UNESCO World Heritage Atlas

Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu stands 2,430 m above sea-level, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, in an extraordinarily beautiful setting.

Yellowstone National Park

The vast natural forest of Yellowstone National Park covers nearly 9,000 km2; 96% of the park lies in Wyoming, 3% in Montana and 1% in Idaho.

Grand Canyon National Park

Carved out by the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon (nearly 1,500 m deep) is the most dramatic gorge in the world. Located in the state of Arizona, it cuts across the Grand Canyon National Park.

Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia

A walk through Cappadocia's valley of painted rock churches.

City of Quito

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, was founded in the 16th century on the ruins of an Inca city and stands at an altitude of 2,850 m.

Historic Centre of Kraków

The Historic Centre of Kraków, the former capital of Poland, is situated at the foot of the Royal Wawel Castle. The 13th-century merchants' town has Europe's largest market square and numerous historical houses, palaces and churches with their magnificent interiors.

Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines

The Salt Mine, the Tatra Mountains and a limestone valley close to the city.

Island of Gorée

Combining Dakar's historic southern peninsula with the twenty-minute ferry to Île de Gorée.

Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor

Walls, squares and the climb above the bay, timed around the ships.

Bryggen

Looking beyond the postcard front of Bryggen into its 1702 timber passages and Hanseatic assembly halls.

Old City of Dubrovnik

The 'Pearl of the Adriatic', situated on the Dalmatian coast, became an important Mediterranean sea power from the 13th century onwards.

Historic Cairo

Tucked away amid the modern urban area of Cairo lies one of the world's oldest Islamic cities, with its famous mosques, madrasas, hammams and fountains.

Memphis and its Necropolis, the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur

Trace the birth of pyramid building on a half- or full-day trip 30 km south of Cairo: visit Imhotep's 2670 BCE Step Pyramid of Djoser and the subterranean Serapeum at Saqqara, the Ramesses II colossus at Memphis, and the Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur.

Archaeological Site of Carthage

Riding the TGM railway along the Gulf of Tunis to ancient Punic and Roman Carthage and cliffside Sidi Bou Said.

Medina of Tunis

Guild souks, Husainid palaces and rooftop terraces in the medieval Medina, plus French-era Centre Ville.

Palace and Park of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles was the principal residence of the French kings from the time of Louis XIV to Louis XVI.

Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions

The remains of fortified trading-posts, erected between 1482 and 1786, can still be seen along the coast of Ghana between Keta and Beyin.

Kathmandu Valley

The cultural heritage of the Kathmandu Valley is illustrated by seven groups of monuments and buildings which display the full range of historic and artistic achievements for which the Kathmandu Valley is world famous.

Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)

According to historical investigations, 1.5 million people, among them a great number of Jews, were systematically starved, tortured and murdered in this camp, the symbol of humanity's cruelty to its fellow human beings in the 20th century.

Hierapolis-Pamukkale

A walking route through the Roman spa city above the terraces.

Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura

Founded, according to legend, by Romulus and Remus in 753 BC, Rome was first the centre of the Roman Republic, then of the Roman Empire, and it became the capital of the Christian world in the 4th century.

Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie with “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci

The refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie forms an integral part of this architectural complex, begun in Milan in 1463 and reworked at the end of the 15th century by Bramante.

Palace and Park of Fontainebleau

Surrounded by an immense park, the Italianate palace combines Renaissance and French artistic traditions. The need to expand and decorate this immense palace created the conditions for the survival of a true artistic centre.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park lies in central California. With its 'hanging' valleys, many waterfalls, cirque lakes, polished domes, moraines and U-shaped valleys, it provides an excellent overview of all kinds of granite relief fashioned by glaciation.

Iguazu National Park

Cross the Tancredo Neves Bridge from Foz do Iguaçu into Puerto Iguazú, Argentina to visit Hito Tres Fronteras, the giant Guarani timber structure of La Aripuca, the Feirinha, and Argentine steakhouses.

Historic Centre of the Town of Olinda

Explore the UNESCO World Heritage town of Olinda (6 km north of Recife): visit the 1582 Monastery of São Bento, Alto da Sé, Franciscan azulejos, and Rua do Amparo.

Tipasa

On the shores of the Mediterranean, Tipasa was an ancient Punic trading-post conquered by Rome and turned into a strategic base for the conquest of the kingdoms of Mauritania.

Historic Centre of Florence

Built on the site of an Etruscan settlement, Florence, the symbol of the Renaissance, rose to economic and cultural pre-eminence under the Medici in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Old City of Berne

Founded in the 12th century on a hill site surrounded by the Aare River, Berne developed over the centuries in line with a an exceptionally coherent planning concept.

City of Cuzco

Situated in the Peruvian Andes, Cuzco developed, under the Inca ruler Pachacutec, into a complex urban centre with distinct religious and administrative functions.

Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon

Manueline monuments, the original custard tarts and how to beat the queues.

Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments, Cartagena

Situated in a bay in the Caribbean Sea, Cartagena has the most extensive fortifications in South America.

Vatican City

A realistic plan for the Museums, the Sistine Chapel and the basilica.

Statue of Liberty

Which ticket to buy, how to avoid scams and how long to allow.

Works of Antoni Gaudí

Two Gaudí apartment houses on one avenue, and how to choose between them.

Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Madrid

Built at the end of the 16th century on a plan in the form of a grill, the instrument of the martyrdom of St Lawrence, the Escurial Monastery stands in an exceptionally beautiful site in Castile.

Medina of Marrakesh

A self-guided route through the souks, from the square to Ben Youssef and back.

Historic Areas of Istanbul

With its strategic location on the Bosphorus peninsula between the Balkans and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Istanbul has been associated with major political, religious and artistic events for more than 2,000 years.

Historic Centre of Salvador de Bahia

As the first capital of Brazil, from 1549 to 1763, Salvador de Bahia witnessed the blending of European, African and Amerindian cultures.

Historic District of Old Québec

Québec was founded by the French explorer Champlain in the early 17th century. It is the only North American city to have preserved its ramparts, together with the numerous bastions, gates and defensive works which still surround Old Québec.

Acropolis, Athens

Timed tickets, entrances, heat and the museum, in the order you'll need them.

Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue

A step-by-step route up Budapest's grandest boulevard, with the yellow Millennium Underground running straight underneath.

Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco

How the UNESCO-listed chinampa agricultural islands work, how official hourly trajinera boat rates operate at Nuevo Nativitas and Cuemanco, and how to reach the canals.

Brasilia

Brasilia, a capital created ex nihilo in the centre of the country in 1956, was a landmark in the history of town planning. The official buildings, in particular, are innovative and imaginative.

Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian

Understanding the painted faces and acrobatics of Peking Opera and choosing between historic guild halls and grand modern theatres.

Venice and its Lagoon

Quiet canalside wine bars in Cannaregio, how to order cicchetti and a boat route to Murano, Burano and Torcello.

Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan

How to take the direct coach from Terminal del Norte to Teotihuacan, walk the Avenue of the Dead between the Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon, and Feathered Serpent Temple, and pace the altitude.

Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville

How to approach Seville's working royal palace, what to see first and how to time your visit.

Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey including Saint Margaret’s Church

A walking route from Parliament to the palace, with the stops that deserve time.

Xanthos-Letoon

This site, which was the capital of Lycia, illustrates the blending of Lycian traditions and Hellenic influence, especially in its funerary art.

Medieval City of Rhodes

Walking the 14th-century Crusader citadel of the Knights of St John, from the Gothic Street of the Knights to the Moat.

Tower of London

The massive White Tower is a typical example of Norman military architecture, whose influence was felt throughout the kingdom. It was built on the Thames by William the Conqueror to protect London and assert his power.

Monasteries of Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios

The churches are built on a cross-in-square plan with a large dome supported by squinches defining an octagonal space.

Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin

With 500 ha of parks and 150 buildings constructed between 1730 and 1916, Potsdam's complex of palaces and parks forms an artistic whole, whose eclectic nature reinforces its sense of uniqueness.

Historic Centre of San Gimignano

'San Gimignano delle belle Torri' is in Tuscany, 56 km south of Florence. It served as an important relay point for pilgrims travelling to or from Rome on the Via Francigena.

Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments

The 'Venice of the North', with its numerous canals and more than 400 bridges, is the result of a vast urban project begun in 1703 under Peter the Great.

Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow

How to visit the Moscow Kremlin: ticketing for Cathedral Square and the Armoury Chamber, plus the Dormition Cathedral, Tsar Bell, and Tsar Cannon.

Delos

Sailing 25 minutes from Mykonos Old Port to the sacred birthplace of Apollo and the largest archaeological site in the Aegean.

Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture

Ibiza provides an excellent example of the interaction between the marine and coastal ecosystems. The dense prairies of oceanic Posidonia (seagrass), an important endemic species found only in the Mediterranean basin, contain and support a diversity of marine life.

Royal Domain of Drottningholm

Sailing Lake Mälaren to UNESCO-listed Drottningholm Palace or taking a quick train to Uppsala and Sigtuna.

Historic City of Sucre

Sucre, the first capital of Bolivia, was founded by the Spanish in the first half of the 16th century.

Paris, Banks of the Seine

From the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, from the Place de la Concorde to the Grand and Petit Palais, the evolution of Paris and its history can be seen from the River Seine.

Doñana National Park

Doñana National Park in Andalusia occupies the right bank of the Guadalquivir river at its estuary on the Atlantic Ocean.

Butrint

Inhabited since prehistoric times, Butrint has been the site of a Greek colony, a Roman city and a bishopric.

Kasbah of Algiers

The Kasbah is a unique kind of medina, or Islamic city. It stands in one of the finest coastal sites on the Mediterranean, overlooking the islands where a Carthaginian trading-post was established in the 4th century BC.

Angkor

How to experience Angkor Wat's bas-reliefs and Bakan tower, the Bayon in Angkor Thom, and jungle-wrapped Ta Prohm.

Historic Centre of Prague

Built between the 11th and 18th centuries, the Old Town, the Lesser Town and the New Town speak of the great architectural and cultural influence enjoyed by this city since the Middle Ages.

Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos

The site is an area on the north-east coast of the island that is clearly defined by the surrounding mountains.

Brú na Bóinne - Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne

The three main prehistoric sites of the Brú na Bóinne Complex, Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, are situated on the north bank of the River Boyne 50 km north of Dublin.

Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area

There are around 48 Buddhist monuments in the Horyu-ji area, in Nara Prefecture. Several date from the late 7th or early 8th century, making them some of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world.

Birka and Hovgården

The Birka archaeological site is located on Björkö Island in Lake Mälar and was occupied in the 9th and 10th centuries. Hovgården is situated on the neighbouring island of Adelsö.

