What Is UNESCO World Heritage?
UNESCO World Heritage, ExplainedBest of the best: That's the lofty standard for making the World Heritage List. Nations lobby hard to get their glorious buildings, wilderness, and historic ruins on the list, a stamp of approval that brings prestige, tourist income, public awareness, and, most important, a commitment to save the irreplaceable. Travel editor, Gulnaz Khan explains what UNESCO World Heritage is and how sites are chosen to make the list. Lean more here.

What Is UNESCO World Heritage?

From masterpieces of creative genius to beautiful natural landscapes, these sites reveal the most compelling chapters of Earth's history.

May 11, 2018
3 min read

Best of the best: That's the lofty standard for making the World Heritage List. Nations lobby hard to get their glorious buildings, wilderness, and historic ruins on the list, a stamp of approval that brings prestige, tourist income, public awareness, and, most important, a commitment to save the irreplaceable.

In November 1972 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inaugurated the list by adopting a treaty known as the World Heritage Convention. Its continuing goal is to recruit the world community in identifying cultural and natural properties of "outstanding universal value."

UNESCO officials do not see the list as a mere trophy case of superlative places. World Heritage status commits the home nation to protect the designated location. And if a site—through natural disaster, war, pollution, or lack of funds—begins to lose its value, nations that have signed the treaty must assist, if possible, in emergency aid campaigns. As of January 2017, 193 of the world's nations have signed the treaty.

Raiatea Island in French Polynesia
mosque in City of Ahmedabad, India
the Historic City of Yazd
Rosthwaite, England, United Kingdom
the symmetric space along the courtyard axis of Hai Tian Tang Gou Mansion
sunbeams shining through the ornate Gelati Monastery in Georgia
Sambor Prei Kuk temple ruins in Kompong Thom Province, Cambodia
Roman monument Tetrapylon in Aphrodisias, Turkey
aerial photo of Palmanova, Italy
a view of houses and church at the settlement of Igaliku
Casentinesi Naturale Reserves - Component Sasso Fratino
France's Bas Rhin Strasbourg Neustadt district
the Torey Lakes in the morning
Old Roma Impero Cinema in Asmara, Eritrea
lake environment with temperate Alerce forest in Los Alerces National Park
a man walking through a deserted market in Hebron
Hoh Xil of northwest China's Qinghai Province
partial view from Mbanza Kongo
Miare Festival at the Sacred Island of Okinoshima
deers at Pendjari National Park
the staircase of the main building of the Bauhaus University in Weimar
people dancing around fire in the ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape
Tarnowskie Góry Mine in Poland
Eastern elevation, Assumption Cathedral
Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
the front view of Hohlenstein Stadel
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TaputapuāteaOn the lush volcanic island of Ra’iatea in the center of the Polynesian Triangle, forested valley, lagoon, and coral reef make up the property of Taputapuātea. In addition to its stunning natural features, the marae complex—a political, ceremonial and funerary center—is evidence of traditional Polynesian worship. Travel tip: Air Tahiti offers 40-minute flights to Ra’iatea from Papeete and Moorea, and daily 15-minute flights from Huahine and Bora Bora. The island can also be reached by ferry, but runs less frequently.
Photograph by STEPHEN ALVAREZ, Nat Geo Image Collection

The World Heritage program has scored high-profile successes. It exerted pressure to halt a highway near Egypt's Giza Pyramids, block a salt mine at a gray whale nursery in Mexico, and cancel a dam proposal above Africa's Victoria Falls. Its funds, provided by dues from the treaty's signers, have hired park rangers, bought parkland, built visitor centers, and restored temples. It relies on persuasive powers more than legal threats, but over a period of nearly five decades, the World Heritage initiative has quietly become a force for appreciating and safeguarding the world's special places.

As of 2018, there were 1,073 properties on the World Heritage list: 832 of cultural significance, 206 of natural significance, and 35 of mixed value. For sites in urgent need of safegaurding, Article 11.4 of the 1972 UNESCO convention established the List of World Heritage in Danger to recognize sites under threat from urban and tourism development, armed conflict, natural disasters, and abandonment. As of 2018, 54 sites are listed in danger.

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