World Heritage Site

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A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain range, lake, desert, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated for the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

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The programme aims to catalogue, name, and preserve sites of outstanding importance, either cultural or natural, to the common heritage of humankind. Listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund under certain conditions. The programme was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage that was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972. 180 countries, called "States Parties", have ratified the Convention.

Related Topics:
16 November - 1972

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As of 2005, a total of 812 sites have been included in the list (628 cultural, 160 natural and 24 mixed properties in 137 States Parties). Note that UNESCO references each World Heritage Site with a unique identifying number. However, often a new inscription has included previous sites now listed as part of a larger description. As a result, the numbering system currently ends above 1100, but there are fewer than that on the actual list.

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Each World Heritage Site is the property of the country on whose territory the site is located, but it is considered in the interest of the international community to preserve each site for future generations of humankind. The protection and conservation of these sites is a concern of all the 180 World Heritage countries.

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