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World Heritage Site

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World Heritage Sites are places in the world which are very important from the cultural or natural point of view. These places are selected by UNESCO, a part of the United Nations.

The World Heritage Convention ("Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage")[1] is a United Nations treaty. It governs the selection and protection of these sites. The nations that have agreed to the treaty elect 21 nations to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.[2] That committee sets the site list.[3]

The sites are places (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city). As of 2012, 981 sites in 157 different countries are listed. There are 759 cultural sites, 193 natural sites, and 29 mixed properties.[4][5] Italy has 47 sites on the list, which is the most for any country.

Each World Heritage Site remains part of the legal territory of the nation where the site is located. UNESCO wants everyone in the world to work to protect each site. Sometimes UNESCO provides funds to help protect a site.

Images[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. "Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage" (PDF). http://whc.unesco.org/archive/convention-en.pdf. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
  2. "The World Heritage Committee". UNESCO World Heritage Site. http://whc.unesco.org/en/comittee/. Retrieved October 16, 2011. As of 2011, World Heritage Committee members are: Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Iraq, Jordan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and United Arab Emirates.
  3. According to the UNESCO World Heritage website, States Parties are countries that signed and ratified The World Heritage Convention. As of November 2007, there are a total of 186 States Parties.
  4. World Heritage List, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites.
  5. Twenty-seven new sites inscribed, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites.

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