UNESCO Adds 26 World Heritage Sites

Tags: Antiquities, China, Europe, Middle East, UNESCO

After concluding its 36th session, UNESCO has added 26 new sites to its World Heritage list, bringing the final number to 962 properties in 157 countries. This year’s additions included 20 cultural sites, 5 natural sites and 1 mixed site (natural and cultural). It also marked the first time that a site was added in Palestine, which controversially joined UNESCO in 2011: Bethlehem’s Church of Nativity (pictured), which was built on Jesus’s birthplace.

16 of the new sites come from outside of Europe or North America, as the organization acknowledges the bias in previous sessions in which many sites in Asia, Africa and Latin America were overlooked.

In addition to the Church of Nativity, new sites include Grand Bassam– the first capital of the Côte d’Ivoire– and Xanadu, 13th-century Chinese capital city under Mongolian rule.

The committee also added new sites to its “danger” list, including Timbuktu and the Tomb of Askia in the nearby city of Gao, which have been continuously subjected to damage and desecration.

Unesco looks outside Europe and the US via The Art Newspaper

Photo courtesy of UNESCO