Vat Phou and Associated Ancient Settlements within the Champasak Cultural Landscape

The Champasak cultural landscape, including the Vat Phou Temple complex, is a remarkably well-preserved planned landscape more than 1,000 years old. It was shaped to express the Hindu vision of the relationship between nature and humanity, using an axis from mountain top to river bank to lay out a geometric pattern of temples, shrines and waterworks extending over some 10 km. Two planned cities on the banks of the Mekong River are also part of the site, as well as Phou Kao mountain. The whole represents a development ranging from the 5th to 15th centuries, mainly associated with the Khmer Empire.

 Lao People's Democratic Republic

Champasak Province

N14 50 54 E105 49 20

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (iii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 39,000 ha

Ref: 481

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Royal Hill of Ambohimanga

The Royal Hill of Ambohimanga consists of a royal city and burial site, and an ensemble of sacred places. It is associated with strong feelings of national identity, and has maintained its spiritual and sacred character both in ritual practice and the popular imagination for the past 500 years. It remains a place of worship to which pilgrims come from Madagascar and elsewhere.

Madagascar

Municipality of Ambohimanga Rova, Province of Antananarivo Avaradrano

S18 45 33.012 E47 33 46.008

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (iii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 59 ha

Buffer zone: 425 ha

Ref: 950

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Churches of Peace in Jawor and Świdnica

Churches of Peace in Jawor and Świdnica

The Churches of Peace in Jawor and Ś widnica, the largest timber-framed religious buildings in Europe, were built in the former Silesia in the mid-17th century, amid the religious strife that followed the Peace of Westphalia. Constrained by the physical and political conditions, the Churches of Peace bear testimony to the quest for religious freedom and are a rare expression of Lutheran ideology in an idiom generally associated with the Catholic Church.

Poland

Jawor and Świdnica counties, Lower Silesian (Dolnoslaskie) Voivodship

N51 3 15.4 E16 11 45.4

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (iii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 0.23 ha

Buffer zone: 12 ha

Ref: 1054

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 Vienna

Vienna developed from early Celtic and Roman settlements into a Medieval and Baroque city, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, as well as the late-19th-century Ringstrasse lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.

Austria

Vienna

N48 13 0 E16 22 60

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (ii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 371 ha

Buffer zone: 462 ha

Ref: 1033

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Central Sikhote-Alin

The Sikhote-Alin mountain range contains one the richest and most unusual temperate forests of the world. In this mixed zone between taiga and subtropics, southern species such as the tiger and Himalayan bear cohabit with northern species such as the brown bear and lynx. The site stretches from the peaks of Sikhote-Alin to the Sea of Japan and is important for the survival of many endangered species such as the Amur tiger.

Russian Federation

Ternejski, Krasnoarmejski, Dalnegorski, and Pozharski Districts, Primorski Region

N45 19 60 E136 10 0

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (x)

Property : 406,177 ha

Ref: 766rev

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Samarkand – Crossroad of Cultures

Brief Description

The historic town of Samarkand is a crossroad and melting pot of the world's cultures. Founded in the 7th century B.C. as ancient Afrasiab, Samarkand had its most significant development in the Timurid period from the 14th to the 15th centuries. The major monuments include the Registan Mosque and madrasas, Bibi-Khanum Mosque, the Shakhi-Zinda compound and the Gur-Emir ensemble, as well as Ulugh-Beg's Observatory.

Uzbekistan

Samarkand Region

N39 40 6.996 E67 0 0

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (i)(ii)(iv)

Property : 1,123 ha

Buffer zone: 1,369 ha

Ref: 603rev

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Yungang Grottoes

Brief Description

The Yungang Grottoes, in Datong city, Shanxi Province, with their 252 caves and 51,000 statues, represent the outstanding achievement of Buddhist cave art in China in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Five Caves created by Tan Yao, with their strict unity of layout and design, constitute a classical masterpiece of the first peak of Chinese Buddhist art.

China

Datong City, Shanxi Province

N40 6 34.992 E113 7 19.992

Date of Inscription: 2001

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

Property : 349 ha

Buffer zone: 847 ha

Ref: 1039

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Aranjuez Cultural Landscape

The Aranjuez cultural landscape is an entity of complex relationships: between nature and human activity, between sinuous watercourses and geometric landscape design, between the rural and the urban, between forest landscape and the delicately modulated architecture of its palatial buildings. Three hundred years of royal attention to the development and care of this landscape have seen it express an evolution of concepts from humanism and political centralization, to characteristics such as those found in its 18th century French-style Baroque garden, to the urban lifestyle which developed alongside the sciences of plant acclimatization and stock-breeding during the Age of Enlightenment.

Spain

Province and Autonomous Community of Madrid

N40 2 11.22 W3 36 33.624

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (ii)(iv)

Property : 2,048 ha

Buffer zone: 16,605 ha

Ref: 1044

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen

Brief Description

The Zollverein industrial complex in Land Nordrhein-Westfalen consists of the complete infrastructure of a historical coal-mining site, with some 20th-century buildings of outstanding architectural merit. It constitutes remarkable material evidence of the evolution and decline of an essential industry over the past 150 years.

Germany

State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen)

N51 29 29 E7 2 46

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (ii)(iii)

Ref: 975

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Alto Douro Wine Region

Brief Description

Wine has been produced by traditional landholders in the Alto Douro region for some 2,000 years. Since the 18th century, its main product, port wine, has been world famous for its quality. This long tradition of viticulture has produced a cultural landscape of outstanding beauty that reflects its technological, social and economic evolution.

Portugal

Douro Region, Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro

N41 6 6 W7 47 56

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (iii)(iv)(v)

Property : 24,600 ha

Buffer zone: 225,400 ha

Ref: 1046

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Historic Centre of Guimarães

Brief Description

The historic town of Guimarães is associated with the emergence of the Portuguese national identity in the 12th century. An exceptionally well-preserved and authentic example of the evolution of a medieval settlement into a modern town, its rich building typology exemplifies the specific development of Portuguese architecture from the 15th to 19th century through the consistent use of traditional building materials and techniques.

Portugal

Province of Minho, District of Braga

N41 26 26.988 W8 17 41.352

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (ii)(iii)(iv)

Property : 16 ha

Buffer zone: 45 ha

Ref: 1031

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

 

Mining Area of the Great Copper Mountain in Falun

Brief Description

The enormous mining excavation known as the Great Pit at Falun is the most striking feature of a landscape that illustrates the activity of copper production in this region since at least the 13th century. The 17th-century planned town of Falun with its many fine historic buildings, together with the industrial and domestic remains of a number of settlements spread over a wide area of the Dalarna region, provide a vivid picture of what was for centuries one of the world's most important mining areas.

Sweden

Town of Falun, Dalarna Province

N60 36 16.992 E15 37 50.988

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (ii)(iii)(v)

Property : 43 ha

Buffer zone: 3,500 ha

Ref: 1027

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

 

Tugendhat Villa in Brno

Brief Description

The Tugendhat Villa in Brno, designed by the architect Mies van der Rohe, is an outstanding example of the international style in the modern movement in architecture as it developed in Europe in the 1920s. Its particular value lies in the application of innovative spatial and aesthetic concepts that aim to satisfy new lifestyle needs by taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by modern industrial production.

Czech Republic

South Moravian Region

N49 12 25.86 E16 36 57.8

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (ii)(iv)

Property : 0.73 ha

Buffer zone: 2,825 ha

Ref: 1052
Source: http://whc.unesco.org