UNESCO Heritage Sites

Humberstone and Santa Laura works contain over 200 former saltpeter works where workers from Chile, Peru and Bolivia lived in company towns and forged a distinctive communal pampinos culture. That culture is manifest in their rich language, creativity, and solidarity, and, above all, in their pioneering struggle for social justice, which had a profound impact on social history. Situated in the remote Pampas, one of the driest deserts on Earth, thousands of pampinos lived and worked in this hostile environment for over 60 years, from 1880, to process the largest deposit of saltpeter in the world, producing the fertilizer sodium nitrate that was to transform agricultural lands in North and South America, and in Europe, and produce great wealth for Chile. Continent: South America Country: Chile Category: Danger Criterion: (II) (III) (IV) Date of Inscription: 2005

The Chimu Kingdom, with Chan Chan as its capital, reached its apogee in the 15th century, not long before falling to the Incas. The planning of this huge city, the largest in pre-Columbian America, reflects a strict political and social strategy, marked by the city's division into nine 'citadels' or 'palaces' forming autonomous units. The Chimu Kingdom reached its apogee in the 15th century, not long before falling to the Incas. Its capital Chan Chan, located in the once fertile river valley of Moche or Santa Catalina, was the largest earthen architecture city in pre-Columbian America. The remains of this vast city reflect in their layout a strict political and social strategy, emphasized by their division into nine 'citadels' or 'palaces' forming independent units. In 1986 the Chan Chan Archaeological Zone Peru inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and now it is in danger list. Continent: South America Country: Peru Category: Danger L...

Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama is a magnificent examples of 17th- and 18th-century military architecture, these Panamanian forts on the Caribbean coast form part of the defense system built by the Spanish Crown to protect transatlantic trade. The group of 17th- and 18th-century fortifications, the historic sites of Portobelo and San Lorenzo, are outstanding examples of Spanish colonial military architecture of this period. These fortifications, imbued with history, are a magnificent example of Spanish military architecture, located in a natural setting of great beauty. Antonelli's Spanish military architecture characterizes the first construction period (1596-99) and the neoclassical style of Salas and Hernandez (1753-60) dominated afterwards. Continent: North America Country: Panama Category: Danger List Criterion: (I)(IV) Date of Inscription: 1980

Niokolo Koba National Park is located in a well-watered area along the banks of the Gambia River, the gallery forests and savannahs of Niokolo Koba National Park have a very rich fauna, among them Derby elands, chimpanzees, lions, leopards and a large population of elephants, as well as many birds, reptiles and amphibians. It is characterized by its group of ecosystems typical of this region, over an area of 913 000ha. Watered by large waterways (the Gambia, Sereko, Niokolo, Koulountou), it comprises gallery forests, savannah grass floodplains, ponds, dry forests -- dense or with clearings -- rocky slopes and hills and barren Bowés. This remarkable plant diversity justifies the presence of a rich fauna characterized by: the Derby Eland (the largest of African antelopes), chimpanzees, lions, leopards, a large population of elephants as well as many species of birds, reptiles and amphibians. Continent: Africa Country: Senegal Category: Danger List Criterion: (X) Date of ...

The four edifices of the site reflect the high points of the Byzantine-Romanesque ecclesiastical culture, with its distinct style of wall painting, which developed in the Balkans between the 13th and 17th centuries. The Decani Monastery was built in the mid-14th century for the Serbian king Stefan Decanski and is also his mausoleum. The Patriarchate of Peć Monastery is a group of four domed churches featuring series of wall paintings. The 13th-century frescoes of the Church of Holy Apostles are painted in a unique, monumental style. Early 14th-century frescoes in the church of the Holy Virgin of Ljevisa represent the appearance of the new so-called Palaiologian Renaissance style, combining the influences of the eastern Orthodox Byzantine and the Western Romanesque traditions. The style played a decisive role in subsequent Balkan art. Continent: Europe Country: Serbia Category: Danger Criterion: (II) (III) (IV) Date of Inscription: 2004

