Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Brief Description

It represents the addition of three Imperial Tombs of the Qing Dynasty in Liaoning to the Ming tombs inscribed in 2000 and 2003. The Three Imperial Tombs of the Qing Dynasty in Liaoning Province include the Yongling Tomb, the Fuling Tomb, and the Zhaoling Tomb, all built in the 17th century. Constructed for the founding emperors of the Qing Dynasty and their ancestors, the tombs follow the precepts of traditional Chinese geomancy and fengshui theory. They feature rich decoration of stone statues and carvings and tiles with dragon motifs, illustrating the development of the funerary architecture of the Qing Dynasty. The three tomb complexes, and their numerous edifices, combine traditions inherited from previous dynasties and new features of Manchu civilization.

China

Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province (Xiaoling Tomb); Changping District, Beijing (Ming Tombs)

N41 42 26 E124 47 38

Date of Inscription: 2000

Extension: 2003, 2004

Criteria: (i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 3,435 ha

Buffer zone: 23,429 ha

Ref: 1004ter

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area

Brief Description

A spectacular area stretching over more than 26,000 ha in China's Hunan Province, the site is dominated by more than 3,000 narrow sandstone pillars and peaks, many over 200 m high. Between the peaks lie ravines and gorges with streams, pools and waterfalls, some 40 caves, and two large natural bridges. In addition to the striking beauty of the landscape, the region is also noted for the fact that it is home to a number of endangered plant and animal species.

 

China

The Wulingyuan District of the City of Dayong, Hunan Province

N29 19 59.988 E110 30 0

Date of Inscription: 1992

Criteria: (vii)

Property : 26,400 ha

Ref: 640

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu

Brief Description

Machu Picchu stands 2,430 m above sea-level, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, in an extraordinarily beautiful setting. It was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height; its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments. The natural setting, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, encompasses the upper Amazon basin with its rich diversity of flora and fauna.

Peru

S13 7 0 W72 34 60

Date of Inscription: 1983

Criteria: (i)(iii)(vii)(ix)

Ref: 274

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

The Great Wall

Brief Description

In c. 220 B.C., under Qin Shi Huang, sections of earlier fortifications were joined together to form a united defence system against invasions from the north. Construction continued up to the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), when the Great Wall became the world's largest military structure. Its historic and strategic importance is matched only by its architectural significance.

China

Liaoning, Jilin, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Qinghai provinces, municipalities and autonomous Regions

N40 25 0.012 E116 4 59.988

Date of Inscription: 1987

Criteria: (i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 2,152 ha

Buffer zone: 4,801 ha

Ref: 438

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht

Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht

The historic urban ensemble of the canal district of Amsterdam was a project for a new ‘port city’ built at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. It comprises a network of canals to the west and south of the historic old town and the medieval port that encircled the old town and was accompanied by the repositioning inland of the city’s fortified boundaries, the Singelgracht. This was a long-term programme that involved extending the city by draining the swampland, using a system of canals in concentric arcs and filling in the intermediate spaces. These spaces allowed the development of a homogeneous urban ensemble including gabled houses and numerous monuments. This urban extension was the largest and most homogeneous of its time. It was a model of large-scale town planning, and served as a reference throughout the world until the 19th century.

Netherlands

N52 21 54 E4 53 16

Date of Inscription: 2010

Criteria: (i)(ii)(iv)

Property : 198 ha

Buffer zone: 482 ha

Ref: 1349

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and Fortifications

Because of its strategic position, Luxembourg was, from the 16th century until 1867, when its walls were dismantled, one of Europe's greatest fortified sites. It was repeatedly reinforced as it passed from one great European power to another: the Holy Roman Emperors, the House of Burgundy, the Habsburgs, the French and Spanish kings, and finally the Prussians. Until their partial demolition, the fortifications were a fine example of military architecture spanning several centuries.

Luxembourg

Luxemburg

N49 36 36 E6 7 59.988

Date of Inscription: 1994

Criteria: (iv)

Property : 30 ha

Buffer zone: 109 ha

Ref: 699

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

 

Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta

Brief Description

Ferrara, which grew up around a ford over the River Po, became an intellectual and artistic centre that attracted the greatest minds of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. Here, Piero della Francesca, Jacopo Bellini and Andrea Mantegna decorated the palaces of the House of Este. The humanist concept of the 'ideal city' came to life here in the neighbourhoods built from 1492 onwards by Biagio Rossetti according to the new principles of perspective. The completion of this project marked the birth of modern town planning and influenced its subsequent development.

Italy

City and Province of Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna Region

N44 50 16 E11 37 10

Date of Inscription: 1995

Extension: 1999

Criteria: (ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)

Property : 46,712 ha

Buffer zone: 117,649 ha

Ref: 733bis

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca

George Town (Penang)

Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca

Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca have developed over 500 years of trading and cultural exchanges between East and West in the Straits of Malacca. The influences of Asia and Europe have endowed the towns with a specific multicultural heritage that is both tangible and intangible. With its government buildings, churches, squares and fortifications, Melaka demonstrates the early stages of this history originating in the 15th-century Malay sultanate and the Portuguese and Dutch periods beginning in the early 16th century. Featuring residential and commercial buildings, George Town represents the British era from the end of the 18th century. The two towns constitute a unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia.

