World Heritage Sites

World Heritage sites are a diverse set of tangible cultural and natural properties that are determined to possess “outstanding universal value” by the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and therefore are “of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity,” as UNESCO states in its promotional brochures. World Heritage sites are understood to possess a quality that is believed to communicate, and indeed foster, the unity of mankind through the appreciation of humanity’s diversity. Born of the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and elaborated upon through the day-to-day work of UNESCO’s advisory bodies in conjunction with the Paris-based World Heritage Centre and at annual World Heritage Committee meetings, UNESCO’s World Heritage program is ...