City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto

Founded in the 2nd century B.C. In northern Italy, Vicenza prospered under Venetian rule from the early 15th to the end of the 18th century.

Church of the Ascension, Kolomenskoye

Visit northern Moscow's VDNKh pavilions and Cosmonautics Museum, then head south to the royal estates of Kolomenskoye and Tsaritsyno.

Skogskyrkogården

This Stockholm cemetery was created between 1917 and 1920 by two young architects, Asplund and Lewerentz, on the site of former gravel pits overgrown with pine trees.

Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)

Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century.

Roskilde Cathedral

Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, this was Scandinavia's first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick and it encouraged the spread of this style throughout northern Europe.

Historic Centre of Siena

Siena is the embodiment of a medieval city. Its inhabitants pursued their rivalry with Florence right into the area of urban planning.

Historic Centre of Naples

From the Neapolis founded by Greek settlers in 470 B.C. To the city of today, Naples has retained the imprint of the successive cultures that emerged in Europe and the Mediterranean basin.

Cultural Landscape of Sintra

Palaces, forests and a hill that cars can no longer drive up.

Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia del Sacramento

Founded by the Portuguese in 1680 on the Río de la Plata, the city was of strategic importance in resisting the Spanish. After being disputed for a century, it was finally lost by its founders.

Jongmyo Shrine

Jongmyo is the oldest and most authentic of the Confucian royal shrines to have been preserved.

Hanseatic Town of Visby

A former Viking site on the island of Gotland, Visby was the main centre of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic from the 12th to the 14th century.

Old and New Towns of Edinburgh

Edinburgh has been the Scottish capital since the 15th century.

Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn

How to pace the Habsburg summer palace, its hilltop Gloriette and 160 hectares of gardens without the crowds.

Dutch Water Defence Lines

The Dutch Water Defence Lines represents a defence system extending over 200 km along the edge of the administrative and economic heartland of Holland. It is comprised of the New Dutch Waterline and the Defence Line of Amsterdam.

Historic Centre of Oporto, Luiz I Bridge and Monastery of Serra do Pilar

Walking downhill from Avenida dos Aliados and Sao Bento through the Sé Cathedral to Ribeira and the bridge.

iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Maputo National Park

These environments are largely intact and support a high level of biodiversity.

Western Caucasus

The Western Caucasus, extending over 275,000 ha of the extreme western end of the Caucasus mountains and located 50 km north-east of the Black Sea, is one of the few large mountain areas of Europe that has not experienced significant human impact.

Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona

Domènech i Montaner's concert hall, and whether to see it on a tour or at a concert.

Maritime Greenwich

The ensemble of buildings at Greenwich, an outlying district of London, and the park in which they are set, symbolize English artistic and scientific endeavour in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata

Compare Pompeii and Herculaneum, ride the Circumvesuviana train from Napoli Porta Nolana or Piazza Garibaldi, and plan a combined day trip with the crater rim of Mount Vesuvius.

18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli, and the San Leucio Complex

Explore the monumental civic heart of Naples around Piazza del Plebiscito: the Royal Palace of Naples, the neoclassical Basilica of San Francesco di Paola, Teatro di San Carlo, Galleria Umberto I, and medieval Castel Nuovo.

Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico), Padua

The world's first botanical garden was created in Padua in 1545. It still preserves its original layout, a circular central plot, symbolizing the world, surrounded by a ring of water.

Costiera Amalfitana

The Amalfi coast is an area of great physical beauty and natural diversity. It has been intensively settled by human communities since the early Middle Ages.

Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout

The outstanding contribution made by the people of the Netherlands to the technology of handling water is admirably demonstrated by the installations in the Kinderdijk-Elshout area.

Changdeokgung Palace Complex

The royal palaces of the Joseon kings, and the hanok lanes between them.

Hwaseong Fortress

The massive walls, extending for nearly 6 km, still survive; they are pierced by four gates and equipped with bastions, artillery towers and other features.

University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares

Founded by Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros in the early 16th century, Alcalá de Henares was the world's first planned university city.

Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing

Exploring the Quanzhen Daoist headquarters at White Cloud Temple and the lilac-shaded courtyards of Tang-dynasty Fayuan Temple.

Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing

Exploring the North and South Gardens, the Tang-founded Sleeping Buddha Temple and glasshouse conservatories in the Western Hills.

Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara

Nara was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784. During this period the framework of national government was consolidated and Nara enjoyed great prosperity, emerging as the fountainhead of Japanese culture.

Archaeological Site of Troy

Making sense of Troy's nine stacked Bronze and Classical cities and exploring the acclaimed Troy Museum.

Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch

How to travel from Interlaken Ost to Europe's highest railway station at 3,454 metres, covering the 1912 rock tunnel, Sphinx Observatory, and Aletsch Glacier.

Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin

The Zeughaus and the Pei Building: what is closed, what is open and who should still go.

Villa Adriana (Tivoli)

The Villa Adriana (at Tivoli, near Rome) is an exceptional complex of classical buildings created in the 2nd century A.D. By the Roman emperor Hadrian.

Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Architectural and Park Landscape Complex and Pilgrimage Park

Kalwaria Zebrzydowska is a dramatic cultural landscape of great spiritual significance.

Robben Island

How the ferry and prison tour work, why to book for early in your trip and what to bring.

Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca

Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca is set in a valley surrounded by the Andean mountains in the south of Ecuador.

Droogmakerij de Beemster (Beemster Polder)

The Beemster Polder, dating from the early 17th century, is is an exceptional example of reclaimed land in the Netherlands.

Tiwanaku: Spiritual and Political Centre of the Tiwanaku Culture

Explore the UNESCO-listed pre-Columbian capital of Tiwanaku (AD 400 to 1000) 70 kilometres west of La Paz, including the Gate of the Sun, Kalasasaya Temple, 175 tenon heads, and Puma Punku.

Historic and Architectural Complex of the Kazan Kremlin

Explore the UNESCO-listed Kazan Kremlin: the 1562 Annunciation Cathedral, the leaning Söyembikä Tower, the Spasskaya Gate, and the Governor's Palace.

Kronborg Castle

Work began on the construction of this outstanding Renaissance castle in 1574, and its defences were reinforced according to the canons of the period's military architecture in the late 17th century.

Monastic Island of Reichenau

The island of Reichenau on Lake Constance preserves the traces of the Benedictine monastery, founded in 724, which exercised remarkable spiritual, intellectual and artistic influence.

Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba

Plan a day trip to the UNESCO-listed rural Jesuit Estancias around Córdoba: visit Alta Gracia (and the Che Guevara Museum), Jesús María and Colonia Caroya, and the Baroque church of Santa Catalina.

Rietveld Schröderhuis (Rietveld Schröder House)

The Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht was commissioned by Ms Truus Schröder-Schräder, designed by the architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, and built in 1924.

Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa

The historic centre of Arequipa, built in volcanic sillar rock, represents an integration of European and native building techniques and characteristics, expressed in the admirable work of colonial masters and Criollo and Indian masons.

Historic Centre of Vienna

Vienna developed from early Celtic and Roman settlements into a Medieval and Baroque city, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Aranjuez Cultural Landscape

The Tagus and Jarama rivers are the two main arteries of the Aranjuez Cultural Landscape, an extensive area (2,047.56 ha) in the south of the Autonomous Community of Madrid.

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen

The Zollverein industrial complex in Land Nordrhein-Westfalen consists of the complete infrastructure of a historical coal-mining site, with some 20th-century buildings of outstanding architectural merit.

Historic Centre of Guimarães and Couros Zone

The historic town of Guimarães is associated with the emergence of the Portuguese national identity in the 12th century.

Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi

Visiting the UNESCO Kasubi Royal Tombs, walking the Royal Mile to Mengo Palace and exploring Buganda heritage.

Villa d'Este, Tivoli

The Villa d'Este in Tivoli, with its palace and garden, is one of the most remarkable and comprehensive illustrations of Renaissance culture at its most refined.

Royal Hill of Ambohimanga

Madagascar's sacred UNESCO hill at Ambohimanga, close-up lemur walks and traditional highland dishes.

New Lanark

New Lanark is a small 18th- century village set in a sublime Scottish landscape where the philanthropist and Utopian idealist Robert Owen moulded a model industrial community in the early 19th century.

Cape Floral Region Protected Areas

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2004, the property is located at the south-western extremity of South Africa. It is one of the world’s great centres of terrestrial biodiversity.

Historic Inner City of Paramaribo

Paramaribo is a former Dutch colonial town from the 17th and 18th centuries planted on the northern coast of tropical South America. The original and highly characteristic street plan of the historic centre remains intact.

Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaíso

The colonial city of Valparaíso presents an excellent example of late 19th-century urban and architectural development in Latin America.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

This historic landscape garden features elements that illustrate significant periods of the art of gardens from the 18th to the 20th centuries.

Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy

The nine Sacri Monti (Sacred Mountains) of northern Italy are groups of chapels and other architectural features created in the late 16th and 17th centuries and dedicated to different aspects of the Christian faith.

Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites

Walking historic Banjul Island from the panoramic gallery of Arch 22 to the Gambia River ferries.

Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia

These two large Etruscan cemeteries reflect different types of burial practices from the 9th to the 1st century BC, and bear witness to the achievements of Etruscan culture.

Ensemble of the Novodevichy Convent

Follow the southwestern bend of the Moskva River from Gorky Park to the Sparrow Hills viewpoint, Moscow State University, and Novodevichy Convent.

Þingvellir National Park

Þingvellir (Thingvellir) is the National Park where the Althing, an open-air assembly representing the whole of Iceland, was established in 930 and continued to meet until 1798.

Luis Barragán House and Studio

Built in 1948, the House and Studio of architect Luis Barragán in the suburbs of Mexico City represents an outstanding example of the architect’s creative work in the post-Second World War period.

Chongoni Rock-Art Area

Tasting Lake Malawi chambo fish and nsima, plus day trips to Senga Bay beaches and Chongoni rock art.

Aapravasi Ghat

Visiting UNESCO Aapravasi Ghat, the rare 1847 stamps at the Blue Penny Museum and hilltop Fort Adelaide.

Old Town of Corfu

The Old Town of Corfu, on the Island of Corfu off the western coasts of Albania and Greece, is located in a strategic position at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea, and has its roots in the 8th century BC.

Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces

Although there is some evidence that vines were grown in the area in Roman times, the present vine terraces can be traced back to the 11th century, when Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries controlled the area.

Sydney Opera House

How to visit the UNESCO-listed Sydney Opera House at Bennelong Point, including Jørn Utzon’s vaulted shells, interior venues, tours, and best photo angles.

Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

As a result, the campus constitutes a unique example of 20th-century modernism integrating urbanism, architecture, engineering, landscape design and fine arts with references to local traditions, especially to Mexico’s pre-Hispanic past.

