UNESCO adds 21 sites to its list of World Heritage Sites

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 15^th 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

http://whc.unesco.org/en/newproperties/

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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