UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Statue of Liberty, USA

Looking for a little inspiration? Unsure where to go for your next vacation? Check out the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage list for ideas.

The list contains more than 800 properties, classified as either cultural, natural or mixed, and designated as having "outstanding universal value common to the heritage of humankind" under the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. While it is considered in the interest of the international community to preserve each site for future generations of humankind, each site listed is still considered the property of the country on whose territory the site is located.

Cultural heritage sites include hundreds of historic buildings and town sites, important archaeological sites, and works of monumental sculpture or painting. According to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee these sites:

• Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;

• Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design;

• Bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;

• Are an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates [a] significant stage(s) in human history;

• Are an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change; and

• Are directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance.  Although The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria.

Mali - Old townes of Djenne

Iceland - Thingvellir National Park

Armenia - Monasteries Haghpat Sanahin

Natural heritage sites are restricted to those natural areas that according to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee:

• Furnish outstanding examples of the Earth's record of life or its geologic processes;

• Provide excellent examples of ongoing ecological and biological evolutionary processes;

• Contain natural phenomena that are rare, unique, superlative, or of outstanding beauty; or

• Furnish habitats for rare or endangered animals or plants or are sites of exceptional biodiversity. Mixed heritage sites contain elements of both natural and cultural significance. The ratio of cultural to natural sites on the World Heritage List is roughly 3:1, and several new sites are added to the list each December.

World Heritage designations often boost local economies by encouraging tourism. In addition, UNESCO funds numerous efforts to preserve and restore sites in developing nations. Sites subject to unusual levels of pollution, natural hazards, or other problems may be placed on the associated List of World Heritage in Danger until improvements are made.

For more information go to http://whc.unesco.org.