Berlin Modernism Housing Estates

The serial property comprises seven housing estates in Berlin built between 1910 and 1933.

Le Morne Cultural Landscape

Le Morne Cultural Landscape, a rugged mountain that juts into the Indian Ocean in the southwest of Mauritius was used as a shelter by runaway slaves, maroons, through the 18th and early years of the 19th centuries.

Cidade Velha, Historic Centre of Ribeira Grande

Discovering the 1462 birthplace of Cape Verde and driving north through volcanic peaks to Tarrafal.

Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty

The Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty form a collection of 40 tombs scattered over 18 locations.

La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, Watchmaking Town Planning

The site of La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle watchmaking town-planning consists of two towns situated close to one another in a remote environment in the Swiss Jura mountains, on land ill-suited to farming.

The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur

Walking the royal core of the Pink City from Hawa Mahal through the City Palace and Jantar Mantar.

Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long - Hanoi

The Thang Long Imperial Citadel was built in the 11th century by the Ly Viet Dynasty, marking the independence of the Dai Viet.

Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht

A walking guide to the UNESCO Canal Ring, the Nine Streets and the courtyards of the Jordaan.

Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps

This serial property of 111 small individual sites encompasses the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 B.C. On the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands.

Saloum Delta

Fishing and shellfish gathering have sustained human life in the 5,000 km2 property, which is formed by the arms of three rivers.

Stevns Klint

This geological site comprises a 15 km-long fossil-rich coastal cliff, offering exceptional evidence of the impact of the Chicxulub meteorite that crashed into the planet at the end of the Cretaceous, about 65 million years ago.

Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea

The site consists of an exceptional urban setting encompassing the key natural elements that have shaped and inspired the development of the city: from the highest points of the Tijuca National Park’s mountains down to the sea.

Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the Subak System as a Manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy

The cultural landscape of Bali consists of five rice terraces and their water temples that cover 19,500 ha. The temples are the focus of a cooperative water management system of canals and weirs, known as subak, that dates back to the 9th century.

Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage

Early 20th-century avenues, modern Moroccan art, Volubilis bronzes and Rabat's best dishes.

Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük

Stepping back 9,400 years at humanity's earliest mudbrick town and its award-winning all-timber Visitor Centre.

Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany

Twelve villas and two gardens spread across the Tuscan landscape make up this site which bears testimony to the influence the Medici family exerted over modern European culture through its patronage of the arts.

Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire

Taking the Metro to the 700-year-old cobbled lanes, painted timber houses and village breakfasts of Cumalıkızık.

Van Nellefabriek

Van Nellefabriek was designed and built in the 1920s on the banks of a canal in the Spaanse Polder industrial zone north-west of Rotterdam.

Namhansanseong

Namhansanseong was designed as an emergency capital for the Joseon dynasty (1392, 1910), in a mountainous site 25 km south-east of Seoul.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

This guide covers how to explore the Singapore Botanic Gardens, including recommended routes, key highlights and timing advice.

Ephesus

Located within what was once the estuary of the River Kaystros, Ephesus comprises successive Hellenistic and Roman settlements founded on new locations, which followed the coastline as it retreated westward.

The par force hunting landscape in North Zealand

Located about 30 km northeast of Copenhagen, this cultural landscape encompasses the two hunting forests of Store Dyrehave and Gribskov, as well as the hunting park of Jægersborg Hegn/Jægersborg Dyrehave.

The Forth Bridge

This railway bridge, crossing the Forth estuary in Scotland, had the world’s longest spans (541 m) when it opened in 1890. It remains one of the greatest cantilever trussed bridges and continues to carry passengers and freight.

Pampulha Modern Ensemble

Explore the UNESCO-listed Pampulha Modern Ensemble in Belo Horizonte: visit Oscar Niemeyer's 1943 Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, Casa do Baile, and MAP.

Aphrodisias

Pairing Denizli with UNESCO-listed Aphrodisias to the west and crater-deep Lake Salda to the east.

Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site

Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site is located in central Rio de Janeiro and encompasses the entirety of Jornal do Comércio Square.

Asmara: A Modernist African City

The world's best-preserved 1930s Futurist, Rationalist and Art Deco architecture across central Asmara.

Assumption Cathedral and Monastery of the town-island of Sviyazhsk

Plan day trips from Kazan to two UNESCO World Heritage sites on the Volga River, the 1551 island town of Sviyazhsk and medieval Bolgar, plus Raifa Monastery.

Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga

Located on the slopes of Mount Espinho, overlooking the city of Braga in the north of Portugal, this cultural landscape evokes Christian Jerusalem, recreating a sacred mount crowned with a church.

Jaipur City, Rajasthan

The walled city of Jaipur, in India’s north-western state of Rajasthan was founded in 1727 by Sawai Jai Singh II.

Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group: Mounded Tombs of Ancient Japan

Located on a plateau above the Osaka Plain, this property includes 49 kofun (“old mounds” in Japanese). These tombs were for members of the elite.

Water Management System of Augsburg

The water management system of the city of Augsburg has evolved in successive phases from the 14th century to the present day.

Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene

Located in north-eastern Italy, the property includes part of the winegrowing landscape of the Prosecco wine production area.

Royal Building of Mafra, Palace, Basilica, Convent, Cerco Garden and Hunting Park (Tapada)

Located 30 km northwest of Lisbon, the property was conceived by King João V in 1711 as a tangible representation of his conception of the monarchy and the State.

Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Apennines

This serial property is an unusually well-preserved and extensive epigenic gypsum karst terrain. It includes a very high density of caves: over 900 caves in a relatively small area, with over 100 km of caves in total.

Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles

Nevertheless, the frescos maintain a unity of style and content. As a group, these fresco cycles illustrate how, over the course of a century, fresco art developed along a new creative impetus and understanding of spatial representation.

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx

Began in 1949, the property encompasses extensive landscapes, gardens, buildings and collections, which feature the key characteristics that came to define Burle Marx’s landscape gardens and influenced the development of modern gardens internationally.

Nice, Winter Resort Town of the Riviera

Discover the 1912 St Nicholas Cathedral, the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Western Europe, alongside Villa Masséna, the Jules Chéret Fine Arts Museum, and UNESCO winter villas.

The work of engineer Eladio Dieste: Church of Atlántida

The Church of Atlántida with its belfry and underground baptistery is located in Estación Atlántida, 45 km away from Montevideo.

Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro, a landscape of Arts and Sciences

The three museums of the Paseo del Arte, what to see in each and how to fit them in.

Vjetrenica Cave, Ravno

Located in the Dinaric mountain range, the property stands out with its remarkable cave biodiversity and endemicity.

Jodensavanne Archaeological Site: Jodensavanne Settlement and Cassipora Creek Cemetery

Plan two memorable day trips south of Paramaribo: explore the 1685 UNESCO-listed brick synagogue ruins of Jodensavanne, or hike rainforest waterfalls at Brownsberg overlooking Brokopondo Lake.

ESMA Museum and Site of Memory, Former Clandestine Centre of Detention, Torture and Extermination

This property is located within the complex of the Former Navy School of Mechanics in Buenos Aires, in the former Officers’ Quarters.

Astronomical Observatories of Kazan Federal University

Visit Ildar Khanov's colourful Temple of All Religions on the Volga in Staroye Arakchino and explore the neoclassical campus of Kazan Federal University.

Memorial sites of the Genocide: Nyamata, Murambi, Gisozi and Bisesero

How to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi respectfully, plus Parliament and central museums.

Beijing Central Axis: A Building Ensemble Exhibiting the Ideal Order of the Chinese Capital

How the 7.8-kilometre UNESCO Central Axis organises imperial Beijing from Yongdingmen in the south to the Bell Tower in the north.

Melka Kunture and Balchit: Archaeological and Palaeontological Sites in the Highland Area of Ethiopia

The sites, situated about 2,000 to 2,200 metres above sea level, yielded Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis and archaic Homo sapiens fossils, documented in well-dated strata in association with various tools made from volcanic rocks.

Via Appia. Regina Viarum

More than 800 kilometres long, the Via Appia is the oldest and most important of the great roads built by the Ancient Romans.

Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity and Tradition in Central Asia

Exploring Tashkent's underground subway palaces and above-ground seismic modernist architecture.

Village of Sidi Bou Saïd

The property is a picturesque village perched on a promontory overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, harmoniously integrated into the cliff topography.

The Medinas of the Historic Sultanates of the Comoros

The serial property is composed of six historic towns which developed from urban nuclei that emerged around at least the 11th century and evolved into city-states around the 14th-15th century.

Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara

Located in the southern part of the Nara Basin, Asuka and Fujiwara were the two ancient capitals of the Japanese archipelago that marked the establishment of a centralised state system modelled after the Chinese codified law known as ritsuryō.

Forest Research Institute Malaysia Forest Park Selangor

Located 16 km northwest of Kuala Lumpur, the property is a human-made tropical rainforest established on degraded tin-mining land from the 1920s. It includes scientific, residential, and service buildings, water bodies, and trails.

The Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá

Walk the UNESCO-listed 1673 peninsula of Casco Antiguo: explore Plaza de la Independencia, the Interoceanic Canal Museum, the Golden Altar of San Jose, Arco Chato, Plaza Francia, and MUMO.

Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream

The property is located along the Bangucheon Stream on the South Korea’s southeastern coast, spanning about three kilometres through a landscape of stratified cliffs.

Faya Palaeolandscape

Located between the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, the property preserves evidence of human occupation from the Middle Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods (210,000, 6,000 years ago).

Crespi d'Adda

Crespi d'Adda in Capriate San Gervasio in Lombardy is an outstanding example of the 19th- and early 20th-century 'company towns' built in Europe and North America by enlightened industrialists to meet the workers' needs.

Monte San Giorgio

The pyramid-shaped, wooded mountain of Monte San Giorgio beside Lake Lugano is regarded as the best fossil record of marine life from the Triassic Period (245, 230 million years ago).

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Spanning 809,440 hectares in Tanzania, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area unites the world's largest intact volcanic caldera with Olduvai Gorge fossils and Maasai grazing lands.

Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region

Straddling North Macedonia and Albania, the Ohrid region pairs a three-million-year-old tectonic lake of 200 endemic species with Byzantine monasteries and prehistoric pile dwellings.

Tikal National Park

Rising above 57,600 hectares of Guatemala's Petén rainforest, Tikal preserves over 3,000 Maya structures, 70-metre pyramids, and engineered reservoirs inhabited from 1000 BC to 950 AD.

Willandra Lakes Region

In southwestern New South Wales, the relict Pleistocene basins of the Willandra Lakes preserve crescentic lunette dunes, giant marsupial fossils, and 42,000-year-old human burials.

Kakadu National Park

Covering 19,804 square kilometres in the Northern Territory, Kakadu National Park unites the 330-metre Arnhem Land escarpment and tidal floodplains with 5,000 Aboriginal rock art sites.

