The United States Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently added 27 new sites to its World Heritage List in 2023. Each of these sites has universal cultural or natural significance and is considered “to be of outstanding value to humanity.”
The 45th session of the World Heritage Committee took place this September in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where committee members chose from a list of global nominations submitted throughout 2022 and 2023 to inscribe the newest properties—all of which meet the World Heritage criteria, such as representing “a masterpiece of human creative genius” or an area “of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.”
Among the newest additions joining the likes of the Pyramids of Egypt and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are unique and diverse places representing many cultures and landscapes, including national African rainforests, Deer Stone monuments in Mongolia and Viking-Age fortresses in Denmark. UNESCO also expanded many existing World Heritage Sites to now include new areas, such as Madagascar’s Andrefana Dry Forests, Vietnam’s Cat Ba Archipelago in Ha Long Bay and additional sections of Azerbaijan’s ancient Hyrcanian Forests.
Here is the full list of the 27 newest UNESCO World Heritage Sites added in this year:
- Koh Ker archaeological site in Cambodia
- Santiniketan, West Bengal, India
- Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er, China
- Mongolia’s Deer Stone Monuments
- Korea’s Gaya Tumuli burial mounds
- Türkiye’s archaeological site of Gordion
- Germany’s Jewish medieval historic center of Erfurt
- Architecture of the town of Kaunas, Lithuania
- Guatemala’s National Archaeological Park Tak’alik Ab’aj
- Old town of Kuldīga, Latvia
- Prehistoric Sites of Talayotic Menorca
- The Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor of the Silk Road
- Ethiopia’s Gedeo Cultural Landscape
- Iran’s Persian Caravanserai
- Canada’s Tr’ondëk-Klondike region
- The Czech town of Žatec and its tradition of Saaz Hops
- Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan
- “Köç Yolu” Transhumance Route in Azerbaijan
- Djerba in Tunisia
- India’s Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas
- Indonesia’s Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta
- Bale Mountains National Park in Ethiopia
- The Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua in Congo
- Volcanoes and forests of Mount Pelée and pitons of Martinique
- Viking-age ring fortresses in Denmark
- The Maison Carrée of Nîmes, France
- Russia’s Astronomical Observatories of Kazan Federal University
Read UNESCO’s complete list of new inscribed properties here.
