The World Heritage Committee inscribed seven new sites, including the sprawling Mesopotamian metropolis of Babylon on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

The other sites are Iran’s Hyrcanian forests, French austral lands and seas, Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland, Paratyand Ilha Grande in Brazil, ferrous metallurgy sites of Burkina Faso and migratory bird sanctuaries in China. The committee also approved the extension of  transboundary natural and cultural heritage site of the Ohrid region (Albania/North Macedonia). 

Iraq had been trying since 1983 to have the site — a massive 10-square-kilometre complex of which just 18 per cent has been excavated thus far — recognised by UNESCO.

“What is the world heritage list without Babylon? How to tell the history of humanity without the earliest of old chapters, Babylon?” said Iraq’s representative to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee ahead of the vote.

It developed as a walled city of temples and towers made of mudbrick and known internationally for its hanging gardens, the Tower of Babel, and the Ishtar Gate. 

The committee met in Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to consider Babylon and another 34 sites, including in Brazil and Burkina Faso, for the World Heritage List. It opted not to designate Babylon as the World Heritage in Danger after objections from Iraq.

“Babylon is the largest populated city in ancient history,” said Qahtan al-Abeed, who heads the Basra Antiquities Department and led efforts to get the site listed. “The Babylonians were the civilisation of writing, administration and science,” he said.

Significance of Babylon

Situated 85km south of Baghdad, the property includes the ruins of the city which, between 626 and 539 BCE, was the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. It includes villages and agricultural areas surrounding the ancient city. 

Its remains, outer and inner-city walls, gates, palaces and temples, are a unique testimony to one of the most influential empires of the ancient world. Seat of successive empires, under rulers such as Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon represents the expression of the creativity of the Neo-Babylonian Empire at its height. 

The city’s association with one of the seven wonders of the ancient world —the Hanging Gardens — has also inspired artistic, popular and religious culture on a global scale.

In the early 1980s, former Iraqi leader Saddam razed a large part of the ancient city in order to build a replica on top of some of the original ruins. After the Gulf War, he also built an extravagant modern palace for himself on another part of the ruins, overlooking the main site. In 2005, the British Museum warned that US-led coalition forces were causing severe damage to the ancient city.

French Austral Lands and Seas

The French Austral Lands and Seas comprise the largest of the rare emerged land masses in the southern Indian Ocean: the Crozet Archipelago, the Kerguelen Islands, Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands as well as 60 small sub-Antarctic islands. 

This “oasis” in the middle of the Southern Ocean covers an area of more than 67 million hectares and supports one of the highest concentrations of birds and marine mammals in the world. In particular, it has the largest population of King Penguins and Yellow-nosed albatrosses in the world. 

The remoteness of these islands from centres of human activity makes them extremely well-preserved showcases of biological evolution and a unique terrain for scientific research.

Vatnajökull National Park (Iceland)

This iconic volcanic region covers nearly 14 per cent of Iceland's territory. It includes 10 central volcanoes, eight of which are subglacial. Two of these are among the most active in Iceland. The interaction between volcanoes and the rifts that underlie the Vatnajökull ice cap takes many forms, the most spectacular of which is the jökulhlaup – a sudden flood caused by the breach of the margin of a glacier during an eruption. This recurrent phenomenon has led to the emergence of unique sandur plains, river systems and rapidly evolving canyons. Volcanic areas are home to endemic groundwater fauna that has survived the Ice Age.

Paraty and Ilha Grande (Brazil) 

Located between the Serra da Bocaina mountain range and the Atlantic Ocean, this cultural landscape includes the historic centre of Paraty, one of Brazil’s best-preserved coastal towns, as well as four protected natural areas of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the world’s five key biodiversity hotspots. 

Paraty is home to an impressive diversity of species, some of which are threatened, such as the jaguar (Panthera onca), the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) and several primate species, including the woolly spider monkey (Brachyteles arachnoides), which are emblematic of the site. 

In the late 17th century, Paraty was the end-point of the Caminho do Ouro (Gold Route), along which gold was shipped to Europe. Its port also served as an entry point for tools and African slaves, sent to work in the mines. 

A defence system was built to protect the wealth of the port and the town.  The historic centre of Paraty has retained its 18th century plan and much of its colonial architecture dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Metallurgy sites of Burkina Faso 

This property is composed of five elements located in different provinces of the country. It includes about fifteen standing, natural-draught furnaces, several other furnace structures, mines and traces of dwellings. 

Douroula, which dates back to the 8th century BC, is the oldest evidence of the development of iron production found in Burkina Faso. The other components of the property — Tiwêga, Yamané, Kindibo and Békuy — illustrate the intensification of iron production during the second millennium of common era. 

Even though iron ore reduction - obtaining iron from ore - is no longer practiced today, village blacksmiths still play a major role in supplying tools, while taking part in various rituals.

Migratory bird sanctuaries in China 

Migratory bird Sanctuaries along the coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China features an intertidal mudflat system considered to be the largest in the world. These mudflats, as well as marshes and shoals, are exceptionally productive and serve as growth areas for many species of fish and crustaceans. 

The intertidal areas of the Yellow Sea/Gulf of Bohai are of global importance for the gathering of many migratory bird species that use the East Asian-Australasian flyway. Large gatherings of birds, including some of the world's most endangered species, depend on the coastline as a stopover to moult, rest, winter or nest.

Hyrcanian forests (Iran) 

Hyrcanian forests form a unique forested massif that stretches 850km along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. The history of these broad-leaved forests dates back 25 to 50 million years, when they covered most of this Northern Temperate region. 

These ancient forest areas retreated during the Quaternary glaciations and then expanded again as the climate became milder. Their floristic biodiversity is remarkable: 44 per cent of the vascular plants known in Iran are found in the Hyrcanian region, which only covers 7 per cent of the country. To date, 180 species of birds typical of broad-leaved temperate forests and 58 mammal species have been recorded, including the iconic Persian Leopard.

Ohrid region (Albania) 

The part of Lake Ohrid located in Northern Macedonia and its hinterland, including the town of Ohrid, has been inscribed on the World Heritage List since 1979. With this extension, the site now encompasses the the north-western, Albanian, part of Lake Ohrid, the small Lin Peninsula and the strip of land along the shoreline that connects the peninsula to the Macedonian border. The peninsula is the site of the remains of an Early Christian church founded in the middle of the 6th century. In the shallow waters near the shores of the lake, three sites testify to the presence of prehistoric pile dwellings. A superlative natural phenomenon, the lake provides a refuge for numerous endemic species of freshwater fauna and flora dating from the Tertiary period.