Tassili n'Ajjer

Covering 72,000 square kilometres of southeastern Algeria, Tassili n'Ajjer pairs eroded sandstone rock forests and 300 natural arches with 15,000 prehistoric Saharan rock art works.

Tasmanian Wilderness

Glaciated peaks, wild river gorges, and ancient temperate rainforests across southwestern Tasmania preserve forty millennia of Aboriginal cave heritage.

Galápagos Islands

Located 1,000 kilometres off mainland Ecuador where three ocean currents meet, the 19 volcanic Galápagos Islands and marine reserve shelter giant tortoises, iguanas, and Darwin's finches.

Simien National Park

Carved from 30-million-year-old flood basalts in northern Ethiopia, Simien National Park drops 1,500 metres from Ras Dashan into gorges sheltering the endemic Walia ibex and Ethiopian wolf.

Nahanni National Park

Deep in the subarctic wilderness of northern Canada, four limestone canyons and 90-metre cataracts frame geothermal tufa mounds and granite climbing spires along the South Nahanni River.

Kluane / Wrangell-St. Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek

Straddling the border of Alaska, Yukon, and British Columbia, Kluane, Wrangell-St. Elias, Glacier Bay, and Tatshenshini-Alsek protect vast non-polar icefields and 5,489-metre coastal peaks.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

In Croatia's Dinaric karst, Plitvice Lakes National Park links sixteen cascading lakes across a 133-metre drop through living phytogeneous tufa dams and 700-year-old beech-fir forests.

Dinosaur Provincial Park

Along 26 kilometres of Alberta's Red Deer River valley, Dinosaur Provincial Park exposes three Late Cretaceous formations that have yielded over 500 dinosaur specimens across 51 species.

Virunga National Park

From the 5,000-metre glaciers of the Rwenzori to the lava lake of Nyiragongo and Lake Edward's hippopotamus rivers, this 790,000-hectare sanctuary shelters rare mountain gorillas.

Everglades National Park

Protected as a national park in 1947 across the southern tip of Florida, this vast limestone sheet flow links Lake Okeechobee to the mangrove islands of Florida Bay.

Białowieża Forest

Straddling the border between Poland and Belarus across 141,885 hectares, this lowland primeval woodland preserves ancient oaks, vast deadwood habitats, and free-roaming European bison.

Sagarmatha National Park

Rising from the Dudh Kosi gorges at 2,845 metres to the 8,848-metre summit of Mount Everest, this Himalayan sanctuary unites glaciers with Sherpa Buddhist stewardship.

Kahuzi-Biega National Park

Bridging the Albertine Rift mountains and the Congo Basin west of Lake Kivu, this 600,000-hectare rainforest sanctuary protects the endangered eastern lowland (Grauer's) gorilla.

Ichkeul National Park

Covering 126 km2 inland from the Mediterranean port of Bizerte, this Tunisian wetland and limestone peak shelter over 300,000 wintering waterfowl.

Redwood National and State Parks

Managed jointly across four contiguous parks in northern California, this 139,000-acre coastal reserve protects 45 percent of Earth's surviving old-growth coast redwood forests.

Garamba National Park

Spanning 512,736 hectares in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, this savannah and gallery-forest reserve shelters Kordofan giraffes and hybrid elephants.

Durmitor National Park

Carved by glaciers and the 1,300-metre-deep Tara River Canyon in northern Montenegro, this Dinaric limestone massif rises to 2,523 metres above 18 alpine lakes.

St Kilda

Rising 375 metres from the North Atlantic off the Hebrides, this volcanic Scottish archipelago pairs Europe's largest seabird colony with 2,000 years of stone cleits.

Mesa Verde National Park

Carved into the sandstone canyon alcoves of southwestern Colorado between 650 and 1285 CE, over 600 Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings anchor America's largest archaeological preserve.

L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site

Excavated on the northern tip of Newfoundland, eight timber-framed turf buildings dated to 1021 CE preserve the earliest undisputed European settlement in North America.

Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela

Chiselled top-down from living red volcanic basalt in the Ethiopian Highlands under King Lalibela, these 11 monolithic churches form a living sacred New Jerusalem.

Aachen Cathedral

Emperor Charlemagne commissioned this octagonal Palatine Chapel in western Germany around 796, establishing an imperial coronation church that anchored the Holy Roman Empire until 1531.

Los Glaciares National Park

Fed by the South Patagonian Ice Field in Santa Cruz Province, forty-seven major glaciers descend from granite Andean peaks into the milky waters of Lake Argentino and Lake Viedma.

Great Barrier Reef

Stretching 2,300 kilometres along the Queensland continental shelf from Cape York to Bundaberg, this Coral Sea ecosystem encompasses 2,900 individual reefs and over 900 islands.

Darien National Park

Spanning 575,000 hectares along the Colombia border in southeastern Panama, this intercontinental land bridge rises from Pacific mangroves to Cerro Tacarcuna at 1,875 metres.

Serengeti National Park

Spanning 1.5 million hectares of volcanic grasslands and granite kopjes in northern Tanzania, the Serengeti sustains the annual 800-kilometre migration of two million ungulates.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Protected beneath a Big Clifty Sandstone caprock in Kentucky, the Mammoth and Flint Ridge karst labyrinth extends across more than 686 surveyed kilometres of underground passages.

Olympic National Park

Rising from 97 kilometres of wild Pacific coastline and temperate Sitka spruce rainforests to the glaciated 2,428-metre summit of Mount Olympus on Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve

Rising to 1,752 metres at Mount Richard-Molard across the border of Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, the Nimba Range shelters high-altitude grasslands and single-site endemic fauna.

Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary

Encompassing 16,000 hectares of lakes and backwaters in the Senegal River delta northeast of St-Louis, Djoudj provides the first freshwater stopover for 1.5 million trans-Saharan migratory birds.

Niokolo-Koba National Park

Spanning 9,130 square kilometres along the upper Gambia River in southeastern Senegal, Niokolo-Koba protects 78 percent of the country's gallery forests and the critically threatened Derby eland.

Mount Taishan

Rising to 1,545 metres at Jade Emperor Peak north of Tai'an in Shandong, sacred Mount Taishan preserves 6,660 granite steps, 22 temples, and 1,800 imperial stone inscriptions.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

Rising across the red spinifex plains of central Australia, the 348-metre arkose sandstone monolith of Uluru and the 36 domes of Kata Tjuta embody sacred Anangu Tjukurpa law.

Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo

Hewn 32 metres above the Rusenski Lom River in northeastern Bulgaria by hesychast monks from the 1220s, the Ivanovo cliff monasteries preserve fourteenth-century Palaeologan frescoes.

Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak

Constructed in the fourth century BC near Seuthopolis in central Bulgaria, this vaulted brickwork beehive tomb preserves Hellenistic frescoes of a Thracian funeral feast.

Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis

Stretching across both banks of the Nile in Upper Egypt, the capital of the Middle and New Kingdoms pairs Karnak and Luxor with the royal tombs of western Thebes.

Abu Mena

Founded over the desert grave of the third-century martyr Menas southwest of Alexandria, this Late Antique Christian pilgrimage city preserves limestone basilicas and monastic baths.

Fasil Ghebbi, Gondar Region

Established as Ethiopia's permanent capital by Emperor Fasilides in 1636, this walled royal compound in Gondar unites basalt castles, churches, and ceremonial baths.

Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay

Crowning a tidal granite peak off the Normandy coast, this medieval Benedictine monastery and fortified island village rise above vast shifting sandbanks.

Antigua Guatemala

Laid out on an Italian Renaissance grid at 1,500 metres in the Panchoy Valley beneath three volcanoes, the Spanish colonial capital preserves Barroco antigueño churches and ruins.

Persepolis

Built on a monumental limestone platform beneath Rahmat Mountain in Fars province, this Achaemenid ceremonial complex preserves carved stairways and columned halls.

Tchogha Zanbil

Built around 1250 BC by King Untash-Napirisha in Iran's Khuzestan province, this Middle Elamite sacred city surrounds the largest ziggurat outside Mesopotamia with three concentric walls.

Ancient City of Damascus

Enclosed by a 4.5-kilometre circuit of Roman and medieval walls along the Barada River, the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate preserves 125 historic monuments.

Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae

Stretching along the Nile and Lake Nasser from Aswan toward Sudan, ten archaeological zones unite the rock-cut temples of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel with the Island of Agilkia at Philae.

Chartres Cathedral

Rebuilt rapidly after the fire of 1194 southwest of Paris, this High Gothic Marian cathedral preserves its 12th-century Royal Portal and 152 medieval stained-glass windows.

Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley

Overhangs and subterranean limestone galleries along the Vézère River in the Dordogne preserve four hundred thousand years of Palaeolithic occupation and the polychrome cave art of Lascaux.

Vézelay, Church and Hill

Crowning the eternal hill in Burgundy's Yonne department, this 12th-century Benedictine basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene launched medieval pilgrimages and Crusades.

Meidan Emam, Esfahan

Spanning 89,600 square metres in central Isfahan, Shah Abbas's monumental Safavid plaza links the Shah Mosque, Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, Ali Qapu Palace, and Imperial Bazaar.

Rock Drawings in Valcamonica

Carved across glacier-polished sandstone slabs in Lombardy over 8,000 years, more than 140,000 prehistoric petroglyphs chronicle Alpine life down to the Roman era.

Urnes Stave Church

Overlooking Norway's Lustrafjorden since around 1130, Urnes Stave Church unites Romanesque timber engineering with eleventh-century Viking animal carvings on its north portal.

Stari Ras and Sopoćani

Combining the cliffside fortress of Serbia's first medieval capital with the thirteenth-century frescoes of Sopoćani, this Raška ensemble charts the rise of the Nemanjić dynasty.

Amphitheatre of El Jem

Rising 36 metres above the plain of El Djem, the third-century Roman amphitheatre of Thysdrus held up to 35,000 spectators inside free-standing limestone arcades.

Boyana Church

Tucked into the wooded outskirts of Sofia, medieval Boyana Church preserves 240 expressive thirteenth-century fresco figures painted in 1259 under Sebastocrator Kaloyan.

Madara Rider

Hewn 23 metres up a sheer 100-metre sandstone cliff in northeastern Bulgaria, the eighth-century Madara Rider is Europe's only monumental early medieval rock relief.

Historical Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian

Built on a Dalmatian peninsula around 295 to 305 AD as Emperor Diocletian's fortified retirement villa, this Roman complex now forms the living heart of Split.

Independence Hall

Built between 1732 and 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, this red-brick Georgian hall hosted the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution.

Aldabra Atoll

Rising 8 metres above the western Indian Ocean, this remote raised coral atoll in the Seychelles shelters a vast tidal lagoon and over 100,000 endemic giant tortoises.

