UNESCO Just Added 27 New World Heritage Sites for 2023
On Monday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) unveiled 27 new World Heritage Site designations. Among them are a diverse slate of culturally significant areas, including sacred temples in Cambodia, ancient tea forests in China, and historic European towns.
Several existing heritage sites were also expanded to include new areas, including Madagascar’s Andrefana Dry Forests, Vietnam’s Cat Ba Archipelago in Ha Long Bay, and new parts of the ancient Hyrcanian Forests in Azerbaijan.
The World Heritage Committee has been deliberating which sites to inscribe on its World Heritage roster at its ongoing meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Committee members are choosing from a list of global nominations that were submitted throughout 2022 and 2023.
In order to be added to the illustrious list, a natural or cultural site must be be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of ten other criteria for selection, such as representing a “masterpiece of human creative genius,” or having “areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.”
Additionally, the committee recently added several sites in Ukraine to its Endangered List, due to the ongoing Russian invasion there. Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral and its monastic buildings were designated as endangered, as was the historic city center of L'viv. “Faced with the risk of direct attack, these sites are also vulnerable to the shockwaves caused by the bombing of the two cities,” UNESCO said in a statement.
The committee meeting is slated to last until September 25, and additional sites could continue to be inscribed. Here’s a running list of the newest UNESCO World Heritage Sites added in 2023:
Koh Ker archaeological site in Cambodia
Santiniketan, West Bengal, India
Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er, China
Mongolia's Deer Stone Monuments
Korea's Gaya Tumuli burial mounds
Türkiye's archaeological site of Gordion
Germany's Jewish medieval historic center of Erfurt
Architecture of the town of Kaunas, Lithuania
Guatemala's National Archaeological Park Tak’alik Ab’aj
Old town of Kuldīga, Latvia
Prehistoric Sites of Talayotic Menorca
The Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor of the Silk Road
Ethiopia's Gedeo Cultural Landscape
Iran's Persian Caravanserai
Canada's Tr’ondëk-Klondike region
The Czech town of Žatec and its tradition of Saaz Hops
Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan
“Köç Yolu” Transhumance Route in Azerbaijan
Djerba in Tunisia
India's Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas
Indonesia's Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta
Bale Mountains National Park in Ethiopia
The Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua in Congo
Volcanoes and forests of Mount Pelée and pitons of Martinique
Viking-age ring fortresses in Denmark
The Maison Carrée of Nîmes, France
Russia’s Astronomical Observatories of Kazan Federal University
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler