World Heritage List reaches 1000 sites

Doha – Botswana’s Okavango Delta became the 1000th site inscribed on the World Heritage List . Okavango was inscribed as a natural site by the World Heritage Committee meeting held in Doha (Qatar) under the Chair of Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani. The Committee also inscribed sites in France, Israel, Italy,Turkey and the United States . The List now totals 1001 properties. The new sites are: Okavango Delta (Botswana ),Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc, known as Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, Ardeche (France) , Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands as a Microcosm of the Land of the Caves (Israel) , Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (Italy ) , Bursa and Cumalıkızık: The Birth of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) , Pergamon and its Multi-Layered Cultural Landscape (Turkey) and Monumental earthworks of Poverty Point (United States of America) . Similarly, the World Heritage Committee inscribed properties in the Russian Federation, Costa Rica, Viet Nam, India, Philippines and Denmark on the World Heritage List. It also approved the extensions of a site in China and two transboundary sites in Poland and Belarus, and Denmark and Germany. The sites discussed include two cultural sites, a mixed natural and cultural property, and six natural sites. They are: Bolgar Historical and Archaeological Complex (Russian Federation) Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Stone Spheres of the Diquis (Costa Rica) Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex (Viet Nam) Great Himalayan National Park (India) (GHNPCA) Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary (Philippines) Stevns Klint (Denmark) South China Karst (China) Bialowieża Forest (Belarus/Poland) The Wadden Sea (Germany/Denmark) Source : UNESCO