Selous Game Reserve

Spanning 50,000 square kilometres along southern Tanzania's Rufiji River, the vast miombo woodlands and sand rivers of the Selous shelter elephants, hippos, and painted dogs.

Lord Howe Island Group

Born from submarine volcanic activity in the Tasman Sea, the Lord Howe Island Group pairs 875-metre basalt peaks and Balls Pyramid with the world's southernmost coral reef.

Taï National Park

Protecting 3,300 square kilometres of primary Upper Guinean rainforest in Côte d'Ivoire, Taï National Park shelters pygmy hippos, eleven monkey species, and chimpanzees.

Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve

Spanning from 1,326-metre granite peaks to Caribbean coastal lagoons in Honduras's Mosquitia region, this tropical watershed shelters four indigenous cultures and 721 vertebrate species.

Meteora

Crowning 400-metre sandstone and conglomerate pillars above the Pineios Valley in Thessaly, six surviving Orthodox monasteries preserve 16th-century Cretan School frescoes.

Mount Athos

Jutting 50 kilometres into the Aegean Sea and rising to 2,033 metres, this autonomous Greek Orthodox monastic republic preserves 20 fortified monasteries and Byzantine art.

Aksum

Rising at 2,131 metres in northern Ethiopia's Tigray highlands, the ancient capital of the Aksumite Empire preserves 33-metre granite stelae, royal tombs, and trilingual inscriptions.

Lower Valley of the Awash

Exposed across the arid badlands of Ethiopia's Afar Depression, Pliocene and Miocene sediments preserve 4.4-million-year-old Ardi and the 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus skeleton Lucy.

Asante Traditional Buildings

Constructed around open courtyards near Kumasi from wattle-and-daub mud plaster over timber and bamboo frames, these 10 surviving shrines preserve 18th-century Asante Adinkra bas-reliefs.

Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum

Carved across three subterranean levels down to 10.60 metres in soft globigerina limestone at Paola, Malta, this Neolithic sanctuary and necropolis held 7,000 burials and red-ochre spirals.

City of Valletta

Laid out in 1566 on a narrow limestone peninsula between two Mediterranean harbours, Malta's fortified Renaissance capital concentrates 320 monuments within 55 hectares.

Røros Mining Town and the Circumference

Preserving 80 dark pitch-log courtyard houses along the river Hyttelva alongside the Femundshytta smelter, this Norwegian bergstad reflects three centuries of sub-arctic copper mining.

Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama: Portobelo-San Lorenzo

Guarding the Caribbean terminals of the Isthmus of Panama at Portobelo Bay and the Chagres River mouth, these 16th- to 18th-century Spanish forts defended the Peruvian silver fleet.

Site of Palmyra

Centered on a 1,100-metre Grand Colonnade and the 1st-century AD Great Temple of Ba'al, this Syrian Desert caravan oasis blends Greco-Roman architecture with local and Persian traditions.

Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad

Founded in 1007 at 1,000 to 1,418 metres on the southern slope of Djebel Maâdid in Algeria, this fortified Hammadid capital preserves a 20-metre minaret and five palaces.

Paphos

Linking the 12th-century BC Sanctuary of Aphrodite at Kouklia with the Hellenistic-Roman harbour capital of Nea Paphos, this Cypriot serial site preserves world-documented mythological floor mosaics.

Tiya

Standing across the Soddo woreda of central Ethiopia's Gurage Zone, the Tiya burial complex preserves 36 monolithic stone pillars, 32 of which bear carved swords and enigmatic symbols.

Maya Site of Copan

In the Copán River valley of western Honduras, the Maya capital of Oxwitik preserves the 2,200-glyph Hieroglyphic Stairway, deep-relief portrait stelae, and the 16-king roster of Altar Q.

Megalithic Temples of Malta

Built across Malta and Gozo between 3600 BC and 2500 BC, the six Neolithic complexes of Tarxien, Ġgantija, Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, Skorba, and Ta' Ħaġrat preserve trilithon apses.

Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi and Neighbouring City Remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol

Perched 150 metres above the Mardan plain in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the 1st-century Buddhist monastery of Takht-i-Bahi and nearby Kushan town of Sahr-i-Bahlol preserve Gandhara stone courts.

Taxila

Spanning four successive urban mounds from Saraikala and Bhir Mound to Indo-Greek Sirkap and Kushan Sirsukh in Punjab, Taxila preserves five centuries of Silk Road planning and monasteries.

Historic Centre of Warsaw

Levelled by more than 85 percent during the August 1944 Warsaw Uprising, Poland's medieval Old Town and Royal Castle were meticulously rebuilt from original bricks and 18th-century Bellotto canvases.

Historic Town of Ouro Preto

Spread across the steep Serra do Espinhaço valleys of Minas Gerais, colonial Ouro Preto preserves 18th-century Barroco Mineiro churches sculpted in soapstone by Aleijadinho.

Lower Valley of the Omo

Along the lower Omo-Bottego River above Lake Turkana in southwestern Ethiopia, Plio-Pleistocene beds have yielded 50,000 fossils, 230 hominid remains, and 2.4-million-year-old quartzite tools.

Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro

Built of baked brick along the Indus River in Sindh between 2500 and 1500 BC, Moenjodaro preserves a raised citadel, the Great Bath, and a grid of drained streets.

Ancient City of Bosra

Built of dark basalt in southern Syria, ancient Bosra preserves a second-century Roman theatre inside a medieval citadel, Nabataean gates, Byzantine churches, and the Al-Omari Mosque.

Srebarna Nature Reserve

Two kilometres south of the Danube near Silistra in Bulgaria, the 638-hectare Srebarna freshwater lake and floating reedbeds provide nesting habitat for 99 bird species and the Dalmatian pelican.

Wood Buffalo National Park

Spanning 44,741 square kilometres across Alberta and the Northwest Territories, Canada's largest national park protects 3,000 wood bison, the Peace-Athabasca Delta, and nesting whooping cranes.

Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves / La Amistad National Park

Spanning 570,045 hectares across the Cordillera de Talamanca between Costa Rica and Panama, La Amistad protects glacial valleys, Cerro Chirripó at 3,819 metres, and 10,000 flowering plant species.

Comoé National Park

Spanning 1,149,450 hectares around the Comoé River in north-eastern Côte d'Ivoire, Comoé National Park protects gallery forests and shrub savannahs rich in West African wildlife.

Sangay National Park

Rising from Amazon rainforests to glaciated volcanoes reaching 5,319 metres in Ecuador, Sangay National Park shelters mountain tapirs, spectacled bears, and Andean condors.

Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve

In the granite hills of Praslin Island in the Seychelles, the 19.5-hectare Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve preserves a prehistoric palm forest led by the giant coco de mer.

Pirin National Park

Crowned by the marble peak of Vihren at 2,914 metres in south-western Bulgaria, Pirin National Park protects 118 glacial lakes, Europe's southernmost glacierets, and ancient pines.

Gulf of Porto: Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata, Scandola Reserve

Along the western coast of Corsica, the Gulf of Porto unites the red porphyry cliffs of the Calanche of Piana, the Gulf of Girolata, and the Scandola Nature Reserve.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Straddling the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, Great Smoky Mountains National Park protects 522,419 acres of Appalachian ridges, old-growth forests, and salamander streams.

Cliff of Bandiagara (Land of the Dogons)

Rising 500 metres above the sandy plains of central Mali across 150 kilometres, the Cliff of Bandiagara protects 289 Dogon villages and ancient Tellem cave architecture.

SGang Gwaay

On Anthony Island in the Gwaii Haanas archipelago of British Columbia, SGang Gwaay preserves 19th-century Haida cedar longhouse ruins and carved mortuary and memorial poles.

Speyer Cathedral

Founded by Emperor Conrad II in 1030 on the left bank of the Rhine, Speyer Cathedral is Europe's largest Romanesque church and the burial site of eight imperial rulers.

Amiens Cathedral

Built between 1220 and 1270 above the River Somme in Picardy, Amiens Cathedral is France's largest Gothic church by volume and a masterpiece of 13th-century sculpture.

Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments

Along the River Rhône in Provence, Arles preserves a 65-hectare ensemble of 1st-century BC Roman arenas and theatres alongside the Romanesque cloister of Saint-Trophime.

Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay

Founded by Saint Bernard in 1118 in a secluded Burgundian valley, the Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay preserves its 12th-century Romanesque church, cloister, dormitory, and medieval forge.

Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls

Enclosed within 4,018 metres of 16th-century Ottoman ramparts, the Old City of Jerusalem holds 220 historic monuments sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Historical Monuments at Makli, Thatta

Massed along the 6.5-kilometre Makli Hill plateau beside Thatta in Sindh, half a million tombs from the 14th to 18th centuries fuse Gujrat stone carving and Persian glazed tiles.

Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Lahore

Located 7 kilometres apart in Lahore, the royal palaces of the Lahore Fort and the three-terraced 1641 Shalamar Gardens with 414 fountains exemplify 17th-century Mughal imperial design.

Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara

On two coral islands off southern Tanzania, the medieval Swahili ports of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara preserve the 16-bay Great Mosque, the 100-room Husuni Kubwa palace, and five mosques.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Where the Porcupine Hills meet the prairies 18 kilometres west of Fort Macleod in Alberta, Blackfoot hunters drove bison over an 11-metre sandstone cliff for nearly 6,000 years.

Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange

In the Rhône Valley town of Orange, an Augustan theatre with a 103-metre-long, 37-metre-high stage wall and a three-bay Triumphal Arch preserve Roman provincial monumental design.

Würzburg Residence with the Court Gardens and Residence Square

Built between 1720 and 1744 in Würzburg by Balthasar Neumann for the Schönborn Prince-Bishops, this Baroque palace shelters Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's 580-square-metre staircase fresco.

Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua

In Guatemala's lower Motagua Valley, the 34-hectare Maya park of Quiriguá preserves 8th-century sandstone zoomorphs and the 10.6-metre, 65-ton Stela E erected by K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat.

Medina of Fez

Founded between 789 and 808 AD in northern Morocco, the car-free Medina of Fez unites Fes el-Bali and 1276 Marinid Fes el-Jdid around al-Qarawiyyin and medieval madrasas.

Lake Malawi National Park

At the southern end of Rift Valley Lake Malawi around the Nankumbu Peninsula and 13 rocky islands, this 94-square-kilometre park protects over 350 endemic mbuna cichlid species.

Chitwan National Park

At the foot of the Himalayas in southern Nepal, the 952.63-square-kilometre Chitwan National Park protects alluvial Terai grasslands, 605 Indian rhinoceroses, and 145 Bengal tigers.

