UNESCO World Heritage

I like lists, and I like travel. The obvious answer to this equation is that I like the UNESCO World Heritage List.  (I also find this site to be a nice supplement to the official descriptions.)

The World Heritage List helps implement the 1972 World Heritage Convention, which calls on its187 member States to identify and preserve natural and cultural sites on their territories that are of "outstanding universal value."  Such sites are precious to humanity as a whole; thus inscription on the World Heritage List qualifies a site for financial assistance from a common fund if it is under threat or needs rehabilitation.

States must nominate and approve the listing of a site on their territory, and they must initiate requests for assistance.  World Heritage sites in the U.S. include Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Montecello.  There's also a List of World Heritage in Danger -- which includes, for example, the Everglades.

Our travels chronicled in this blog have included the following World Heritage sites:
  1. Seventeenth century canal ring area of Amsterdam
  2. City of Luxembourg: Its Old Quarters and Fortifications
  3. La Grande Place (Brussels)
  4. Paris, Banks of the Seine
  5. Cologne Cathedral 
  6. Maritime Greenwich
  7. Westminster Abbey
  8. Tower of London
  9. Medina of Fez 
  10. Volubilis 
  11. Historic City of Meknes
  12. Medina of Marrakesh 
  13. Medina of Essaouira 
  14. Ksar of Ait Ben Haddou
  15. Historic Centre of Rome
  16. Vatican City 
  17. Kinderdijk 
  18. Flemish Beguinages
  19. Belfries of Belgium and France
  20. Plantin-Moretus Museum
  21. Vizcaya Bridge
  22. Rietveld-Schroeder House
  23. Upper Middle Rhine Valley
  24. Speyer Cathedral
  25. Wadden Sea
  26. Schokland
  27. D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station
  28. Beemster Polder
  29. Defense Line of Amsterdam
  30. Historic Center of Salzburg
  31. Historic Center of Warsaw
  32. Historic Center of Krakow
  33. Auschwitz Birkenau
  34. Wieliczka Salt Mine
  35. Museum Island (Berlin)
  36. Berlin Modernism Housing Estates
  37. Independence Hall (Philadelphia)
  38. Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico)
  39. Buddhist Monuments of Horyu-ji
  40. Himeji-jo
  41. Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto
  42. Hiroshima Peace Memorial
  43. Itsukushima Shinto Shrine
  44. Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara
  45. Shrines and Temples of Nikko
  46. Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range (Koyasan)


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