World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are places in the world which are very important from the cultural or natural point of view. These places are selected by UNESCO, a part of the United Nations.
The World Heritage Convention ("Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage")[1] is a United Nations treaty. It governs the selection and protection of these sites. The nations that have agreed to the treaty elect 21 nations to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.[2] That committee sets the site list.[3]
The sites are places (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city). As of 2012[update], 962 sites in 157 different countries are listed. There are 745 cultural sites, 188 natural sites, and 29 mixed properties.[4][5] Italy has 47 sites on the list, which is the most for any country.
Each World Heritage Site remains part of the legal territory of the nation where the site is located. UNESCO wants everyone in the world to work to protect each site. Sometimes UNESCO provides funds to help protect a site.
Images [change]
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Chichen Itza in Yucatán (Mexico)
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Historic Centre of St. Petersburg and its suburbs (Russia)
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Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains (China)
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Mount Kenya National Park (Kenya)
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Victoria Falls of the Zambezi River in Africa
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The Taj Mahal
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Memphis and its Necropolis, including the Pyramids of Giza (Egypt)
References [change]
- ↑ "Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage" (PDF). http://whc.unesco.org/archive/convention-en.pdf. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
- ↑ "The World Heritage Committee". UNESCO World Heritage Site. http://whc.unesco.org/en/comittee/. Retrieved October 16, 2011. As of 2011, World Heritage Committee members are: Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Iraq, Jordan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and United Arab Emirates.
- ↑ According to the UNESCO World Heritage website, States Parties are countries that signed and ratified The World Heritage Convention. As of November 2007, there are a total of 186 States Parties.
- ↑ World Heritage List, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites.
- ↑ Twenty-seven new sites inscribed, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites.
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Other websites [change]
- List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites — Official website
- World Heritage Site – Smithsonian Ocean Portal
- TIME magazine. The Oscars of the Environment – UNESCO World Heritage Site