Mana Pools National Park, Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas

Framed by the Zambezi River and a 1,000-metre escarpment in northern Zimbabwe, this 676,600-hectare reserve around four oxbow pools shelters dry-season herds of elephants and lions.

Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks

Uniting Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, and Yoho national parks with Hamber, Mount Assiniboine, and Mount Robson provincial parks, this mountain reserve protects the Burgess Shale fossils.

Salonga National Park

Covering 3,600,000 hectares in the central Congo River basin, roadless Salonga National Park is the largest tropical rainforest reserve in Africa, sheltering bonobos and forest elephants.

Mount Huangshan

Rising to 1,864 metres at Lotus Peak in southern Anhui, China, these glaciated Mesozoic granite summits and crooked pines inspired the Shanshui painting school.

Río Abiseo National Park

Protecting 70% of the Abiseo basin in San Martín Region, Peru, this Andean cloud-forest sanctuary shelters the yellow-tailed woolly monkey and 36 Chachapoyas ruins.

Tongariro National Park

Gifted to the Crown by Ngāti Tūwharetoa chief Horonuku in 1887 around three active volcanoes on New Zealand's North Island, Tongariro became UNESCO's first cultural landscape.

Djémila

Founded under Emperor Nerva at 900 metres on a narrow mountain spur between two wadis in Sétif Province, Algeria, ancient Cuicul preserves two Roman fora, a theatre, and Christian basilicas.

Archaeological Site of Leptis Magna

Embellished by native-born Emperor Septimius Severus along the Wadi Lebda in Tripolitania, Libya, this Mediterranean port preserves the Severan Forum, Basilica, and Arch.

Archaeological Site of Sabratha

Established around 500 BCE as the Phoenician port of Tsabratan in western Tripolitania, Roman Sabratha preserves a three-storey theatre stage, forum temples, and seaside baths.

Ancient City of Polonnaruwa

Rising beside the Parakrama Samudra reservoir in Sri Lanka's North Central Province, Polonnaruwa unites Chola Brahmanic shrines with Parakramabahu's 12th-century garden city.

M'Zab Valley

Founded between 1012 and 1350 by the Ibadis along the Wadi M'Zab 600 km south of Algiers, these five fortified desert ksour inspired Le Corbusier and 20th-century planners.

Timgad

Founded ex nihilo by Emperor Trajan in AD 100 in Batna Province, Algeria, Colonia Thamugadi preserves a Roman orthogonal street grid, a 12-metre Arch, and a 4th-century Library.

Old Havana and its Fortification System

Founded in 1519 beside a sheltered Caribbean harbour, La Habana Vieja preserves five Baroque and neoclassical plazas guarded by 16th- to 18th-century stone fortresses.

From the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the Production of Open-pan Salt

Designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux for Louis XVI in eastern France, the semicircular Saline Royale at Arc-et-Senans received brine via a 21 km pipeline from Salins-les-Bains.

National History Park, Citadel, Sans Souci, Ramiers

Constructed by freed formerly enslaved Haitians after the 1804 independence proclamation, King Henry Christophe's Palace of Sans-Souci and mountaintop Citadelle stand as global monuments to liberty.

Archaeological Site of Cyrene

Founded in 631 BC by Greek colonists from Thera on a 600-metre ridge of Libya's Jebel Akhdar, ancient Cyrene preserves the Sanctuary of Apollo and a 20 km2 necropolis.

Ancient City of Sigiriya

Fifth-century royal citadel atop a 180-metre granite plug in Matale District, surrounded by symmetrical water gardens, frescoes, and a polished mirror wall.

Sacred City of Anuradhapura

Sri Lanka's ancient royal and monastic capital founded around the sacred Bodhi Tree sapling in the 3rd century BCE, famous for colossal brick stupas.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

Pre-Columbian Mississippian metropolis across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, anchored by Monks Mound and more than 80 surviving earthen mounds.

Old Walled City of Shibam

Sixteenth-century fortified mud-brick metropolis in the Hadhramaut Valley, where 500 tower houses rise five to eleven storeys above the desert wadi bed.

Huascarán National Park

High-altitude Andean biosphere reserve in Peru's Cordillera Blanca, home to 6,768-metre Mount Huascarán, 660 tropical glaciers, and 300 turquoise lakes.

Kaziranga National Park

Alluvial floodplain sanctuary along the Brahmaputra River in Assam, sheltering the world's largest population of the great Indian one-horned rhinoceros.

Keoladeo National Park

Man-made wetland sanctuary in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, engineered at the end of the 19th century to host more than 375 resident and migratory bird species.

Manas Wildlife Sanctuary

Himalayan foothill sanctuary on the Bhutan border where alluvial grasslands and Bhabar forests shelter pygmy hogs, golden langurs, and tigers.

Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis: San Ignacio Mini, Santa Ana, Nuestra Señora de Loreto and Santa Maria Mayor (Argentina), Ruins of Sao Miguel das Missoes (Brazil)

Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century baroque sandstone churches and communal plazas built across Argentina and southern Brazil.

Ancient City of Nessebar

Three-thousand-year-old Black Sea peninsula in Burgas Province uniting Thracian walls, Dorian Mesembria, Byzantine brick churches, and 19th-century timber houses.

Pilgrimage Church of Wies

Eighteenth-century Bavarian Rococo pilgrimage church designed by Dominikus and Johann Baptist Zimmermann in an Alpine meadow near Steingaden.

Ajanta Caves

Thirty rock-cut Buddhist cave monasteries and worship halls carved into a horseshoe basalt gorge in Maharashtra from the 2nd century BCE through the 5th century CE.

Abbey of St Gall

Carolingian monastic foundation and 18th-century Baroque abbey precinct in eastern Switzerland, famed for its Rococo library and the 9th-century Plan of St Gall.

La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Spanish engineers fortified the rocky islet of Old San Juan with sandstone ramparts, coastal bastions, and governorate palaces guarding the Caribbean port.

Rila Monastery

Established in the 10th century by St Ivan of Rila and reconstructed between 1834 and 1862, Bulgaria’s mountain monastery pairs a medieval stone tower with striped National Revival arcades.

Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière and Place d'Alliance in Nancy

Constructed between 1752 and 1756 for exiled Polish monarch Stanislas Leszczynski, Nancy’s three linked squares pair classical stone facades with Jean Lamour’s gilded wrought-iron gates.

Agra Fort

Rebuilt in red Dhaulpur sandstone by Emperor Akbar between 1565 and 1573 and transformed with white marble palaces by Shah Jahan, Agra Fort anchored the Mughal Empire along the Yamuna River.

Central Zone of the Town of Angra do Heroismo in the Azores

Founded in the late 15th century on Terceira Island, Angra do Heroísmo pairs a wind-adapted Atlantic street grid with the 400-year-old coastal fortresses of São João Baptista and São Sebastião.

Monastery of Batalha

Founded by King João after the 1385 Battle of Aljubarrota, the Dominican Monastery of Batalha blends Rayonnant and Flamboyant Gothic vaults with carved Manueline stone screens.

Abbey Church of Saint-Savin sur Gartempe

Founded in the Carolingian era and rebuilt from 1023, the Poitou abbey church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe preserves an intact 11th- and 12th-century cycle of Romanesque biblical vault murals.

Ellora Caves

Excavated side by side along a 2-kilometre basalt cliff in Maharashtra between the 6th and 12th centuries, the 34 caves of Ellora unite Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain sanctuaries.

Taj Mahal

Commissioned in 1631 by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the white Makrana marble mausoleum of the Taj Mahal rises above a 17-hectare charbagh garden on the Yamuna River.

Convent of Christ in Tomar

Founded in 1160 by Templar Grand Master Gualdim Pais and expanded under the Order of Christ, the hilltop Convent of Christ in Tomar unites a 16-sided Romanesque rotunda with Manueline stone carving.

Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair

Founded around 775 in Switzerland’s Val Müstair probably under Charlemagne, the Benedictine Convent of St John preserves an extensive cycle of Carolingian frescoes painted around 800 AD.

Gondwana Rainforests of Australia

Spanning 370,000 hectares across 41 reserves in New South Wales and Queensland, the Gondwana Rainforests protect eroded shield volcano calderas and ancient Antarctic beech lineages.

Garajonay National Park

Covering 40 square kilometres across the central plateau of La Gomera in the Canary Islands, Garajonay National Park protects a mist-shrouded Tertiary laurel forest around its 1,487-metre peak.

Iguaçu National Park

A vast subtropical protected reserve in southern Brazil framing a monumental semicircular basaltic waterfall system and preserving Atlantic Forest wildlife.

Škocjan Caves

A Classic Karst underground canyon in southwestern Slovenia where the Reka River carves vast subterranean chambers beneath limestone sinkholes.

Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast

An exposed Paleogene volcanic coastline in Northern Ireland where forty thousand polygonal basalt columns step down into the North Atlantic surf.

Tyre

An ancient Phoenician island metropolis on Lebanon's southern coast preserving monumental Roman hippodrome ruins, colonnaded streets, and harbour breakwaters.

Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram

A seventh- and eighth-century Pallava royal port on India's Coromandel Coast featuring monolithic granite rathas, cave sanctuaries, and narrative rock reliefs.

Baalbek

A monumental Roman sanctuary in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley where colossal limestone trilithons and towering Corinthian temples crown an ancient Phoenician tell.

Anjar

An early eighth-century Umayyad fortified palace-city in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley preserving a classical Roman grid plan, tetrapylon, and stone arcades.

Byblos

A coastal sandstone promontory north of Beirut where Neolithic dwellings, Bronze Age obelisk temples, and Crusader fortifications trace Phoenician history.

Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brühl

An eighteenth-century electoral palace and falconry hunting lodge in Brühl, Germany, featuring early Rococo architecture, Balthasar Neumann's staircase, and formal gardens.

Sun Temple, Konârak

A thirteenth-century Kalingan stone sanctuary on India's Bay of Bengal coast sculpted as the twenty-four-wheeled solar chariot of Surya.

Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada

A medieval Nasrid palatine city, irrigated summer estate, and Moorish hillside quarter rising above the Darro River valley in Granada, Spain.

Burgos Cathedral

A monumental Castilian Gothic cathedral in northern Spain begun in 1221, crowned by openwork fifteenth-century spires and an octagonal crossing lantern.

Historic Centre of Cordoba

A monumental urban ensemble on Spain's Guadalquivir River uniting a Roman bridge, the Umayyad Mosque-Cathedral, a medieval synagogue, and courtyard houses.

Dja Faunal Reserve

Equatorial rainforest loop encircled by the Dja River in south-eastern Cameroon, sheltering western lowland gorillas, forest elephants, and traditional Baka pygmy hunting grounds.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Active shield-volcano landscape on the island of Hawaii encompassing Kīlauea and Mauna Loa, rising from Pacific black-sand shores to an alpine summit at 4,170 metres.

