World Heritage List

Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico. Photograph © Clive Ruggles
UNESCO’s World Heritage List (WHL) includes over a thousand sites and landscapes distributed throughout the world, selected by UNESCO for having an outstanding significance that transcends cultural boundaries and will persist down the generations into the future. The majority are cultural properties, but some are natural places and a few are recognized in both respects. To be selected, not only must a site be important but also a plan must be presented and endorsed by the relevant country for its maintenance and exploitation.
The concept of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), value that transcends cultural boundaries and will persist indefinitely into the future, is fundamental in UNESCO’s efforts to identify cultural sites worthy of inclusion on the World Heritage List. Basically, OUV is the term of recognition for the value cultural or natural properties need to manifest in order to be inscribed on the WHL.
Astronomical heritage offers a profound new vision that has important implications for the more effective implementation of the World Heritage Convention and for helping State Parties create credible nomination dossiers. It raises valuable new heritage concepts, combines different categories of cultural heritage in previously unrecognised and unexplored ways, and highlights hitherto unrecognised types of linkage between cultural and natural heritage. The principal aspects of this vision are applicable more broadly to science heritage in general, and indeed also to technology heritage.
Sites connected to astronomy that are already on the World Heritage List
In 2008, members of the IAU’s Astronomy and World Heritage Working Group, later to become IAU Commission C4 on World Heritage and Astronomy, examined UNESCO’s World Heritage List for sites connected to astronomy. The resulting list is shown below. What perhaps stands out most is that the great majority of the sites listed are not related to modern scientific astronomy or its history. See also the Thematic essay on indigenous uses of astronomy.
Country |
Established World Heritage Site With Possible Connections to Astronomy |
|
No. |
Name |
Argentina |
936 |
Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas |
Australia |
447 |
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park |
Bolivia |
567 |
Tiwanaku: Spiritual and Political Centre of the Tiwanaku Culture |
Bolivia |
883 |
Fuerte de Samaipata |
Botswana |
1021 |
Tsodilo |
Cambodia |
668 |
Angkor |
Chile |
715 |
Rapa Nui National Park |
China |
881 |
Temple of Heaven: An Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing |
China |
441 |
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor |
China |
1003 |
Longmen Grottoes |
China |
439bis |
Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang |
China |
707 |
Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa |
Columbia |
744 |
San Agustín Archeological Park |
Columbia |
743 |
National Archeological Park of Tierradentro |
Egypt |
88 |
Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae |
Egypt |
86 |
Memphis and its Necropolis—The Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur |
Egypt |
87 |
Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis |
Ethiopia |
12 |
Tiya |
Ethiopia |
15 |
Aksum |
France |
83bis |
Palace and Park of Versailles |
France |
85 |
Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley |
Greece |
392 |
Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae |
Greece |
595 |
Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos |
Greece |
530 |
Delos |
Greece |
941 |
Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns |
Greece |
517 |
Archaeological Site of Olympia |
Greece |
491 |
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus |
Greece |
393 |
Archaeological Site of Delphi |
Greece |
404 |
Acropolis, Athens |
Guatemala |
64 |
Tikal National Park |
Guatemala |
149 |
Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua |
Honduras |
129 |
Maya Site of Copan |
India |
246 |
Sun Temple, Konârak |
India |
243 |
Ellora Caves |
India |
244 |
Elephanta Caves |
Indonesia |
592 |
Borobudur Temple Compounds |
Ireland |
659 |
Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne |
Iran |
114 |
Persepolis |
Italy |
787 |
The Trulli of Alberobello |
Italy |
94 |
Rock Drawings in Valcamonica |
Italy |
829 |
Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata |
Italy |
831 |
Archaeological Area of Agrigento |
Kenya |
801bis |
Lake Turkana National Parks |
Korea |
977 |
Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites |
Lebanon |
294 |
Baalbek |
Mali |
119 |
Timbuktu |
Mali |
516 |
Cliff of Bandiagara (Land of the Dogons) |
Malta |
132bis |
Megalithic Temples of Malta |
Mexico |
714 |
Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco |
Mexico |
415 |
Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán |
Mexico |
791 |
Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal |
Mexico |
414 |
Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan |
Mexico |
483 |
Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza |
Mexico |
411 |
Pre-Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque |
Mexico |
412 |
Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco |
Mexico |
631 |
El Tajin, Pre-Hispanic City |
Mexico |
939 |
Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco |
Mexico |
1061 |
Ancient Maya City of Calakmul, Campeche |
Norway |
352 |
Rock Art of Alta |
Peru |
548 |
Río Abiseo National Park |
Peru |
700 |
Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana |
Peru |
274 |
Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu |
Peru |
273 |
City of Cuzco |
Peru |
330 |
Chavin (Archaeological Site) |
South Africa |
985 |
uKhahlamba / Drakensberg Park |
Sudan |
1073 |
Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region |
Sweden |
557 |
Rock Carvings in Tanum |
Syria |
23 |
Site of Palmyra |
Togo |
1140 |
Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba |
Turkey |
448 |
Nemrut Daǧ |
United Kingdom |
373bis |
Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites |
United Kingdom |
795 |
Maritime Greenwich |
United Kingdom |
514 |
Heart of Neolithic Orkney |
USA |
27 |
Mesa Verde National Park |
USA |
353 |
Chaco Culture |
USA |
198 |
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site |
Uzbekistan |
603 |
Samarkand – Crossroads of Cultures |
Zimbabwe |
306 |
Matobo Hills |
Zimbabwe |
364 |
Great Zimbabwe National Monument |
See also:
Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative
ICOMOS–IAU Thematic Studies
Preparing a nomination dossier