UNESCO

UNESCO World Heritage

 UNESCO World Heritage Sites

UNESCO World Heritage Sites represent some of the best natural, cultural and historic attractions in world travel. Many of the most important and spectacular destinations for adventure travllers have been listed by UNESCO and all of these sites can be explored on Frontiers of Travel, with descriptions for every site in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

The World Heritage Convention was signed in 1972 to help identify, protect and preserve the cultural and natural heritage of the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity and to safeguard the world's cultural and biodiversity. 190 states have now ratified the Convention and since 1978 several sites have been inscribed to the list each year.

There are currently 1052 properties on the World Heritage List - 815 cultural, 203 natural and 34 mixed sites. See the complete list on the UNESCO website or select a country from the menu below to explore it's cultural, natural and intangible heritage with images and links to UNESCO and OurPlace.


Lalibela
Rock-Hewn Churches Lalibela, Ethiopia		 Giant Pandas
Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, China		 Chichen Itza
Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza, Mexico		 Mostar
Old City of Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Resources to explore World Heritage Sites
UNESCO World Heritage Sites OurPlace World Heritage
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Centre Ourplace World Heritage Collection
Full details on the World Heritage Convention and all the inscribed sites, with detailed descriptions, maps, links and threats. A superb collection of photographs for almost 350 of the World Heritage Sites, visually documenting these sites for posterity.

Look for these symbols throughout this website to explore sites of interest


Iguazu FallsIguazu National Park, Argentina PragueHistoric Centre of Prague, Czech Republic SerengetiSerengeti National Park, Tanzania Hoi AnAncient Town of Hoi An, Vietnam

    Criteria for selection of World Heritage Sites:
  1. Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius
  2. Exhibit an important interchange of human values in architecture, technology, arts, town-planning or landscape design
  3. Bear unique or exceptional witness to a cultural tradition or civilisation
  4. Illustrate a significant stage in human history - building, architectural/technological ensemble, landscape
  5. Traditional human settlements, land uses or sea uses representative of a culture
  6. Associated with events, traditions, ideas, beliefs, artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
  7. Contain areas of exceptional natural beauty or superlative natural phenomena
  8. Represent major stages of Earth's history, including the record of life and significant geological processes
  9. Represent significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of ecosystems
  10. Contain significant natural habitats for the conservation of biological diversity, including threatened species of universal value