Medina of Tétouan (formerly known as Titawin)

Medina of Tétouan (formerly known as Titawin)

Tétouan was of particular importance in the Islamic period, from the 8th century onwards, since it served as the main point of contact between Morocco and Andalusia. After the Reconquest, the town was rebuilt by Andalusian refugees who had been expelled by the Spanish. This is well illustrated by its art and architecture, which reveal clear Andalusian influence. Although one of the smallest of the Moroccan medinas, Tétouan is unquestionably the most complete and it has been largely untouched by subsequent outside influences.

 Morocco

Region Nord-Ouest, Wilaya de Tétouan, Province of Tétouan, Medina of Tétouan

N35 34 14.988 W5 22 0.012

Date of Inscription: 1997

Criteria: (ii)(iv)(v)

Property : 6.50 ha 

Ref: 837

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Medina of Essaouira (formerly Mogador)

Medina of Essaouira (formerly Mogador)

Essaouira is an exceptional example of a late-18th-century fortified town, built according to the principles of contemporary European military architecture in a North African context. Since its foundation, it has been a major international trading seaport, linking Morocco and its Saharan hinterland with Europe and the rest of the world.

 Morocco

Province of Essaouira, Tensift Region

N31 31 0.012 W9 46 9.984

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (ii)(iv)

Property : 30 ha 

Buffer zone: 15 ha

Ref: 753rev

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Historic Centre of the City of Pienza

Historic Centre of the City of Pienza

It was in this Tuscan town that Renaissance town-planning concepts were first put into practice after Pope Pius II decided, in 1459, to transform the look of his birthplace. He chose the architect Bernardo Rossellino, who applied the principles of his mentor, Leon Battista Alberti. This new vision of urban space was realized in the superb square known as Piazza Pio II and the buildings around it: the Piccolomini Palace, the Borgia Palace and the cathedral with its pure Renaissance exterior and an interior in the late Gothic style of south German churches.

 Italy

Province of Siena, Tuscany

N43 4 37 E11 40 43

Date of Inscription: 1996

Criteria: (i)(ii)(iv)

Property : 4.41 ha 

Ref: 789

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Inaugurated in 1973, the Sydney Opera House is a great architectural work of the 20th century that brings together multiple strands of creativity and innovation in both architectural form and structural design. A great urban sculpture set in a remarkable waterscape, at the tip of a peninsula projecting into Sydney Harbour, the building has had an enduring influence on architecture. The Sydney Opera House comprises three groups of interlocking vaulted ‘shells’ which roof two main performance halls and a restaurant. These shell-structures are set upon a vast platform and are surrounded by terrace areas that function as pedestrian concourses. In 1957, when the project of the Sydney Opera House was awarded by an international jury to Danish architect Jørn Utzon, it marked a radically new approach to construction.

 Australia

New South Wales

S33 51 24 E151 12 55

Date of Inscription: 2007

Criteria: (i)

Property : 5.80 ha 

Buffer zone: 438 ha

Ref: 166rev

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Church Village of Gammelstad, Luleå

Church Village of Gammelstad, Luleå

Gammelstad, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, is the best-preserved example of a 'church village', a unique kind of village formerly found throughout northern Scandinavia. The 424 wooden houses, huddled round the early 15th-century stone church, were used only on Sundays and at religious festivals to house worshippers from the surrounding countryside who could not return home the same day because of the distance and difficult travelling conditions.

 Sweden

County of Norrbotten (Norrbottens län)

N65 38 45.996 E22 1 42.996

Date of Inscription: 1996

Criteria: (ii)(iv)(v)

Ref: 762

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Lena Pillars Nature Park

Lena Pillars Nature Park

Lena Pillars Nature Park is marked by spectacular rock pillars that reach a height of approximately 100 m along the banks of the Lena River in the central part of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). They were produced by the region’s extreme continental climate with an annual temperature range of almost 100 degrees Celsius (from –60 °C in winter to +40 °C in summer). The pillars form rocky buttresses isolated from each other by deep and steep gullies developed by frost shattering directed along intervening joints. Penetration of water from the surface has facilitated cryogenic processes (freeze-thaw action), which have widened gullies between pillars leading to their isolation. Fluvial processes are also critical to the pillars. The site also contains a wealth of Cambrian fossil remains of numerous species, some of them unique.