Gros Morne National Park

Exposed mantle peridotite tablelands and freshwater glacial fjords on western Newfoundland, illustrating plate tectonics and the Ordovician geological boundary.

Sundarbans National Park

Estuarine mangrove archipelago in West Bengal where Ganges and Brahmaputra tides shape 54 islands inhabited by amphibious royal Bengal tigers and saltwater crocodiles.

Manú National Park

Roadless watershed in south-western Peru descending from 4,200-metre Andean puna grasslands to lowland Amazonian oxbow lakes, home to over 1,000 bird species.

Sian Ka'an

Mayan-named coastal reserve on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, linking 400,000 hectares of tropical forests, wetlands, and 23 Maya ruins with the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.

Kilimanjaro National Park

Africa's highest peak at 5,895 metres and the world's largest free-standing volcanic massif, rising 4,877 metres above the surrounding Tanzanian savannah plains.

Royal Palaces of Abomey

Earthen palace complex of 12 kings of Dahomey (1625 to 1900) in southern Benin, featuring polychrome bas-reliefs, three-courtyard compounds, and royal museum collections.

Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Congonhas

Eighteenth-century pilgrimage sanctuary in Minas Gerais, Brazil, crowned by Aleijadinho's twelve soapstone prophet statues and polychrome Passion scenes in the Passos chapels.

Painted Churches in the Troodos Region

Ten timber-roofed Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches in Cyprus's Troodos Mountains, preserving dated mural cycles spanning 500 years from the 11th to the 16th century.

Petra

Nabataean caravan capital of Raqmu carved into rose-red sandstone cliffs in southern Jordan, approached through the Siq gorge and watered by ancient rock-cut conduits.

Rock Art of Alta

Over 6,000 prehistoric hunter-gatherer rock carvings and paintings (c. 5000 BC to AD 0) at the head of Norway's Alta Fjord, chronologically tiered by post-glacial land uplift.

Chavin (Archaeological Site)

Pre-Inca ceremonial centre at 3,180 metres in Peru's Ancash highlands (c. 1500 to 300 BC), famous for its subterranean Lanzón gallery, sunken plazas, and carved tenon heads.

Old Town of Ávila with its Extra-Muros Churches

A fortified medieval city in Castile and León encircled by intact twelfth-century stone ramparts, semicircular towers, nine gates, and Romanesque churches.

Pont du Gard (Roman Aqueduct)

A three-tiered first-century Roman shelly limestone aqueduct bridge spanning the Gardon River in southern France to supply ancient Nemausus.

St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Church at Hildesheim

Two eleventh-century Ottonian Romanesque churches in Hildesheim, Germany, housing Bishop Bernward's monumental bronze doors, Christ column, and painted wooden ceiling.

Rock-Art Sites of Tadrart Acacus

A desert sandstone massif in southwestern Libya preserving thousands of Saharan rock paintings and engravings spanning from 12,000 BC to AD 100.

Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain

Eighteen Upper Palaeolithic karst caves across northern Spain led by Altamira, where Magdalenian polychrome bison and Aurignacian symbols span twenty-five millennia.

Santiago de Compostela (Old Town)

A monumental medieval pilgrimage city in northwestern Spain centred on the Cathedral of Saint James, the Pórtico de la Gloria, and granite monastic squares.

Punic Town of Kerkuane and its Necropolis

An unspoilt Phoenician-Punic coastal town and cliffside necropolis on Tunisia's Cape Bon peninsula, abandoned around 250 BC during the First Punic War.

Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği

A thirteenth-century Mengujekid mosque and adjoining two-storey hospital in central-eastern Anatolia, famed for three-dimensional high-relief stone portals and ribbed vaults.

Ruins of the Buddhist Vihara at Paharpur

An eighth-century Pala dynasty Buddhist mahavihara in northwestern Bangladesh where a terraced cruciform brick shrine rises inside a quadrangle of 177 monastic cells.

Historic Mosque City of Bagerhat

A fifteenth-century Bengal Sultanate brick city founded by Ulugh Khan Jahan near the Sundarbans, preserving the Sixty Dome Mosque, mausoleums, and reservoirs.

Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari

An early third-century BC royal Getic tumulus tomb in northeastern Bulgaria featuring ten high-relief polychrome caryatids and a painted vault lunette.

Hatra

A circular fortified Parthian caravan metropolis and Arab kingdom capital in northern Iraq, featuring double defensive walls and vaulted limestone iwans.

Quseir Amra

An early eighth-century Umayyad desert limestone bathhouse and audience hall in eastern Jordan, celebrated for secular figurative frescoes and a domed zodiac ceiling.

Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias

Ninth-century pre-Romanesque churches, royal halls, and the Foncalada hydraulic fountain around Oviedo, capital of the medieval Kingdom of the Asturias.

Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct

First-century unmortared granite Roman aqueduct of 167 arches straddling the valley into Segovia's walled medieval bluff, Alcázar, and 16th-century Gothic cathedral.

Wet Tropics of Queensland

Eighty-nine-hundred-square-kilometre Gondwanan rainforest corridor along northeastern Queensland, sheltering cassowaries, primitive flowering plants, and Daintree coastal reefs.

Henderson Island

Uninhabited raised coral atoll in the Pitcairn group of the eastern South Pacific, preserving ten endemic plants, four endemic land birds, and vast seabird colonies.

Manovo-Gounda St Floris National Park

Vast 1,740,000-hectare Sudano-Sahelian and Sudano-Guinean savanna reserve in northern Central African Republic, spanning three river watersheds below the Bongo massif.

Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks

High-altitude glacier basins, the deep Rishi Ganga gorge, and endemic alpine meadows protecting snow leopards and musk deer in northern India.

Sinharaja Forest Reserve

Sri Lanka's last viable expanse of primary lowland tropical rainforest, where over 60 percent of the canopy trees and 19 of 20 resident bird species are endemic.

Churches and Convents of Goa

Seven sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Indo-Portuguese churches and convents in Old Goa, led by the laterite Basilica of Bom Jesus housing the tomb of Saint Francis Xavier.

Fatehpur Sikri

Sixteenth-century red sandstone imperial capital founded by Mughal Emperor Akbar in Agra District, crowned by the 54-metre Buland Darwaza and Jama Masjid.

Group of Monuments at Hampi

Sixteen-hundred surviving Dravidian temples, royal pavilions, and fortified bazaars of the 14th- to 16th-century Vijayanagara capital along the Tungabhadra River.

Khajuraho Group of Monuments

Tenth- and eleventh-century Chandela sandstone temples in Madhya Pradesh, famed for Nagara-style spires and the 870 sculptures of Kandariya Mahadeva.

Historic Centre of Évora

Walled Alentejo museum-city in southern Portugal uniting a 1st-century Corinthian Roman temple, a 13th-century cathedral, and whitewashed houses with azulejos.

Mudejar Architecture of Aragon

Ten 12th- to 17th-century Aragonese palaces, cathedrals, and church-fortresses in Teruel and Zaragoza, famed for ornamental brick and glazed ceramic belfries.

Old Town of Cáceres

Founded by the Romans in 25 BC and enclosed by an Almohad defensive wall with 30 Islamic towers, the Old Town of Cáceres unites medieval fortifications with Gothic and Renaissance noble palaces.

Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd

Constructed from 1283 under King Edward I, ruler of England, and Savoyard architect James of St George, the castles and town walls of Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy, and Harlech anchor North Wales.

Ironbridge Gorge

Spanning 550 hectares along the River Severn in Shropshire, Ironbridge Gorge preserves Abraham Darby’s 1709 coke-smelting blast furnace at Coalbrookdale and the 1779 cast-iron bridge.

Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey

Along the River Skell near Ripon in North Yorkshire, monastic stone vaults erected after 1132 meet formal canals, moon ponds, and deer-park vistas across 674 acres.

Old City of Sana'a

Continuously inhabited for over 2,500 years in a Yemen highland valley at 2,200 metres elevation, the Old City of Sana'a preserves more than 6,000 rammed-earth tower-houses and 103 mosques.

Great Zimbabwe National Monument

Built by ancestors of the Shona people between the 11th and 15th centuries near Masvingo, Great Zimbabwe spans nearly 800 hectares of mortarless granite enclosures and soapstone bird shrines.

Khami Ruins National Monument

Founded around 1450 west of Bulawayo as the capital of the Torwa dynasty’s Kingdom of Butua, Khami replaces freestanding stone enclosures with decorated dry-stone retaining platforms.

Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier

Founded as a 1st-century Roman colony on the Moselle and elevated into a capital of the Tetrarchy, Trier unites the Porta Nigra and Constantine’s Basilica with Germany’s oldest cathedral.

Chan Chan Archaeological Zone

Built around 850 AD in Peru’s arid Moche Valley as the capital of the Chimor Empire, the 20-square-kilometre earthen metropolis of Chan Chan encloses nine royal adobe citadels.

Historic City of Toledo

Rising on a granite promontory encircled by the Tagus River 70 kilometres south of Madrid, the Historic City of Toledo unites Visigothic, Islamic, Jewish, Mudéjar, and Gothic landmarks.

Ancient City of Aleppo

Anchored by a 50-metre citadel mound and the 13-kilometre covered Souq al-Madina, the Ancient City of Aleppo layers Hellenistic street grids with Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman architecture.

Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites

Separated by 24 kilometres across the Wiltshire chalklands, Stonehenge and Avebury unite prehistoric sarsen and bluestone circles with Silbury Hill, earthen henges, and barrow cemeteries.

Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae

Erected between 420 and 400 BC at 1,131 metres on Mount Kotilios in Arcadia, the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae unites the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders in grey limestone.

Old Town of Ghadamès

Built around the Ain al-Faras spring in northwestern Libya, the circular oasis town of Ghadamès shelters three-level mud-brick homes and covered lanes.

Studenica Monastery

Founded in 1190 by Stefan Nemanja in central Serbia's Raška district, Studenica Monastery unites white marble churches with 13th- and 14th-century Byzantine frescoes.

Hattusha: the Hittite Capital

Set on a 300-metre slope above the Budaközü Plain in Çorum Province, Hattusha preserves the 8-kilometre ramparts, sculpted gates, and Yazılıkaya sanctuary of the Hittite Empire.

Durham Castle and Cathedral

Set atop a rocky peninsula above the River Wear in northeast England, Durham Castle and Cathedral unite a 1072 Norman stronghold with a rib-vaulted Benedictine basilica.

Banc d'Arguin National Park

Spanning 12,000 square kilometres of Mauritanian Atlantic coast, Banc d'Arguin National Park unites Saharan dunes with shallow flats hosting two million wintering waders.

Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls

Shared between Zambia and Zimbabwe along the Zambezi River, Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls plunges up to 108 metres across a 1,708-metre basalt precipice into eight gorges.

