Treasures like Japan’s Mount Fuji and North Korea’s Kaesong monuments and fortress remains are now officially UNESCO World Heritage Sites, joining a total of 19 sites that were added to the list during this week’s World Heritage Committee meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The committee meets annually to add properties to the World Heritage list, which honors cultural and natural sites considered to have “outstanding universal value.” There are almost 1,000 sites on the list overall.
Joining Mount Fuji and Kaesong on the list are the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces and Xinjiang Tianshan in China, University of Coimbra in Portugal and the Medici Villas and Gardens in Italy. Meanwhile, Fiji and Qatar are celebrating their first additions to the World Heritage list with the inclusion of Qatar’s Al Zubarah Archaeological Site and Fiji’s Levuka Historical Port Town.
Here’s the full list of the newest additions to the UNESCO World Heritage list:
- Al Zubarah Archaeological Site, Qatar
- Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora, Ukraine
- Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, Germany
- Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, China
- Mount Fuji, Japan
- Golestan Palace, Iran
- Hill Forts of Rajasthan, India
- Historic Centre of Agadez, Niger
- Kaesong, North Korea
- Levuka Historical Port Town, Fiji
- Medici Villas and Gardens, Italy
- Red Bay Basque Whaling Station, Newfoundland and Labrador
- University of Coimbra – Alta and Sofia, Portugal
- Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region, Poland and Ukraine
- El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
- Mount Etna, Italy
- Namib Sand Sea, Namibia
- Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs), Tajikistan
- Xinjiang Tianshan, China
- Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines, Poland
- Mount Kenya National Park/Natural Forest, Kenya
- Maloti Drakensberg Transboundary World Heritage Site, Lesotho and South Africa
(Main image: dalbera)