Malaysia

N5 25 17 E100 20 45

Date of Inscription: 2008

Minor modification inscribed year: 2011

Criteria: (ii)(iii)(iv)

Property : 219 ha

Buffer zone: 393 ha

Ref: 1223bis

Source:  http://whc.unesco.org

Nemrut Dağ

Brief Description

The mausoleum of Antiochus I (69–34 B.C.), who reigned over Commagene, a kingdom founded north of Syria and the Euphrates after the breakup of Alexander's empire, is one of the most ambitious constructions of the Hellenistic period. The syncretism of its pantheon, and the lineage of its kings, which can be traced back through two sets of legends, Greek and Persian, is evidence of the dual origin of this kingdom's culture.

Turkey

Adiyaman Province

N38 2 11.796 E38 45 49.284

Date of Inscription: 1987

Criteria: (i)(iii)(iv)

Property : 11 ha

Ref: 448

Source:  http://whc.unesco.org

From the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the Production of Open-pan Salt

Brief Description

The Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, near Besançon, was built by Claude Nicolas Ledoux. Its construction, begun in 1775 during the reign of Louis XVI, was the first major achievement of industrial architecture, reflecting the ideal of progress of the Enlightenment. The vast, semicircular complex was designed to permit a rational and hierarchical organization of work and was to have been followed by the building of an ideal city, a project that was never realized.

The Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains was active for at least 1200 years until stopping activity in 1962. From 1780 to 1895, its salt water travelled through 21 km of wood pipes to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans. It was built near the immense Chaux Forest to ensure its supply of wood for fuel. The Saltworks of Salins shelters an underground gallery from the 13^th century including a hydraulic pump from the 19^th century that still functions. The boiler house demonstrates the difficulty of the saltworkers’ labour to collect the “White Gold”.

France

N46 56 15 E5 52 35

Date of Inscription: 1982

Extension: 2009

Criteria: (i)(ii)(iv)

Property : 10 ha

Buffer zone: 585 ha

Ref: 203bis

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

 

Rock Art of Alta

Brief Description

This group of petroglyphs in the Alta Fjord, near the Arctic Circle, bears the traces of a settlement dating from c. 4200 to 500 B.C. The thousands of paintings and engravings add to our understanding of the environment and human activities on the fringes of the Far North in prehistoric times.

Norway

Alta municipality, county of Finnmark

N69 57 0 E23 10 59.988

Date of Inscription: 1985

Criteria: (iii)

Ref: 352

http://whc.unesco.org

 

Hoi An Ancient Town

Hoi An Ancient Town is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century. Its buildings and its street plan reflect the influences, both indigenous and foreign, that have combined to produce this unique heritage site.

Viet Nam

Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province

N15 52 60 E108 19 60

Date of Inscription: 1999

Criteria: (ii)(v)

Property : 30 ha

Buffer zone: 280 ha

Ref: 948

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

 

Historic District of Old Québec

Postcard from Carole-Anne, Thank you very much::

Brief Description

Québec was founded by the French explorer Champlain in the early 17th century. It is the only North American city to have preserved its ramparts, together with the numerous bastions, gates and defensive works which still surround Old Québec. The Upper Town, built on the cliff, has remained the religious and administrative centre, with its churches, convents and other monuments like the Dauphine Redoubt, the Citadel and Château Frontenac. Together with the Lower Town and its ancient districts, it forms an urban ensemble which is one of the best examples of a fortified colonial city.

Canada

Province of Quebec, City of Quebec

N46 48 34 W71 12 38

Date of Inscription: 1985

Criteria: (iv)(vi)

Property : 135 ha

Ref: 300

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

 

Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu

Thank you HEJUN LI for this postcard

Brief Description

The temple, cemetery and family mansion of Confucius, the great philosopher, politician and educator of the 6th–5th centuries B.C., are located at Qufu, in Shandong Province. Built to commemorate him in 478 B.C., the temple has been destroyed and reconstructed over the centuries; today it comprises more than 100 buildings. The cemetery contains Confucius' tomb and the remains of more than 100,000 of his descendants. The small house of the Kong family developed into a gigantic aristocratic residence, of which 152 buildings remain. The Qufu complex of monuments has retained its outstanding artistic and historic character due to the devotion of successive Chinese emperors over more than 2,000 years.

China

Qufu City, Shandong Province

N35 36 42.012 E116 58 30

Date of Inscription: 1994

Criteria: (i)(iv)(vi)

Ref: 704

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

 

Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area

A postcard from Li Xuanyu of China:: Thank you very much

Brief Description

Stretching over 72,000 ha in the northern part of Sichuan Province, the jagged Jiuzhaigou valley reaches a height of more than 4,800 m, thus comprising a series of diverse forest ecosystems. Its superb landscapes are particularly interesting for their series of narrow conic karst land forms and spectacular waterfalls. Some 140 bird species also inhabit the valley, as well as a number of endangered plant and animal species, including the giant panda and the Sichuan takin.

China

Nanping County, Sichuan Province

N33 4 59.988 E103 55 0.012

Date of Inscription: 1992

Criteria: (vii)

Property : 72,000 ha

Ref: 637

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

 

Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui – Xidi and Hongcun

Thank you Kolly, for this Postcard:

Brief Description

The two traditional villages of Xidi and Hongcun preserve to a remarkable extent the appearance of non-urban settlements of a type that largely disappeared or was transformed during the last century. Their street plan, their architecture and decoration, and the integration of houses with comprehensive water systems are unique surviving examples.

 

China

Yi county, Huangshan city, Anhui Province

N29 54 16 E117 59 15

Date of Inscription: 2000

Criteria: (iii)(iv)(v)

Property : 52 ha

Buffer zone: 730 ha

Ref: 1002

Source: http://whc.unesco.org