- World
- Jul 29
25 new properties added to UNESCO World Heritage List
• The World Heritage Committee wrapped up its 48th session in Busan, South Korea, with the addition of 25 new sites to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
• These newly inscribed properties now benefit from the highest level of international recognition and protection.
• All inscriptions during the session were adopted by consensus, reflecting the cooperative spirit that underpins the 1972 World Heritage Convention.
• This session also marked the first-ever inscriptions on the UNESCO World Heritage List for three African countries — Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and South Sudan.
• This is India’s 45th site to join the list of UNESCO World Heritage.
The 25 properties added to the List are:
1) Mount Amel Castles (Lebanon): The serial property comprises five fortified sites located across the historic region of Jabal Amel in southern Lebanon: Qalaat Al Chakif (Beaufort Castle), Qalaat Tibnin (Toron Castle), Qalaat Chakra (Dubieh Castle), Qalaat Deir Kifa (Maron Castle), and Qalaat Chama’ (Chama’ Castle). Developed between the medieval period and the 19th century, they illustrate successive phases of occupation and adaptation by Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk, Ottoman, and local feudal rulers.
2) Sebastia (Palestine): The property, located near Nablus in the West Bank, in Palestine, preserves the archaeological record of the successive occupation of the site by different civilisations from at least the 9th century BCE, when Samaria-Sebaste served as the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, through the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods, with later architectural remains dating to the Crusader era, as well as the Ayyubid/Mamluk and Ottoman periods, when it was one of the designated “Throne Villages”.
3) Garamba National Park (Congo): The property, located in the north-eastern Congo, forms part of one of the last extensive and continuous forest-savanna mosaic landscapes in Central Africa. Representing a major ecological transition zone between the Guineo-Congolian forest biome and the Sudanian savanna, it encompasses a diverse range of habitats, including grasslands, wooded savannas, semi-deciduous forests, rivers, gallery forests, marshes, and papyrus wetlands. The park supports a rich assemblage of wildlife.
4) Aqaba Marine Reserve (Jordan): The property, located at the northernmost tip of the Red Sea, comprises a mosaic of coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mesophotic reefs that sustain diverse marine life and ecological processes. Recognised as the world’s northernmost tropical coral reef system, the property is notable for its thermally resilient corals, which have adapted over the last 10,000 years to marine heatwaves, high salinity, and elevated summer temperatures. The reserve safeguards important marine genetic resources and supports exceptional biodiversity, including more than 150 species of hard coral, over 500 species of fish, and 1,000 species of molluscs.
5) Wadi Wurayah (UAE): The property is located entirely within the Hajar mountain range in the Emirate of Fujairah. Geologically, the Hajar Mountains represent extensive and well-preserved exposures of ophiolite sequences, formed during Late Cretaceous tectonic processes. Ecologically, the property is situated within the Al Hajar Foothill Xeric Woodlands and Shrublands.
6) Amazonia Theaters (Brazil): The property consists of two component parts: The Theatro da Paz and the Praca da Republica in Belem, and the Teatro Amazonas and the Largo de Sao Sebastiao in Manaus. These were built in the States of Para and Amazonas in Brazil during the Amazonian ‘Golden Age’ as a result of the economic peak of the Rubber Cycle between 1879 and 1912. Inspired by French and European architecture and decorated with motifs evoking the Amazon, these ensembles were designed as symbols of political and urban ambition.
7) Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites (China): The serial property portrays the evolution of the production of handicraft porcelain from the 10th to 19th centuries that had profound industrial, artistic and trading influences in China and beyond globally. The five component parts reflect the processes of the production of porcelain, including the extraction and transportation of raw materials, innovations in kiln design and the spatial and social organisation of production on an immense scale.
8) Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (USA): The property, located in southeastern Georgia and northeastern Florida, protects the Okefenokee Swamp, the largest lowland freshwater peatland in the subtropical zone worldwide and one of the largest and most intact ecosystems within the North American Coastal Plain global biodiversity hotspot. The property comprises a diverse mosaic of wetlands, savannas, and forests shaped by the ongoing interaction of water, fire, vegetation, and wildlife, with alternating fire and rainfall processes driving peat formation, vegetation structure, and biodiversity.
9) The Medinas of the Historic Sultanates of the Comoros (Comoros): The serial property is composed of six historic towns which developed from urban nuclei that emerged around at least the 11th century and evolved into city-states around the 14th-15th century. They eventually became the principal urban centres of the sultanates established on the islands of the archipelago of Comoros.
10) Rock Mosques and Associated Sacred Sites of Mangystau (Kazakhstan): The serial property, located on the Mangystau Peninsula bordering the Caspian Sea, consists of five sacred sites carved into the rock along with adjacent extensive burial grounds. Beket-Ata, Shopan-Ata, Karaman-Ata, Shakpak-Ata and Sultan-Epe, each associated with a Sufi master, date from the 12th to the 18th centuries. The complexes, known locally as “underground mosques”, are a particular type of structure created in natural caves, carved into steep rocks or dug into the ground in the semi-desert landscape.
