Foster’s Daily Democrat, NH
UNESCO adds 19 cultural sites and 8 natural sites to World Heritage
List
Article Date: Sunday, September 21, 2008
QUEBEC CITY, Canada (AP) ‘ Baha’i holy places in Israel, the Monarch
butterfly biosphere reserve of Mexico, and the historic center of
Camaguey, a Spanish colonial town in Cuba first settled in 1528, are
among the new sites added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee met in July in Quebec City to add
the 19 cultural sites and eight natural sites to the list, which now
numbers 878 sites in 145 countries. Detailed information about each
site is available at
In Mexico, in addition to the butterfly reserve, the fortified town of
San Miguel and the Sanctuary of Jesus Nazareno de Atotonilco, cited
for their architecture, were added to the list.
In Europe, new UNESCO World Heritage sites are the ancient stone
walls, shelters and landscape of Stari Grad on the Adriatic island of
Hvar in Croatia; 17th century fortifications along the borders of
France; innovatively designed Modernist housing in Berlin, dating from
1910-1933; the Italian towns of Mantua and Sabbioneta, cited for
architecture and their role in Renaissance culture; eight wooden
churches dating to the 16th through 18th centuries in Slovakia; the
Rhaetian Railway, which includes two historic railway lines in Italy
and Switzerland that cross the Alps; and Mount Titano and the historic
center of San Marino, which dates to the 13th century.
In Asia and the South Pacific, new sites added to the World Heritage
list are Cambodia’s Temple of Preah Vihear; the "tulou" of China’s
Fujian province, which are circular communal earthen houses; Melaka
and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca in
Malaysia, cited for their unique multicultural heritage as trading
sites between Asia and Europe; the Kuk swamps in New Guinea, which
contain archaeological evidence of thousands of years of farming, and
three sites on islands in Vanuatu associated with a 17th century
chief, Roi Mata.
In the Middle East, the World Heritage list now includes, in Iran, the
Armenian monasteries of St. Thaddeus and St. Stepanos and the Chapel
of Dzordzor; Al-Hijr, Saudi Arabia’s first World Heritage property, an
archaeological site preserving Nabataean civilization dating to the
1st century B.C., and the Socotra islands in Yemen, cited for their
biodiversity.
In Africa, Kenya’s Mijikenda Kaya Forests were recognized for the
remains of fortified villages dating back centuries that are now
considered sacred sites, and Le Morne, a mountain on the coast of
Mauritius, included for its history as a shelter for runaway slaves.
Natural properties added to the UNESCO list, in addition to the Mexico
butterfly reserve, are Canada’s Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a fossil-rich
area of Nova Scotia; China’s Mount Sanqingshan National Park, noted
for its scenic landscape and "fantastically shaped" granite peaks and
pillars; the coral reefs and lagoons of New Caledonia; Surtsey, an
island in Iceland formed by volcanic eruptions in the 1960s that is a
pristine laboratory for plant and animal life; two nature reserves in
the steppe and lakes of Northern Kazakhstan; and a geologically
significant mountainous area of Switzerland known as the Glarus
Overthrust.