Six areas in the historic centre and docklands of Liverpool bear witness to the development of one of the world's major trading centres in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. A series of significant commercial, civic and public buildings lie within these areas, including the Pier Head, with its three principal waterfront buildings - the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building, and Port of Liverpool Building; the Dock area with its warehouses, dock walls, remnant canal system, docks and other facilities related to port activities; the mercantile area, with its shipping offices, produce exchanges, marine insurance offices, banks, inland warehouses and merchants houses, together with the William Brown Street Cultural Quarter, including St. George's Plateau, with its monumental cultural and civic buildings. Continent: Europe Country: United Kingdom Category: Danger List Criterion: (II) (III) (IV) Date of Inscription: 2004

Zabid's domestic and military architecture and its urban plan make it an outstanding archaeological and historical site. Besides being the capital of Yemen from the 13th to the 15th century, the city played an important role in the Arab and Muslim world for many centuries because of its Islamic university. Historic Town of Zabid is one of the coastal towns in Tehama area west of Yemen, sitting on a rise above the river junction and the fertile flood plain. It is a circular fortified town with four remaining gates, which was supplied with water by extensive canals. It was already flourishing when Islam was established in the region in the 7th century. Its development is due to Ibn Ziyad (the founder of the Zyadite dynasty), who was sent to the region by the Caliph al-Mamun in 820 AD to quell a rebellion. Continent: Asia Country: Yemen Category: Danger List Criterion: (II)(IV) (VI) Date of Inscription: 1993

Coro and its Port earthen constructions unique to the Caribbean, Coro are the only surviving example of a rich fusion of local traditions with Spanish Mudejar and Dutch architectural techniques. One of the first colonial towns (founded in 1527), it has some 602 historic buildings. Coro is an outstanding example of a historic town, dating from the earliest years of Spanish colonization on the Caribbean coast of South America, which has conserved its original layout and early urban landscape to a remarkable degree. It is the only surviving example of a remarkable fusion of styles over time, and is also important for the large number of ecclesiastical buildings and ensembles that it contains. Although a number of the Spanish colonial settlements on this coast, such as Maracaibo, were originally primarily of earthen construction, Coro is the only one in which such structures have survived intact to the present day. Continent: South America Country: Venezuela Category: Danger Li...

Salonga National Park is Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve. Situated at the heart of the central basin of the Congo river, the park is very isolated and accessible only by water. It is the habitat of many endemic endangered species, such as the dwarf chimpanzee, the Congo peacock, the forest elephant and the African slender-snouted or 'false' crocodile. At the heart of the central basin of the River Congo, Salonga National Park is the largest protected area of dense rainforest on the African continent (when considering the two disjointed sectors of the Park). Very isolated and only accessible by water transport, this vast Park (3,600,000 ha) contains the important evolution of both species and communities in a forest area still relatively intact. Playing also the fundamental role for the climate regulation and the sequestration of carbon, it constitutes the habitat of numerous threatened species such as the pygmy chimpanzee (or bonobo), the bush elephant and th...

The ancient city of Ashur is located on the Tigris River in northern Mesopotamia in a specific geo-ecological zone, at the borderline between rain-fed and irrigation agriculture. The city dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. From the 14th to the 9th centuries BC it was the first capital of the Assyrian Empire, a city-state and trading platform of international importance. It also served as the religious capital of the Assyrians, associated with the god Ashur. The city was destroyed by the Babylonians, but revived during the Parthian period in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The history of the city of Ashur goes back to the Sumerian Early Dynastic period (first half of the 3rd millennium BCE). Some remains may even date to preceding periods. For this early part the stratigraphic excavation of the temple of Ishtar provided substantial information about the development of the religious architecture. Two of the five major building stages of it belong to this period. Continent: Asia ...

