Recorded cultural discoveries

Connected Sites: 31

Cultural WHS that were not previously known and then 'discovered', although local populations may have known about them. Requirements: - discovered before 1970 (the later ones are in a separate connection, "recently discovered") - name of discoverer and year must be given - the discovery must relate to the WHS itself, not to a single property or smaller zone within the area

Connected Sites

  • Machu Picchu
    Inscribed: 1983
    4.63
    261
    8
    Hiram J Bingham (American) 1911
  • Troy
    Troy
    Turkiye
    Inscribed: 1998
    2.82
    140
    8
    Charles Maclaren (Scottish) 1822 established the area, Frank Calvert (English) 1850's-60's did early excavations , Charles Schliemann 1870's provided "proof"
  • Borobudur
    Borobudur
    Indonesia
    Inscribed: 1991
    4.28
    202
    9
    H.C. Cornelius (Dutch) on a mission sponsored by Sir Thomas Raffles in 1814
  • Angkor
    Angkor
    Cambodia
    Inscribed: 1992
    4.72
    362
    30
    Henry Mouhot (French) is credited with 'discovering' it in 1860 although many other Westerners had visited the site before him. He certainly popularised it in the West.
  • Vézère Valley
    Inscribed: 1979
    3.54
    113
    12
    Lascaux - Marcel Ravidat ; September 12, 1940
  • Thracian tomb of Kazanlak
    Inscribed: 1979
    2.39
    115
    10
    "Discovered by accident on 19 April 1944 under a mound of soldiers digging trenches"
    See 100obekta.com
  • Medina Azahara
    Inscribed: 2018
    2.82
    150
    10
    "With time the entire city was buried, not to be unearthed until 1911." Wiki
  • Tassili n'Ajjer
    Inscribed: 1982
    3.62
    21
    2
    It is the rock art (engravings and paintings) that have made Tassili world famous as from 1933, the date of its discovery. (Unesco) Tassili was already well known by the early 20th century, but Western eyes were fully introduced due to a series of sketches made by French legionnaires, specifically Lieutenant Brenans during the 1930s. He brought with him French archaeologist Henri Lhote, who would later return during 1956 - 1957, 1959, 1962, and 1970. (Wikipedia)
  • Umm Al-Jimāl
    Inscribed: 2024
    2.85
    30
    4
    The first recorded visit to the site was by William John Bankes (1786–1855) in 1818 who conducted a brief description of Umm el-Jimal. (wiki)
    See en.wikipedia.org
  • Himā Cultural area
    Inscribed: 2021
    2.33
    22
    3
    The area was explored by the Philby-Ryckmans-Lippen expedition of 1951 and published by E. Anati (1969–72). Its rich heritage of rock petroglyphs caught the attention of Saudi Arabia's Department of Antiquities only after 1976 when Jubba and other sites were investigated.
    See en.wikipedia.org
  • Saloum Delta
    Inscribed: 2011
    2.86
    38
    4
    "As early as the 15th century, the Saloum shell mounds were mentioned by the first Portuguese explorers, such as Dinis Diaz. In the early 16th century, Valentim Fernandes described in his Description of the African West Coast, how the molluscs were processed by the inhabitants and sold commercially in locally made earthenware pots" "The shell mounds were long considered natural accumulations. It was only in the 1930s that their manmade origin was fully proven, and their funerary role brought to light. The first archaeological excavations in the Saloum Delta were carried out in Dioron-Boundaw and Dioron-Boumak in 1939." (AB ev)
  • Hattusha
    Hattusha
    Turkiye
    Inscribed: 1986
    3.52
    78
    5
    1834 Charles Texier
    See www.hattuscha.de
  • Rock Paintings of Shulgan-Tash Cave
    Inscribed: 2025
    3.48
    2
    0
    Alexander Ryumin (1959)
  • Uluru
    Uluru
    Australia
    Inscribed: 1987
    4.39
    140
    6
    On 19 July 1873 William Gosse reached Uluru and gave it the name Ayers Rock.
    See en.wikipedia.org
  • Tsodilo
    Tsodilo
    Botswana
    Inscribed: 2001
    3.08
    20
    11
    "The rock art was first sketched and brought to Western attention in 1907 by Siegfried Passarge, a German geologist." Nom file
  • Sangiran Early Man Site
    Inscribed: 1996
