World Heritage Sites: A Complete Guide to 890 UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Foreword by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura,
Director-General of UNESCO

Fifty years ago, the construction of the Aswan High Dam resulted in the flooding of an extensive stretch of the Nile Valley, home to numerous ancient Nubian treasures, such as the Abu Simbel temples. Mindful that the threatened temples and artefacts were an urgent priority transcending national interests and pride, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched its first international safeguarding campaign. Funds and expertise were mobilized to dismantle and reassemble the monuments in new locations. UNESCO's appeal to save the truly outstanding vestiges of one of the world's richest and oldest civilizations made people all over the planet appreciate the universal dimension of cultural heritage. Thus, in addition to its triumph as a technical feat of unprecedented scale, this hugely successful campaign paved the way for the key notion of the common heritage of humankind that underpins the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, developed by UNESCO and adopted by its Member States in 1972.

Commonly known as the World Heritage Convention, this international treaty has been ratified by 186 countries to date, and the famous World Heritage List now includes 878 sites in 145 countries across the planet. For over thirty-five years, the Convention and List have proved invaluable tools in UNESCO's constant efforts to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. Moreover, they contribute significantly to advancing UNESCO's mission to safeguard the world's precious culture and biodiversity.

Although every year new sites are inscribed by the World Heritage Committee, many sites of outstanding universal value have yet to be included on the List, which strives to ensure a true representation of the full diversity of all types of tangible heritage. The open-ended nature of the List is precisely what makes it such a vibrant and attractive instrument for preservation.

The prestigious List includes some of the most famous places in the world, such as the ancient Nabataean city of Petra in Jordan, the legendary Acropolis in Athens, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and Machu Picchu, the 'Lost City of the Incas,' in Peru. These renowned breathtaking sites are obvious inclusions on the List as they represent extraordinary examples of our cultural and natural heritage. However, many are in need of extensive conservation efforts, partly as a consequence of their immense popularity. Fortunately, inclusion on the World Heritage List and the resulting economic benefits can give a huge boost to these conservation efforts so that future generations can enjoy this irreplaceable heritage.

Along with the well-known sites on the List are a number of lesser-known places. In reading this handsome book, you will gain a wealth of information about our common heritage: that the largest coliseum in North Africa is located in the small village of El Jem in Tunisia; that Ethiopian emperors were crowned at Aksum; that one of the most influential cultural centres of antiquity was Palmyra in present-day Syria; and that the world's largest free-roaming bison herd can be found in Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park. Other more unusual features revealed in these pages include the massive moai (carved heads) found in Rapa Nui National Park in Chile, the monastery-crowned rock pinnacles of Meteora in Greece, and the 'dragon' whose home is at the Komodo National Park in Indonesia. These are just a few of the many highlights to be discovered in this publication.

All currently inscribed UNESCO World Heritage sites are described in this single volume of The World's Heritage, which is illustrated with over 650 stunning full-colour photographs. It is my sincere hope that you will enjoy this unique guide to the planet's outstanding cultural and natural treasures, and that it will contribute to the dissemination of the universal ideals and values that UNESCO endeavours to uphold in its worldwide action.