World Heritage Site

Every morning around 11 a.m. I do a quick check of this direct link to see whether UNESCO has registered any new Tentative Sites. When they do, I try to add the new records to our website as quickly as possible as well. The people in Paris rarely update before 11 a.m., and afternoon changes only occur when they have a lot to add. The Tentative Sites, for some reason, do not appear in chronological order – sometimes they post things that have been submitted months before. Let’s have a closer look at what the crop of the first half of 2025 brought us.

The Numbers

I have written about the trends in Tentative Sites before, trying to determine The Value of a TWHS. So does the first half of 2025 confirm this pattern?

At the time of writing (June 28, 2025), all Tentative Lists combined add up to 1778 sites. In the first half of 2025, 49 new Tentative Sites were added. 9 of those were 1-on-1 replacements of earlier ones. An additional 15 TWHS were removed and became Former TWHS.

49 new ones in the first half of the year are significantly above average, as are the 15 removals. The trend over the last 10 years was that an average of 66 new TWHS were added yearly, with a net result of 30; 66 were added, 14 removed, and 22 were inscribed and thus disappeared from the Tentative List as well. 

Full make-overs

Generally, it’s a steady trickle of new sites popping up. But now and then we see full make-overs, where countries are replacing their complete Tentative List. Countries generally don’t seem to like to drastically get rid of outdated entries; they just let them linger forever (looking at you, Egypt!).

• Austria took a bold move in January and removed 8 of its 10 TWHS. It is working on a completely new Tentative List, with only the Iron Trail still in the queue for a WHC (Preliminary Assessment 2025, so 2029?).
• Portugal did something similar, removing 7 older and vague entries from its list, such as the Route of Magellan and Sites of Globalization. But with 11 sites left, there is still plenty to choose from.
• Algeria refreshed its full list last week. All 6 previous sites were renewed, but seem better defined now. The Royal Mausoleums of Ancient Algeria (photo 2) is its most urgent candidate, possibly going up for nomination in 2027. Also, they included 5 completely new sites, such as the fortified granaries (Ighamaouen) and Djurdjura National Park.
• Guinea did a major update as well, although it couldn’t withstand holding on to some of the old ones. 4 new sites were added.

We also learned that New Zealand is seeking candidates for a new Tentative List; results are expected in 2026.

Notable individual new entries

When we look at the individual new entries, there’s a lot of preparation for upcoming nominations. We see:

• Victorian Goldfields: with a solid budget behind it, this might become Australia's candidate around 2029.
• Belgian Workers’ Assembly Halls: the final candidate of the first group that will take part in the transnational nomination of these Assembly Halls, scheduled for 2028.
• The Mongolian section of the Great Tea Route: as the name already suggests, this is part of a serial transnational effort together with China and Russia, who still have to put forward their candidates. 

Among the more imaginative new entries are:

• Phra Prang of Wat Arun Ratchawararam: This is Bangkok's landmark temple complex Wat Arun, and it would lead to a first WHS for this great and popular Asian capital.
• National Museum of Qatar (photo 3): a 21st-century building, encapsulating a restored older palace. It would become the youngest WHS ever with its opening date of 2019.
• The Secondo-Lido Lighthouse in Mogadishu: overlooking the Indian Ocean and once guiding sailors, merchants and pilgrims, it would be the first WHS of Somalia. Unfortunately, it partially collapsed 2 years ago. 

Furthermore, India, China and Türkiye keep on adding and adding individual entries to their already long Tentative Lists without removing any.

Looking at the list of sites added in 2025, are there any Tentative Sites that stand out for you?