the world.
The additions include
England’s Lake District, which became the United Kingdom’s first national park to
receive the distinction. It also includes India’s 15th century walled
city of Ahmedabad, India’s first city on the list. Other 2017 honorees include
Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janeiro; the
The news channel CNN noted
the controversies: Israelis did not agree with UNESCO adding the city of Hebron
in the West Bank as a Palestinian World Heritage Site instead of an Israeli
one; and the International Campaign for Tibet did not agree with UNESCO’s
decision to grant heritage status to the Hoh Xil plateau.
Currently, all UNESCO
World Heritage Sites are determined by a vote of the World Heritage Committee.
The group met for the 41st consecutive year last week in Krakow, Poland,
in July 2017.
The new sites are:
1. Aphrodisias,
Turkey
2. Asmara,
Eritrea
3. Assumption
Cathedral and Monastery of Sviyazhsk, Russia
4. Caves and ice age
art in the Swabian Jura, Germany
5. Hebron/Al-Khalil
Old Town, Palestine
6. Historic city of
Yazd, Iran
7. Kujataa Greenland,
Denmark
8. Kulangsu, China
9. Mbanza Kongo,
Angola
10. Sacred Island of
Okinoshima, Japan
11. Taputapuātea,
center of the Polynesian Triangle, French Polynesia
12. Tarnowskie Góry,
lead-silver-zinc mine, Poland
13. Sambor Prei Kuk
temple zone, Cambodia
14. English Lake
District, United Kingdom
15. Valongo Wharf,
archeological site, Brazil
16. Venetian Works of
Defense, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro
17. Khomani Cultural
Landscape, South Africa
18. Landscapes of
Dauria, Mongolia, Russia
19. Los Alerces
National Park, Argentina
20. Qinghai Hoh Xil,
China
21. Historic city of Ahmedabad, India
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different
in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament
(2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a
Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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