News

The rich archaeological remains of the Iranian city of Bam, where 26,000 lost their lives in the earthquake of December 26, 2003, was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, alongside 12 other new cultural sites listed today by the World Heritage Committee holding its 28th session in Suzhou. This brings to 788 the number of cultural, natural and mixed sites now on the List. Bam Cultural ...

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea had its first site inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List today with the addition of a complex of Koguryo tombs. Andorra also entered the List with the cultural landscape of Madriu-Claror-Perafita Valley. They were among 13 cultural sites listed in Suzhou today. Below are the new sites inscribed on July 1 at the World Heritage Committee meeting ...

A glacier-fjord in Greenland, the Ilulissat Icefjord, is among the five new natural sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List, while the extraordinary earthen architecture of Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba, in Togo, is one of three new cultural sites inscribed by the World Heritage Committee in Suzhou today. The ongoing 28th session of the Committee, chaired by Zhang ...

Forty-eight sites will be considered for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List of outstanding cultural and natural sites during the 28th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, which will meet at the Urban Planning Convention Center in Suzhou (China) from June 28 to July 7. UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura will address the inaugural session of the meeting, which will be ...

The Fifth International Volunteer Khami Restoration Camp (3-26 June) near Bulawayo is now in progress, to be followed by a “1972 World Heritage Workshop” for Zimbabwean journalists. Operating on an annual basis since its inception in 2000, this year’s camp groups a total of 20 students from Botswana, Cameroon, Germany, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Reunion, South Africa, Zambia and ...

The web site for one of the World Heritage Advisory Bodies, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), regularly updates news on IUCN's work on protected areas. Recent features include: Guidelines for Planning and Managing Mountain Protected Areas; A mission to the Volcanoes of Kamchatka World Heritage Site in the Russian Federation; Establishment of a Global network on Transboundary ...

Tripoli-Kufra-Jebel Ouenat, 27 March - 5 April 2004Jebel Ouenat (in Arabic "Mountain of the springs") is a natural and cultural heritage site located at the border among Egypt, Libya and Sudan, which was discovered by the Egyptian explorer Ahmed Hassanein Bey only in 1923. This spectacular mountain, together with the neighbouring Jebel Arkenu, in Libya, and Jebel Kissu in Sudan, is the result ...

The workshop focused on the redefinition of the boundaries, the preparation of an Action Plan addressing conservation challenges and the discussion of mechanisms to assist the Nepalese Government in soliciting international cooperation. Various stakeholders including national and local authorities, Nepalese and international experts, members from Universities and INGOs, actively ...

UNESCO Conference 16-17 September at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris to evaluate the current status and future needs of the World Heritage Centre / UNF project: "Biodiversity Conservation in Regions of Armed Conflict: Protecting World Heritage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo". Co-sponsored by the Government of Belgium and the Government of Japan, this conference aims to raise global ...

The 2nd workshop obtained excellent feedback from the fifteen Arab trainees nominated by their governments. Experts were again brought in from leading international institutions, including: Department of Geography, University of Ghent R. Lemaire International Centre for Conservation, University of Leuven WCMC, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre University of California, ...

Presentations will be made everyday at 10am, 1pm and 3pm on issues such as World Heritage destinations, sustainable tourism at World Heritage sites, the effects of tourism on the conservation of World Heritage sites, individual conservation efforts, the trade's role in site conservation, and World Heritage tours as new markets. World Heritage Site Managers will be on hand to present ...

2nd training workshop to be organized in the Arab region for the application of Information Management for World Heritage Sites, fucusing on nature. This training to be organized from may 3 to 16, 2004 will gathered a group of trainees from different Arab Countries and known specialists on World Heritage environmental issues.

The World Heritage Committee consists of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, elected by the General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention. The current composition of the Committee is: Argentina, Benin, Chile, China (Chair), Colombia, Egypt, India, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Netherlands, ...

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is still accepting entries for the 2004 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.The Awards programme recognizes outstanding conservation projects of the built heritage, undertaken by private sector entities or through public-private partnerships. Now in its fifth year, the programme has ...

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Atsunori Kawarmura, Executive Producer of Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK TV) at UNESCO Headquarters.The MoU launches a new public service project aimed at creating a database of high-definition, digital motion pictures on different forms of cultural heritage to ensure the transmission of ...

The letter follows the receipt of numerous individual letters and e-mails sent to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

Paris - The Web site of the 27th session of the World Heritage Committee, which will take place in Suzhou (China), from the 29th of June to the 5th of July 2003, is now online at this address: http://www.27whc.org. The Web site is available in Chinese and English versions (French to come) and provides numerous useful information about the forthcoming session of the Committee, the organizing ...

A large fortified city under the influence of the Parthian Empire and capital of the first Arab Kingdom, Hatra withstood invasions by the Romans in A.D. 116 and 198 thanks to its high, thick walls reinforced by towers. The remains of the city, especially the temples where Hellenistic and Roman architecture blend with Eastern decorative features, attest to the greatness of its civilization. ...

On 20 January 2003, a fire broke out in the Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains in Hubei Province, China. Two-and-a-half hours later, the Yuzhengong Palace was burned to the ground. No one was injured in the fire but many of the structures from the Ming dynasty (14th-17th centuries) were damaged. Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994, the Ancient Building Complex ...