World Heritage Site newsletter #7

 

July 2005

 

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In Durban (South Africa), the World Heritage Committee has anounced the new entries to the World Heritage List in 2005.

 

New sites

 

There are 24 new sites in total:

·          The City-Museum of Gjirokastra Albania

·          Qal'at al-Bahrain Archeological Site Bahrain

·          Architectural, Residential and Cultural Complex of the Radziwill Family at Nesvizh Belarus

·          Plantin-Moretus Museum Belgium

·          The Old City of Mostar Bosnia Herzegovina

·          Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works Chile

·          Historic Monuments of Macao China

·          Urban Historic Centre of Cienfuegos Cuba

·          Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley) Egypt

·          Le Havre, la ville reconstruite par Auguste Perret France

·          Soltaniyeh Iran

·          The Biblical Tells and Ancient Water Systems -- Megiddo, Hazor and Beer Sheba Israel

·          Incense Route and Desert Cities of the Negev Israel

·          Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica Italy

·          Shiretoko Japan

·          Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California Mexico

·          Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove Nigeria

·          West Norwegian Fjords - Geirangerfjord and Næerøyfjord Norway

·          Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection Panama

·          Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl Russia

·          Vredefort Dome South Africa

·          Dong Phayayen - Khao Yai Forest Complex Thailand

·          Kunya-Urgench Turkmenistan

·          Struve Geodetic Arc Ukraine Sweden Russia Norway Lithuania Latvia Finland Belarus Estonia Moldovia

With these new visited sites, the total is up to 812.

Italy keeps its number one position of the most WHS in one country (now 40). Bahrain, Bosnia and Moldovia got their first entries.

The trend of this year seems to be the transnational nominations, with the Struve Geodetic Arc spanning 10 countries as most remarkable example.

 

 

Visits

 

Earlier this week doing some research using Google I found the recommendations to the World Heritage Committee to include these 24 sites (and not to recognize many others). I came to the conclusion that I had visited 0 out of 24. Fortunately one of the new WHS is located about one hour from my home, so last Sunday I drove to Antwerp to visit the Plantin-Moretus Museum. It is very much worth visiting: the 16th/17th century house, the Rubens paintings, the printing business, the books, the globes. When you enjoy history, you certainly will like it here. The museum also is very well take care of, with 33 rooms open to visitors.

Anticipating the announcement by the WHC, I had contact with some of the regular contributors to the website to hear their opinion about this year’s new entries.

Ian Cade wrote me that he has seen two, but hasn’t really visited one of them. He even was refused entry to the Plantin-Moretus Museum because he arrived half an hour before closing time. Christer Sundberg from Sweden has visited (and enjoyed) the Fjords in neighbouring Norway.

So my hopes were directed to Paul Tanner. He scored 9 out of 24, below his annual avergae too. But he is lucky having visited the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove in Nigeria. He already wrote reviews of four other new WHS too: the Qal'at al-Bahrain Archeological Site, The Old City of Mostar, Kunya-Urgench and West Norwegian Fjords - Geirangerfjord and Næerøyfjord.

 

Collectively, the visitors of the World Heritage website now have written 1218 reviews on 558 different sites.

 

 

 

That’s it for this edition, Els
webmaster www.worldheritagesite.org