Archaeological Site of Delphi

Set between the twin Phaidriades cliffs on Mount Parnassus in Central Greece, Delphi housed the Panhellenic oracle of Apollo and the sacred Omphalos stone.

Old Village of Hollókő and its Surroundings

Set in a valley of the Cserhát Mountains in Nógrád County, Hungary, the Palóc village of Hollókő preserves 55 traditional half-timbered homes and a 13th-century castle.

Great Living Chola Temples

Erected by the Chola dynasty in Tamil Nadu, the royal sanctuaries of Thanjavur, Gangaikondacholapuram, and Darasuram unite Dravidan stone towers with living Agamic rituals.

Historic Centre of Puebla

Founded ex nihilo in 1531 beneath the Popocatepetl volcano, the Historic Centre of Puebla pairs a Renaissance grid with Baroque churches and glazed azulejo facades.

Pre-Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque

Built across the karst terraces of Lakamha in Chiapas, Mexico, the Classic Maya capital of Palenque unites the funerary pyramid of Hanab-Pakal with vaulted stone aqueducts.

Bahla Fort

Rising above a mud-walled oasis at the foot of Oman's Jebel Akhdar highlands, Bahla Fort pairs unbaked mud-brick towers with a 13-kilometre perimeter sur and falaj channels.

Blenheim Palace

Designed by John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor in Oxfordshire, Blenheim Palace honours the first Duke of Marlborough inside Capability Brown’s landscaped park.

Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang

Beijing's Forbidden City and Shenyang's early Qing palace complex preserve five centuries of imperial court ritual, axial urban planning, and multi-ethnic dynastic architecture.

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor

Beneath a 51.3-metre earthen pyramid near Xi'an, China's first emperor surrounded his unexcavated subterranean palace with thousands of life-size terracotta soldiers.

Frontiers of the Roman Empire

Stretching from Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall in Britain to the German Limes, these fortified frontiers trace the second-century borders of the Roman Empire.

Elephanta Caves

Hewn into solid volcanic basalt on Gharapuri Island in Mumbai Harbour, Elephanta's Cave 1 frames a seven-metre three-faced Sadashiva relief within a mandala-planned pillared hall.

Piazza del Duomo, Pisa

Four white-marble medieval monuments rise from a walled green lawn in Pisa, anchored by a 14,500-tonne Romanesque bell tower stabilised at a 3.97-degree tilt.

Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou

Clustered on a hillside above the Ounila River in southern Morocco, the earthen towers and rammed-earth dwellings of Ait-Ben-Haddou preserve a pre-Saharan caravan stronghold.

City of Bath

In the valley of the River Avon, Bath pairs Roman thermal baths built around 60 AD with eighteenth-century Palladian crescents and squares carved from golden limestone.

Chaco Culture

Across the arid canyons of northwestern New Mexico, ancestral Pueblo builders raised multi-storey sandstone great houses, ceremonial kivas, and engineered regional roads.

Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville

Eight kilometres apart in central Virginia, Thomas Jefferson's hilltop plantation house at Monticello and his U-shaped Academical Village redefine American Neoclassicism.

City of Potosí

Perched at 4,000 metres beneath the silver veins of Cerro Rico in the Bolivian Andes, Potosí preserves the hydraulic reservoirs, mills, and Royal Mint of a sixteenth-century industrial city.

Mogao Caves

Carved into a two-kilometre desert cliff outside Dunhuang on the Silk Road, the Mogao Caves shelter a thousand years of Buddhist murals, stucco statues, and Library Cave manuscripts.

The Great Wall

Spanning 21,196.18 kilometres from the Bohai Gulf to the western deserts, China's Great Wall unites two millennia of rammed-earth frontier ramparts and Ming brick watchtowers.

Hanseatic City of Lübeck

Encircled by waterways near the Baltic coast, Lübeck's blade-shaped Old Town island preserves the Brick Gothic churches, salt storehouses, and patrician alleys of the Hanseatic League.

Group of Monuments at Pattadakal

A riverside ensemble of sandstone Hindu and Jain sanctuaries in Karnataka where northern curvilinear spires and southern stepped towers stand side by side.

Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán

A dual heritage site in southern Mexico uniting the levelled Zapotec mountain capital of Monte Albán with the checkerboard colonial streets of Oaxaca.

Nemrut Dağ

A Hellenistic royal sanctuary crowning the Eastern Taurus peaks where colossal limestone deities and Greek and Persian ancestor stelae flank a stone-chip tumulus.

Andrefana Dry Forests

A six-part serial conservation corridor along western Madagascar protecting razor-edged limestone tsingy plateaus, dry deciduous forests, and southwestern spiny thickets.

Te Wahipounamu, South West New Zealand

A vast glaciated wilderness across the southwest of New Zealand's South Island uniting four national parks, active alpine glaciers, fjords, and ancient beech-podocarp rainforests.

Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area

A sacred Sichuan mountain rising 3,099 metres through subtropical and subalpine forests, paired with the 71-metre 8th-century Leshan Giant Buddha carved above three converging rivers.

Laponian Area

A 9,400-square-kilometre Arctic wilderness in northern Sweden where glacial mountains, primeval marshes, and river deltas remain shaped by seasonal Saami reindeer transhumance.

Strasbourg, Grande-Île and Neustadt

A Rhineland river island and imperial district in Strasbourg uniting a medieval Gothic cathedral core with 18th-century classical palaces and late-19th-century urban planning.

Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika

Fifteen early Christian and Byzantine churches, monasteries, baths, and city walls in Thessaloniki spanning the 4th to the 15th centuries with landmark mosaics and frescoes.

Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus

An ancient Greek therapeutic sanctuary in the Peloponnese where the acoustic Theatre of Epidaurus, Tholos, and sleeping stoas trace the rise of scientific medicine.

Old Towns of Djenné

Four pre-Islamic floodplain mounds and the mud-brick city of Djenné in Mali, famed for the Great Clay Mosque and nearly 2,000 houses on flood-proof hillocks.

Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent Mines

A winding highland silver-mining capital in central Mexico where subterranean river tunnels, Churrigueresque churches, and deep shafts reflect 18th-century colonial prosperity.

Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza

A monumental Terminal Classic and Postclassic Mayan-Toltec ceremonial metropolis in Yucatán anchored by the stepped pyramid of El Castillo, the Great Ball Court, and sacred karst cenotes.

Old City of Salamanca

Golden sandstone façades, twin cathedrals, and the 1218 university core shape Salamanca above the Tormes River.

Medina of Sousse

Aghlabid ramparts, the coastal Ribat fortress, and the Great Mosque enclose Tunisia's historic Medina of Sousse.

Trinidad and the Valley de los Ingenios

Cobblestone colonial plazas in Trinidad and 75 former cane mill sites across the Valley de los Ingenios chronicle Cuba's sugar boom.

Sacred City of Kandy

Surrounding Kandy Lake in Sri Lanka's central hills, Senkadagalapura guards the Temple of the Tooth Relic and royal Kandyan shrines.

Timbuktu

Three earthen mosques, 16 saintly mausoleums, and centuries of Saharan manuscript scholarship define Mali's desert crossroads of Timbuktu.

Archaeological Sites of Bat, Al-Khutm and Al-Ayn

Bronze Age circular limestone towers and Hafit-period beehive tombs across Bat, Al-Khutm, and Al-Ayn preserve 3rd-millennium BC Oman.

Historic Centre of Lima

Founded in 1535 in the Rímac Valley, Lima's historic core preserves viceregal convents, colonial plazas, and 2023 heritage exclaves.

Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications

Coral-and-granite Dutch ramparts, 14 bastions, and veranda-lined streets crown Sri Lanka's coastal promontory at Galle.

Kairouan

Founded in 670 AD, Kairouan anchors Islamic North Africa with the Great Mosque of Uqba, the Three Doors façade, and Aghlabid cisterns.

Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church

Christ Church Cathedral, St Martin's Church and the abbey ruins of St Augustine trace England's Christian revival from 597 AD to Becket's 1170 shrine.

Ujung Kulon National Park

Protecting Java's largest lowland rainforest and the volcanic islands of Krakatoa, Ujung Kulon is the last refuge of the Javan rhinoceros.

Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries

Spanning 622,200 hectares along Thailand's Myanmar frontier, Thungyai and Huai Kha Khaeng shelter Indochinese tigers and four biogeographic forest zones.

Shark Bay, Western Australia

Hypersaline lagoons, 4,000 square kilometres of seagrass meadows, and living Hamelin Pool stromatolites shape Western Australia's Shark Bay.

Danube Delta

Braided river channels, floating Phragmites reedbeds, and coastal sand dunes shelter vast pelican colonies where the Danube meets the Black Sea.

Komodo National Park

Volcanic islands swept by fierce tidal currents between Flores and Sumbawa shelter the world’s largest living lizard alongside rich coral reefs.

Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves

Volcanic massifs and hyper-arid Saharan dune seas in northern Niger preserve a vital desert refuge for addax, dama gazelle, and Barbary sheep.

Pyrénées - Mont Perdu

Glaciated limestone canyons and high pastoral cirques straddle the Pyrenean frontier around the calcareous summit of Monte Perdido.

Archaeological Site of Mystras

Fortified medieval churches, terraced palaces, and vivid frescoed monasteries cling to a steep Taygetos spur above the valley of Sparta in Laconia.

Archaeological Site of Olympia

Shaded by the Hill of Cronus beside the Alpheios and Kladeos rivers, the Panhellenic sanctuary of Zeus hosted the ancient Olympic Games for over a millennium.

Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi

Crowned by hemispherical brick and stone stupas, monolithic Ashokan pillars, and elaborately carved torana gateways, Sanchi Hill preserves fifteen centuries of Buddhist art in Madhya Pradesh.

Monastery of Alcobaça

Founded by King Afonso Henriques for Bernard of Clairvaux in 1153, this Cistercian abbey in central Portugal houses the carved Gothic tombs of Pedro I, and Inês de Castro.

Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area

Multi-tiered travertine waterfalls and brilliantly coloured karst lakes step down through glaciated alpine valleys in the Minshan Mountains of northern Sichuan.

Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area

Golden calcite rimstone pools, cascading travertine terraces, and snow-clad Minshan peaks surround the high-altitude valley of Huanglong in northern Sichuan.

K’gari

Towering parabolic dunes, crystal-clear perched freshwater lakes, and ancient tall rainforests grow directly in pure quartz sands on the world’s largest sand island.

Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area

More than three thousand sheer quartz-sandstone pillars, natural stone bridges, and deep karst caverns rise through swirling mountain mists in northwestern Hunan.

Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

Golden domes above the Dnipro River unite the eleventh-century Byzantine mosaics of Saint-Sophia Cathedral with the cliffside monastic caves of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

Itchan Kala