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Canal du Midi

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France
Date of Inscription: 1996
Criteria: (i)(ii)(iv)(vi)
Core zone: 1172 ha
Buffer zone: 2014 ha
Region of Midi-Pyrénées (departments of Haute-Garonne and Tarn); Region of Languedoc-Roussillon (departments of l'Aude and l'Herault)
N43 36 41 E1 24 59
Ref: 770

Brief Description

This 360-km network of navigable waterways linking the Mediterranean and the Atlantic through 328 structures (locks, aqueducts, bridges, tunnels, etc.) is one of the most remarkable feats of civil engineering in modern times. Built between 1667 and 1694, it paved the way for the Industrial Revolution. The care that its creator, Pierre-Paul Riquet, took in the design and the way it blends with its surroundings turned a technical achievement into a work of art.

Justification for Inscription

The Committee decided to inscribe the nominated property on the basis of cultural criteria (i), (ii), (iv) and (vi) considering that the site is of outstanding universal value being one of the greatest engineering achievements of the Modern Age, providing the model for the flowering of technology that led directly to the Industrial Revolution and the modern technological age. Additionally, it combines with its technological innovation a concern for high aesthetic architectural and landscape design that has few parallels. The Committee endorsed the inscription of this property as the Canal du Midi clearly is an exceptional example of a designed landscape

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