World Heritage List

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

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See also:

Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative

ICOMOS–IAU Thematic Studies

Preparing a nomination dossier