WHC 2024 (29)

Africa (2)
- Historic Town of Gedi (Kenya)
- Gola-Tiwai Complex (Sierra Leone)

Arab States (2)
- Gebel Qatrani Area (Egypt)
- Umm al-Jimal (Jordan)

Asia and the Pacific (10)
- Murujuga Cultural Landscape (Australia)
- The Central Axis of Beijing (China)
- Moidams - the Mound-Burial system of the Ahom Dynasty (India)
- Urban Landscape of Hegmatane to Hamadan (Iran)
- The Sado Complex of Heritage Mines (Japan)
- The Archaeological Heritage of Niah National Park's Caves Complex, Sarawak (Malaysia)
- Tilaurakot, the Archaeological remains of Ancient Shakya Kingdom (Nepal)
- Phuphrabat Historical Park (Thailand)
- Koytendag Mountain Ecosystem (Turkmenistan)
- The Complex of Relics and Landscapes of Yen Tu - Con Son, Kiep Bac (Vietnam)

Europe & North America (11)
- Te Henua Enata – The Marquesas Islands (France)
- Residence Ensemble Schwerin (Germany)
- Mount Olympus (Greece)
- Via Appia 'Regina Viarum' (Italy)
- Modernist Centre of Gdynia (Poland)
- Levadas of Madeira Island (Portugal)
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Dacia (Romania)
- Cultural Landscape of the Andalusian Olive Grove (Spain)
- Íznik (Turkey)
- Flow Country (United Kingdom)
- Moravian Church Settlements (United States, Germany, United Kingdom)

Latin America & Caribbean (4)
- Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (Brazil)
- Sunken City of Port Royal (Jamaica)
- Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá (Panama)
- Isla de Flores Cultural Landscape (Uruguay)

Murujuga https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-10/burrup-rock-art-nominated-world-heritage-unesco-/101947896

I wonder how many "official" channels we can find to confirm submitted nomination dossiers?

Official Government Announcements:
- Moravian Church Settlement Site (US)
- Murujuga Cultural Landscape (Australia)

Every year we get a couple surprises (incorrect predictions) and some nominations that we never discovered at all. In 2023, increasingly government/official social media channels are being utilized to announce world heritage news.

Twitter
- Historic Town of Gedi (Kenya)
- Te Henua Enata – The Marquesas Islands (France)
- Mount Olympus (Greece)

Facebook
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Dacia (Romania)

Both UK Nominations have been confirmed reasonably "officially"!-
Flow Country - by the Web site of the bid - with a photo of the Minister receiving the nomination to pass on! -
Gracehill . Officially by the N Ireland gov department (Interesting that the Scottish devolved equivalent department- the "Culture and Major Events Directorate" hasn't issued a release for its "Flow country", whilst NI, which is supposed to be "without a government!" because of the "Protocol" and other issues, has done so for Gracehill! The devolved Scottish adminstration is possibly still working out which of its members should be descibed as "he" and which "she"- so can't deal with other minor matters!)

I think it is still "expected" that UK's DCMS will issue an "official" press briefing from "the Top" sometime - their tardiness will not surprise @Liam - there has been yet ANOTHER reorganisation of that department and another new "minister" for part of it since we wrote about it around a week ago!!!. Lacking any other official news at that time I e-mailed the Gracehill contact a few days ago to check that the Nomination had indeed been deposited and was told that they were awaiting something official before putting it up on their own Web site - the NI department press release seems to have fulfilled that requirement - here it is put up yesterday on Moravian.org.

( I should commend Gracehill for their courtesy in replying to my e-mail out of the blue to them with a very nice response. A few weeks ago I sent an e-mail to the Mairie de Vézelay to try to bottom the issue about that second nominated area - response to date - Zilch!!! Perhaps they don't reply to e-mails coming from outside the EU - "quarantined for inspection" etc etc... or perhaps French bureaucracy can be as tardy and disorganised as that of UK??)

Murujuga There seems a potential issue regarding preservation in/around the area regarding this nomination - "Indigenous groups say decision to nominate Murujuga cultural area is 'deeply hypocritical' because of government support for industrial projects in the area..........Campaign group Friends of Australian Rock Art (Fara) said industrial expansion could derail the world heritage application at the final hurdle".
See this. It will be interesting to see how much ICOMOS makes of the issue and whther the government has done enough t preseve the nominated OUV even if it hasn't satisfied all the locals.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this were the case. Murujuga is an incredible spot, and definitely one of the better rock art sites we've been to, and absolutely deserves to be inscribed. But there's enormous industrial development right there and that's growing constantly. Like, the best spot to see the petroglyphs (and where I filmed much of my video) is this spot: https://goo.gl/maps/ZKp4g14gcmnPtvG26

Switch to satellite view, and realise that literally everything nearby is rampant heavy industrial development. I can imagine ICOMOS will have a pretty dim view of both the proximity and the scant lip service to conservation paid by the industrial giants.

Final update about the changes made to this nomination dossier just days before official submission.

https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/business/spains-sea-of-olives-unesco-application-moves-forward/117287

Please refrain from double posting, Jurre. If a site has been confirmed for a year, one link is enough. I've removed a few.

I am excited to get more confirmation that Jamaica has compiled an updated dossier and submitted it to UNESCO! I was becoming doubtful with the lack of news.

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latest-news/jamaica-submits-new-nomination-to-unesco-in-bid-to-have-port-royal-declared-world-heritage-site-grange/