    1.86
    64
    9
    "The significance of Sangiran first came to the notice of scholars in 1934 when chalcedony flakes were found in the village of Ngebung. There followed an intensive research campaign between 1936 and 1941 by G H R von Konigswald which led to the discovery of the first hominid fossil." (AB Ev) – "1934: The anthropologist Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald started to examine the area. During excavations in the next years fossils of some of the first known human ancestors, Pithecanthropus erectus ("Java Man", now reclassified as part of the species Homo erectus), were found here." (wiki)
  • Rapa Nui
    Inscribed: 1995
    4.49
    110
    13
    Jacob Roggeveen (Dutch) on Easter Sunday 1722
  • Pompei
    Pompei
    Italy
    Inscribed: 1997
    4.38
    451
    8
    1738, Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre
  • "K. Grevingk, a geologist from Saint Petersburg, and P. Shved, a teacher from Petrozavodsk, discovered rock engravings ("Olonec carvings") on the eastern shore of the Lake Onega in 1848." (Nomination file, p. 39)
  • Petra
    Petra
    Jordan
    Inscribed: 1985
    4.61
    288
    21
    Johann Ludwig Burkhardt (Swiss) 1812
  • Nubian Monuments
    Inscribed: 1979
    4.21
    204
    12
    Abu Simbel: Belzoni, 1817
  • Niah Caves
    Niah Caves
    Malaysia
    Inscribed: 2024
    2.71
    24
    5
    "The cave was first described to Westerners in 1864 by Alfred Russel Wallace" (brittanica.com)
  • Nemrut Dag
    Nemrut Dag
    Turkiye
    Inscribed: 1987
    4.12
    77
    14
    excavated in 1881 by Charles Sester, a German engineer assessing transport routes for the Ottomans (wiki)
    See www.nemrut.org.tr
  • Krzemionki prehistoric flint mines
    Inscribed: 2019
    2.68
    66
    6
    The early discovery of Krzemionki Opatowskie in 1922 enabled rapid identification of the nature of the site" (AB Ev) – "On 19 July 1922 Jan Samsonowicz, a geologist and palaeontologist (Polish Geological Institute) who was also working with Stefan Krukowski, discovered the Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field and recognised it as belonging to the Neolithic period." (Nomination file, p. 157)
  • Göbekli Tepe
    Inscribed: 2018
    3.77
    68
    6
    The site was first noted in a survey conducted by Istanbul University and the University of Chicago in 1963 (wiki)
  • Dholavira: A Harappan City
    Inscribed: 2021
    2.85
    13
    2
    "The site was discovered by Dr. Jagat Pati Joshi, former Director General of ASI, in 1968, during his exploration in the Kachchh district." (Nomination text, p. 37)
  • Chinchorro Culture
    Inscribed: 2021
    2.47
    25
    3
    The Chinchorro type site is located in Arica, Chile; it was discovered by German archaeologist Max Uhle in the early 20th century. He excavated nearly a hundred individuals during the twenties.
    See en.wikipedia.org
  • Ban Chiang
    Ban Chiang
    Thailand
    Inscribed: 1992
    2.40
    61
    6
    In August 1966, by Steve Young, a political science student from the US who was living in the village for his thesis.
    See en.wikipedia.org
  • Sigiriya
    Sigiriya
    Sri Lanka
    Inscribed: 1982
    3.72
    180
    8
    It wasn't until 1831 that the abandoned Sigiriya was discovered by British Army Major Jonathan Forbes.
    See www.news9live.com
  • Moenjodaro
    Moenjodaro
    Pakistan
    Inscribed: 1980
    3.51
    26
    3
    Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay (Indian) 1922
  • Arslantepe Mound
    Inscribed: 2021
    2.42
    36
    5
    The site has been known since the end of the 19th century. In 1895, David Hogarth published a bas-relief of a lion hunt from "Arslan Tepe" which had been discovered in May 1894 by an inhabitant of the neighboring village while he was looking for building stones. Three photographs of bas-reliefs discovered in Malatya (...) were sent to the Academy of Inscriptions in 1907 and were published in 1909. From 1930 to 1939, it was excavated by a French team led by Louis Joseph Delaporte, which mainly identifies neo-Hittite levels.
    See fr.wikipedia.org