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UNESCO Adds 29 New World Heritage Sites

Posted on Jul, 24, 2019
Contributed to WCHV by Danielle

In 2018, the United Nation’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed 20 new sites to its World Heritage List. However, early this month, July 2019, more sites were added to the list. UNESCO added 29 more to the list of global landmarks deemed to have “outstanding universal value”.
Now places like Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland and Jaipur City in Rajasthan, India, are on the list of global cultural and natural sites that includes such famous destinations as the Palace of Versailles in France and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
UNESCO held its 43rd World Heritage Committee session in Baku, Azerbaijan, from June 30 to July 10 this year. During the conference, representatives from 21 member states approved a list of 29 sites, which were nominated by their countries. Each site added must meet at least one of 10 criteria, such as containing superlative natural phenomena, representing a masterpiece of human creative genius, or a unique cultural tradition.
Here are some examples:
The picturesque hills of Italy’s prosecco sparkling wine region in Valdobbiadene
About 40 miles north of Venice, Italy’s prosecco production area in the hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene is the second wine region in the country to be recognized by UNESCO. (Piedmont was added to the list in 2014.) It is also officially Italy’s 55th site on the list, tying it with China as the country with the most UNESCO World Heritage sites. Since the 17th century, wine producers have grown grapes for sparkling wine on the area’s rugged hills in small plots of vines on narrow terraces—known as ciglioni—giving the region a unique and picturesque look.

Another site is Bagan, Myanmar, where Buddhist monks walk around the sacred Shwezigon Paya, a pagoda in Bagan. From temples and stupas to archaeological remains and sculptures, this landscape of monumental Buddhist architecture in the central plain of Myanmar is only the second location in the country to be added to the World Heritage List. (UNESCO inscribed the Pyu Ancient Cities, the remains of three walled cities in the Ayeyarwady River basin, in 2014.) Created from a variety of materials
including stone, brick, and the gleaming gold of the Shwezigon Pagoda, the area’s  emples show the range that the Bagan civilization was able to build when it was at its peak between the 11th and 13th centuries.
If you are looking for a site closer to home, the 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, in the United States is among the new additions. Fallingwater house is one of eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings that were added as a group to the World Heritage List. In fact, the recent addition of eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings to the World Heritage List marks the first time UNESCO has recognized modern U.S. architecture. Scattered across the United States from the Guggenheim Museum in New York City to Hollyhock House in Los Angeles and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, these eight sites represent some of Wright’s most important contributions to 20th-century architecture.

Here are the rest of UNESCO’s confirmed 2019 World Heritage Sites, organized by region:
Africa
Ancient Ferrous Metallurgy Sites of Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso

Asia
Korean Neo-Confucian Academies, Korea
Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, China
Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea–Gulf of Bohai, China
Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang–Plain of Jars, Laos
Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group: Mounded Tombs of Ancient Japan, Japan
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, Indonesia
Australia/Oceania
Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, Australia
Jaipur City, Rajasthan, India

Europe
Royal Buildings of Mafra, Portugal
Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga, Portugal
Churches of the Pskov School of Architecture, Russia
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, Czechia/Germany
French Austral Lands and Seas, France
A visitor to an ice cave in Vatnajökull National Park
Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan’s Palace, Azerbaijan
Jodrell Bank Observatory, United Kingdom
Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region, Poland
Landscape for Breeding and Training of Ceremonial Carriage Horses at Kladruby and Labem, Czechia
Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape, Spain
Water Management System of Augsburg, Germany

Middle East
Babylon, Iraq
Dilmun Burial Mounds, Bahrain
Hyrcanian Forests, Iran
North America
Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi, Canada

South America
Paraty and Ilha Grande, Brazil

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