Unesco World Heritage Sites: Which destinations are about to be added to the list?
Nominees battle it out for prestigious title
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Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
The next destinations selected to join the Unesco World Heritage list will be announced over the coming week.
Some 36 candidates are hoping to make it onto on the coveted list, which comes with tourism clout, nominal protections and access to extra funding.
This year’s nominees include Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland, India’s Jaipur City, Grossglockner High Alpine Road in Austria and Babylon in Iraq. The only UK candidate is Jodrell Bank Observatory in Macclesfield, which hosts a number of radio telescopes.
Unesco’s World Heritage committee is meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, until 10 July, during which time it will announce the sites that have made the cut as they go.
Nominees are divided by category: natural sites; cultural sites; and mixed sites (a combination of natural and cultural).
There’s also a section for “Sites proposed for inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger”. Although this may sound negative, being added to this list can aid destinations in increasing protections around culturally valuable sites, as well as assisting them financially.
The committee announced on 2 July that the Birthplace of Jesus, the Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route in Bethlehem, has been taken off the List of World Heritage in Danger thanks to restorative work carried out on the Nativity Church and the introduction of a management plan to conserve the church.
Meanwhile, the islands and protected areas of the Gulf of California in Mexico has been added to the blacklist.
The World Heritage list is currently comprised of 1,092 sites in 167 countries, with more added every year. Sites include the Taj Mahal, the Lake District and the Galapagos Islands.
Here are the 2019 nominees in full.
Natural sites
- Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase I) – China
- Hyrcanian Forests – Iran
- Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex – Thailand
- French Austral Lands and Seas – France
- Alpi del Mediterraneo/Alpes de la Méditerrané – France/Italy/Monaco
- Vatnajökull National Park – Iceland
Mixed sites (natural and cultural)
- Extension of the Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region, North Macedonia – Albania
- Paraty Culture and Biodiversity – Brazil
Cultural sites
- Ancient ferrous metallurgy site – Burkina Faso
- Dilmun Burial Mounds – Bahrain
- Babylon – Iraq
- Budj Bim Cultural Landscape – Australia
- Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City – China
- Jaipur City, Rajasthan – India
- Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto – Indonesia
- Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group: Mounded Tombs of Ancient Japan – Japan
- Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang Plain of Jars – Lao People’s Democratic Republic
- Bagan – Myanmar
- Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies – Republic of Korea
- Großglockner High Alpine Road – Austria
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire/The Danube Limes – Austria/Germany/Hungary/Slovakia
- Writing-on-Stone/Áísínai’pi – Canada
- Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region – Czech Republic/Germany
- Landscape for Breeding and Training of Ceremonial Carriage Horses at Kladruby nad Labem – Czech Republic
- Water Management System of Augsburg – Germany
- Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region – Poland
- Royal Building of Mafra: Palace, Basilica, Convent, Cerco Garden and Hunting Park, Tapada – Portugal
- Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga – Portugal
- Monuments of Ancient Pskov – Russia
- Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape – Spain
- Jodrell Bank Observatory – United Kingdom
- Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan’s Palace – Azerbaijan
- Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano a Valdobbiadene – Italy
- The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright – United States of America
- Sunken City of Port Royal: A Relict and Continuing Cultural Landscape – Jamaica
- Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá – Panama
Sites proposed for inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger
- The Sundarbans – Bangladesh
- Ancient City of Nessebar – Bulgaria
- Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region – Albania/North Macedonia
- Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California – Mexico
- Kathmandu Valley – Nepal
- Babylon – Iraq
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