Russian Federation

N60 40 0 E127 0 0

Date of Inscription: 2012

Criteria: (viii)

Property : 1,272,150 ha

Ref: 1299

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Brú na Bóinne - Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne

Brief Description

The three main prehistoric sites of the Brú na Bóinne Complex, Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, are situated on the north bank of the River Boyne 50 km north of Dublin. This is Europe's largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art. The monuments there had social, economic, religious and funerary functions.

Ireland

County Meath

N53 41 30.012 W6 27 0

Date of Inscription: 1993

Criteria: (i)(iii)(iv)

Property : 770 ha

Buffer zone: 2,560 ha

Ref: 659

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Greater Blue Mountains Area

Greater Blue Mountains Area

The Greater Blue Mountains Area consists of 1.03 million ha of sandstone plateaux, escarpments and gorges dominated by temperate eucalypt forest. The site, comprised of eight protected areas, is noted for its representation of the evolutionary adaptation and diversification of the eucalypts in post-Gondwana isolation on the Australian continent. Ninety-one eucalypt taxa occur within the Greater Blue Mountains Area which is also outstanding for its exceptional expression of the structural and ecological diversity of the eucalypts associated with its wide range of habitats. The site provides significant representation of Australia's biodiversity with ten percent of the vascular flora as well as significant numbers of rare or threatened species, including endemic and evolutionary relict species, such as the Wollemi pine, which have persisted in highly-restricted microsites.

 Australia

S33 42 0 E150 0 0

Date of Inscription: 2000

Criteria: (ix)(x)

Property : 1,032,649 ha 

Buffer zone: 86,200 ha

Ref: 917

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Gondwana Rainforests of Australia

Gondwana Rainforests of Australia

This site, comprising several protected areas, is situated predominantly along the Great Escarpment on Australia’s east coast. The outstanding geological features displayed around shield volcanic craters and the high number of rare and threatened rainforest species are of international significance for science and conservation.

 Australia

States of New South Wales and Queensland

S28 15 0 E150 3 0

Date of Inscription: 1986

Extension: 1994

Criteria: (viii)(ix)(x)

Property : 370,000 ha 

Ref: 368bis

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens

Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens

The Royal Exhibition Building and its surrounding Carlton Gardens were designed for the great international exhibitions of 1880 and 1888 in Melbourne. The building and grounds were designed by Joseph Reed. The building is constructed of brick and timber, steel and slate. It combines elements from the Byzantine, Romanesque, Lombardic and Italian Renaissance styles. The property is typical of the international exhibition movement which saw over 50 exhibitions staged between 1851 and 1915 in venues including Paris, New York, Vienna, Calcutta, Kingston (Jamaica) and Santiago (Chile). All shared a common theme and aims: to chart material and moral progress through displays of industry from all nations.

 Australia

Melbourne, Victoria

S37 48 22 E144 58 13

Date of Inscription: 2004

Minor modification inscribed year: 2010

Criteria: (ii)

Property : 26 ha 

Buffer zone: 55 ha

Ref: 1131bis

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Purnululu National Park

Purnululu National Park

The 239,723 ha Purnululu National Park is located in the State of Western Australia. It contains the deeply dissected Bungle Bungle Range composed of Devonian-age quartz sandstone eroded over a period of 20 million years into a series of beehive-shaped towers or cones, whose steeply sloping surfaces are distinctly marked by regular horizontal bands of dark-grey cyanobacterial crust (single-celled photosynthetic organisms). These outstanding examples of cone karst owe their existence and uniqueness to several interacting geological, biological, erosional and climatic phenomena.

 Australia

Western Australia

S17 30 0 E128 30 0

Date of Inscription: 2003

Criteria: (vii)(viii)

Property : 239,723 ha 

Buffer zone: 79,602 ha

Ref: 1094

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Crespi d'Adda

Crespi d'Adda

Crespi d'Adda in Capriate San Gervasio in Lombardy is an outstanding example of the 19th- and early 20th-century 'company towns' built in Europe and North America by enlightened industrialists to meet the workers' needs. The site is still remarkably intact and is partly used for industrial purposes, although changing economic and social conditions now threaten its survival.

 Italy

Province of Bergamo, Lombardy

N45 35 35.988 E9 32 17.988

Date of Inscription: 1995

Criteria: (iv)(v)

Ref: 730

Source: http://whc.unesco.org