Wachau Cultural Landscape

Wachau Cultural Landscape

The Wachau is a stretch of the Danube Valley between Melk and Krems, a landscape of high visual quality. It preserves in an intact and visible form many traces - in terms of architecture, (monasteries, castles, ruins), urban design, (towns and villages), and agricultural use, principally for the cultivation of vines - of its evolution since prehistoric times.

Austria

Towns of Krems and Melk, Lower Austria

N48 21 52 E15 26 3

Date of Inscription: 2000

Criteria: (ii)(iv)

Property : 18,387 ha

Buffer zone: 2,942 ha

Ref: 970

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Poblet Monastery

Poblet Monastery

This Cistercian abbey in Catalonia is one of the largest in Spain. At its centre is a 12th-century church. The austere, majestic monastery, which has a fortified royal residence and contains the pantheon of the kings of Catalonia and Aragon, is an impressive sight.

Spain

Vimbodí, Province of Tarragona, Autonomous Community of Catalonia

N41 22 50.988 E1 4 57

Date of Inscription: 1991

Criteria: (i)(iv)

Property : 18 ha

Buffer zone: 163 ha

Ref: 518rev

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Bourges Cathedral

 Bourges Cathedral

The Cathedral of St Etienne of Bourges, built between the late 12th and late 13th centuries, is one of the great masterpieces of Gothic art and is admired for its proportions and the unity of its design. The tympanum, sculptures and stained-glass windows are particularly striking. Apart from the beauty of the architecture, it attests to the power of Christianity in medieval France.

France

Department of Cher, Centre Region

N47 4 56 E2 23 54

Date of Inscription: 1992

Minor modification inscribed year: 2013

Criteria: (i)(iv)

Property : 0.85 ha

Buffer zone: 105 ha

Ref: 635bis

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range

Set in the dense forests of the Kii Mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean, three sacred sites – Yoshino and Omine, Kumano Sanzan, Koyasan – linked by pilgrimage routes to the ancient capital cities of Nara and Kyoto, reflect the fusion of Shinto, rooted in the ancient tradition of nature worship in Japan, and Buddhism, which was introduced from China and the Korean Peninsula. The sites (495.3 ha) and their surrounding forest landscape reflect a persistent and extraordinarily well-documented tradition of sacred mountains over 1,200 years. The area, with its abundance of streams, rivers and waterfalls, is still part of the living culture of Japan and is much visited for ritual purposes and hiking, with up to 15 million visitors annually. Each of the three sites contains shrines, some of which were founded as early as the 9th century.

Japan

Mie, Nara and Wakayama Prefectures

N33 50 13 E135 46 35

Date of Inscription: 2004

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

Property : 495 ha

Buffer zone: 1,137 ha

Ref: 1142

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Rideau Canal

Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal, a monumental early 19th-century construction covering 202 km of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers from Ottawa south to Kingston Harbour on Lake Ontario, was built primarily for strategic military purposes at a time when Great Britain and the United States vied for control of the region. The site, one of the first canals to be designed specifically for steam-powered vessels, also features an ensemble of fortifications. It is the best-preserved example of a slackwater canal in North America, demonstrating the use of this European technology on a large scale. It is the only canal dating from the great North American canal-building era of the early 19th century to remain operational along its original line with most of its structures intact.

Canada

Province of Ontario

N44 59 39.79 W75 45 54.45

Date of Inscription: 2007

Criteria: (i)(iv)

Property : 21,455 ha

Buffer zone: 2,363 ha

Ref: 1221

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Joggins Fossil Cliffs

 Joggins Fossil Cliffs

The Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a 689 ha palaeontological site along the coast of Nova Scotia (eastern Canada), have been described as the “coal age Galápagos” due to their wealth of fossils from the Carboniferous period (354 to 290 million years ago). The rocks of this site are considered to be iconic for this period of the history of Earth and are the world’s thickest and most comprehensive record of the Pennsylvanian strata (dating back 318 to 303 million years) with the most complete known fossil record of terrestrial life from that time. These include the remains and tracks of very early animals and the rainforest in which they lived, left in situ, intact and undisturbed. With its 14.7 km of sea cliffs, low bluffs, rock platforms and beach, the site groups remains of three ecosystems: estuarine bay, floodplain rainforest and fire prone forested alluvial plain with freshwater pools. It offers the richest assemblage known of the fossil life in these three ecosystems with 96 genera and 148 species of fossils and 20 footprint groups. The site is listed as containing outstanding examples representing major stages in the history of Earth.

Canada

N45 42 35 W64 26 9

Date of Inscription: 2008

Criteria: (viii)

Property : 689 ha

Buffer zone: 29 ha

Ref: 1285

Source: http://whc.unesco.org