Decision 42 COM 7A.34

Crac des chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (Syrian Arab Republic) (C 1229)

Note: the following reports on the World Heritage properties of the Syrian Arab Republic need to be read in conjunction with Item 36.

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/18/42.COM/7A.Add,
2. Recalling Decisions 41 COM 7A.48 and 41 COM 7A.50 adopted at its 41st session (Krakow, 2017),
3. Taking into account Decision 42 COM 7A.36 on the World Heritage properties of the Syrian Arab Republic,
4. Takes note of the restoration works undertaken at the Chapel despite difficult conditions;
5. Encourages the State Party to continue implementing the recommendations of the Technical Assistance Workshop organized by the World Heritage Centre, and in particular, while undertaking urgent restoration works, to reuse as much as possible the original stones, and supplement them with identical newly- extracted ones from the quarry of origin, as much as the current circumstances allow it;
6. Urges the State Party to:
   1. Abandon the project of a cable car at Qal’at Salah El-Din,
   2. Limit interventions to emergency measures and urgent conservation activities until the situation improves,
   3. Submit to the World Heritage Centre, for examination by the Advisory Bodies, a detailed project on the tourism facilities foreseen at the property accompanied by a Heritage Impact Assessment, before any work is implemented, in conformity with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines;
7. Calls on all UNESCO Member States to support emergency safeguarding measures, including through the UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund;
8. Requests that the invited joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/ICCROM Reactive Monitoring mission be carried to proceed to a comprehensive assessment of the state of conservation of the property and identify measures needed to reverse the decay and ensure the conservation and protection of the property, as soon as the security situation allows;
9. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2019, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 43rd session in 2019;
10. Decides to retain the Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (Syrian Arab Republic) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.