Whether it’s the Great Wall of China that can be seen from the moon...
or the Taj Mahal that was built as a symbol of love...
or the ruins of Machu Picchu holding the glorious history of the Incas...
or the Great Barrier Reef holding the treasures of the underwater world...
each one of them have something special to offer.
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some other form of significance, and they are legally protected by international treaties. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the collective interests of humanity.
More specifically, a World Heritage Site is an already classified landmark, which by way of being unique in some respect as a geographically and historically identifiable piece is of special cultural or physical significance (such as either due to hosting an ancient ruins or some historical structure, building, city, complex, desert, forest, island, lake, monument, or mountain) and symbolizes a remarkable footprint of extreme human endeavour often coupled with some act of indisputable accomplishment of humanity which then serves as a surviving evidence of its intellectual existence on the planet. With the intent of its practical conservation for posterity, which otherwise could be subject to risk from human or animal trespassing, owing to unmonitored/uncontrolled/unrestricted access or threat owing to local administrative negligence, sites are listed and demarcated by UNESCO to have been identified or recognised as a protected zone.
The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 UNESCO member states which are elected by the UN General Assembly.
Did You Know?...
There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party. Of these, 814 are cultural, 203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties. The World Heritage Committee has divided the world into five geographic zones which it calls regions: Africa, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Russia and the Caucasus states are classified as European, while Mexico and the Caribbean are classified as belonging to the Latin America & Caribbean zone, despite their location in North America. The UNESCO geographic zones also give greater emphasis on administrative, rather than geographic associations. Hence, Gough Island, located in the South Atlantic, is part of the Europe & North America region because the government of the United Kingdom nominated the site.
Source(s): huffingtonpost | wikipedia
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