Bam and its Cultural Landscape are situated in a desert environment on the southern edge of the Iranian high plateau. The origins of Bam can be traced back to the Achaemenid period (6th to 4th centuries BC). Its heyday was from the 7th to 11th centuries, being at the crossroads of important trade routes and known for the production of silk and cotton garments. The existence of life in the oasis was based on the underground irrigation canals, the qanāts, of which Bam has preserved some of the earliest evidence in Iran. Arg-e Bam is the most representative example of a fortified medieval town built in vernacular technique using mud layers.Bam developed at the crossroads of important trade routes at the southern side of the Iranian high plateau, and it became an outstanding example of the interaction of the various influences. Continent: Asia Country: Iran Category: Danger List Criterion: (I) (II) (III) (IV) (V) Date of Inscription: 2004

Samarra Archaeological City is the site of a powerful Islamic capital city that ruled over the provinces of the Abbasid Empire extending from Tunisia to Central Asia for a century. Located on both sides of the River Tigris 130 km north of Baghdad, the length of the site from north to south is 41.5 km; its width varying from 8 km to 4 km. It testifies to the architectural and artistic innovations that developed there and spread to the other regions of the Islamic world and beyond. The 9th-century Great Mosque and its spiral minaret are among the numerous remarkable architectural monuments of the site, 80% of which remain to be excavated. Continent: Asia Country: Iraq Category: Danger List Criterion: (II) (III) (IV) Date of Inscription: 2011

The importance of this park derives from its wealth of flora and fauna. Its vast savannahs are home to a wide variety of species: black rhinoceroses, elephants, cheetahs, leopards, wild dogs, red-fronted gazelles and buffalo, while various types of waterfowl are to be found in the northern floodplains. With an area of 1,740,000 ha, Manovo-Gounda St Floris is the largest park in the Central African savannas. Straddling the two ecological zones, Manovo-Gounda St Floris National Park owes its importance to its rich flora and fauna. It is home to many endangered species including the black rhino, elephant, hippopotamus and red-fronted gazelle as well as large concentrations of herbivores. This Park is an interesting example of a "crossroads" where the species from savanna communities of East and West Africa, as well as those of the forest communities of the South, cross paths. The Park is a valuable area for the study of environmental changes occurring throughout the Sahel and...

Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve is located on the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Ivory Coast, Mount Nimba rises above the surrounding savannah. Its slopes are covered by dense forest at the foot of grassy mountain pastures. They harbour an especially rich flora and fauna, with endemic species such as the viviparous toad and chimpanzees that use stones as tools. A veritable water tower with about fifty springs between the Ivory Coast and Guinea, the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve is dominated by a chain of mountains that culminate at 1,752 m altitude at Mount Nimba. The slopes, covered with dense forest at the lower levels, with grassy mountain pastures, overflow with particularly rich endemic flora and fauna. Extending over a total of area of 17,540 ha, with 12,540 ha in Guinea and 5,000 ha in Côte d'Ivoire, the property is integrated into the public domain of the two States. Continent: Africa Country: Ivory Coast Category: Danger List Criterion: (IX)(X) Date o...

The Okapi Wildlife Reserve occupies about one-fifth of the Ituri forest in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo River basin, of which the reserve and forest are a part, is one of the largest drainage systems in Africa. The reserve contains threatened species of primates and birds and about 5,000 of the estimated 30,000 okapi surviving in the wild. It also has some dramatic scenery, including waterfalls on the Ituri and Epulu rivers. The reserve is inhabited by traditional nomadic pygmy Mbuti and Efe hunters. Okapi Wildlife Reserve contains flora of outstanding diversity and provides refuge to numerous endemic and threatened species, including one-sixth of the existing Okapi population. The Reserve protects one-fifth of the Ituri forest, a Pleistocene refuge dominated by dense evergreen « Mbau » and humid semi-evergreen forests, combined with swamp forests that grow alongside the waterways, and clearings called locally « edos » and inselbergs. Contin...

Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara is the remains of two great East African ports admired by early European explorers are situated on two small islands near the coast. From the 13th to the 16th century, the merchants of Kilwa dealt in gold, silver, pearls, perfumes, Arabian crockery, Persian earthenware and Chinese porcelain; much of the trade in the Indian Ocean thus passed through their hands. The site located on two islands close to each other just off the Tanzanian coast about 300km south of Dar es Salaam are the remains of two port cites, Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara. The larger, Kilwa Kisiwani, was occupied from the 9th to the 19th century and reached its peak of prosperity in the13th and 14th centuries. In 1331-1332, the great traveler, Ibn Battouta made a stop here and described Kilwa as one of the most beautiful cities of the world. Continent: Africa Country: Tanzania Category: Danger List Criterion: (III) Date of Inscription: 1981

The Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi constitute a site embracing almost 30 ha of hillside within Kampala district. Most of the site is agricultural, farmed by traditional methods. At its core on the hilltop is the former palace of the Kabakas of Buganda, built in 1882 and converted into the royal burial ground in 1884. Four royal tombs now lie within the Muzibu Azaala Mpanga, the main building, which is circular and surmounted by a dome. It is a major example of an architectural achievement in organic materials, principally wood, thatch, reed, wattle and daub. The site's main significance lies, however, in its intangible values of belief, spirituality, continuity and identity. The Tombs of Buganda Kings constitute a site embracing 26.8 hectares of Kasubi hillside within Kampala City. Continent: Africa Country: Uganda Category: Danger List Criterion: (I)(III) (IV) (VI) Date of Inscription: 2001

Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra Indonesia, the 2.5 million hectare Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra site comprises three national parks: Gunung Leuser National Park, Kerinci Seblat National Park and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. The site holds the greatest potential for long-term conservation of the distinctive and diverse biota of Sumatra, including many endangered species. The protected area is home to an estimated 10,000 plant species, including 17 endemic genera; more than 200 mammal species; and some 580 bird species of which 465 are resident and 21 are endemic. Of the mammal species, 22 are Asian, not found elsewhere in the archipelago and 15 are confined to the Indonesian region, including the endemic Sumatran orang-utan. The site also provides biogeographic evidence of the evolution of the island. Continent: Asia Country: Indonesia Category: Danger Criterion: (VII)(IX) (X) Date of Inscription: 2004

Abu Mena is located south of Alexandria, between Wadi el-Natrun and Alexandria itself. The church, baptistry, basilicas, public buildings, streets, monasteries, houses and workshops in this early Christian holy city were built over the tomb of the martyr Menas of Alexandria, who died in AD 296. Built in the 3rd century, the monastery commemorates an Alexandrine soldier, Menas, who was an officer in Diocletian's army. Menas refused to kill any Christian after his army won. He declared his Christianity publicly, which was a tremendous motive for other Christians to bear the suffering and abuse from Diocletian's army. Legend has it that Menas's remains were brought back from Phrygia by camel and were buried where the animal refused to walk any more. Water welled up in the desert at that spot, filling the area with vines and olive trees, as a result of which it is known as St Menas's Vineyards. Continent: Africa Country: Egypt Category: Danger List Criterion: ...

Birthplace of Jesus Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route, Bethlehem is situated 10km south of Jerusalem on the site identified by Christian tradition as the birthplace of Jesus since the 2nd century. A church was first completed there in 339 A.D. and the edifice that replaced it after a fire in the 6th century retains elaborate floor mosaics from the original edifice. The site also includes Latin, Greek Orthodox, Franciscan and Armenian convents and churches, as well as bell towers, terraced gardens and a pilgrimage route. The church was originally commissioned in 327 CE by Constantine and his mother Helena over the site that is still traditionally considered to be located over the cave that marks the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. The Church of the Nativity site's original basilica was completed in 339 CE and destroyed by fire during the Samaritan Revolts in the sixth century CE. A new basilica was built 565 CE by the Byzantine Empire, restoring the architectural to...