11) The Cemetery Complexes of the Xiongnu Nobility (Mongolia): This serial property comprises eight funerary complexes of the Xiongnu nobility. The Xiongnu, ancient predecessors of a confederation of Eurasian nomadic peoples, established a powerful empire between the 3rd century BCE and the 2nd century CE that eventually occupied a vast territory centred on what is now Mongolia. They interacted with the Han Chinese and controlled nodes along the main parts of the Steppe Route of the Silk Roads. Among the numerous archaeological remains found across the former expanse of the empire, their cemeteries provide important insights into Xiongnu burial culture.
12) Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan, Nakhon Si Thammarat (Thailand): Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan (or Phra Mahathat monastery), located in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province in Peninsular Thailand on a narrow ridge between the Pacific and Indian oceans, has served as a major regional Buddhist centre since its founding in the 8th century. Benefiting from the transoceanic trade networks, the monastery was influenced by various religious and architectural traditions including Brahmanism, Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism from northeastern India, central Java, Sri Lanka and the Mon region of southern Myanmar. These influences have been integrated into its religious buildings, rituals and cultural traditions.
13) The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfjord – Evolution and Climate Adaptation in the Earliest Eocene (Denmark): The serial property, located in the Western Limfjord sea of northern Jutland, Denmark, comprise the coastal cliffs of Hanklit and Knudeklint, which contain some of the world’s best-preserved fossil fishes. The property represents the oldest and most important site for understanding the early evolution and diversification of modern bony fishes (teleosts) following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Preserved within diatomite-rich deposits and volcanic ash layers, the exceptional fossil record spans the Paleocene – Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and the subsequent cooling period, providing unique evidence of biotic responses to major climatic change.
14) Village of Sidi Bou Said (Tunisia): The property is a picturesque village perched on a promontory overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, harmoniously integrated into the cliff topography. It developed around the tomb of a Sufi master and saint, known as Sidi Bou Said, who lived in the 12th-13th centuries. It has long inspired artists and continues to attract visitors seeking spiritual serenity.
15) Ancient Buddhist Site of Sarnath (India): The serial property contains the architectural and archaeological remains of Sarnath, the sacred site where the Buddha is believed to have delivered his first sermon in the 6th century BCE and met his earliest disciples. Identified by the Buddha himself as one of the four principal Buddhist pilgrimage sites, Sarnath grew over many centuries through royal, monastic, and lay patronage, resulting in the construction of numerous stupas, temples, and viharas. After flourishing as a major Buddhist centre, Sarnath declined in the 12th century CE and fell into obscurity until its rediscovery in the 18th century.
16) Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape (South Sudan): The property comprises Boma National Park, Badingilo National Park, and the surrounding floodplain and savanna landscapes in South Sudan. Located at the interface between the Sudd wetland system and the East Sudanian Savanna, it encompasses an extensive mosaic of seasonally flooded grasslands, wetlands, floodplains, woodlands, and savannas shaped by seasonal rainfall and flood dynamics. These interconnected ecosystems sustain one of the world’s largest remaining terrestrial mammal migrations, with an estimated six million White-eared Kob, Tiang, and Mongalla Gazelle moving across a vast and largely unimpeded landscape in response to changing environmental conditions.
17) Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara (Japan): Located in the southern part of the Nara Basin, Asuka and Fujiwara were the two ancient capitals of the Japanese archipelago that marked the establishment of a centralised state system modelled after the Chinese codified law known as ‘ritsuryo’. Nineteen component parts, comprising palaces/government offices, Buddhist temples and mounded tombs, contain archaeological evidence of the Asuka Capital (588-694 CE) and the Fujiwara Capital (694-710 CE). The Asuka capital was established at the site of the Asuka-dera Temple, the first Buddhist temple in Japan.
18) Tashkent Modernist Architecture (Uzbekistan): The property embodies a representative ensemble of ten modernist buildings and urban complexes constructed between the 1960s and early 1990s, a formative period in the reconstruction and transformation of Tashkent following the 1966 earthquake. The series includes museums, exhibition halls, hotels, residential ensembles, cultural institutions, and scientific or infrastructural facilities, reflecting the broad functional spectrum of late‑Soviet architectural production.
19) The Rocas of Sao Tome and Principe (Sao Tome and Principe): The serial property comprises six geographically separate rocas (Portuguese colonial agricultural plantations) located on the islands of Sao Tome and Principe: Monte Cafe, Agua Ize, Diogo Vaz, Sao Joao, Sundy, and Belo Monte. Together, they represent a planned colonial plantation system dedicated primarily to coffee and cocoa production. The property illustrates the operation of a large-scale colonial agro-industrial system.
20) The Wider Area of Mount Olympus (Greece): Mount Olympus is situated in northern Greece and is the highest mountain in the country. Its microclimate, resulting from its proximity to the sea and abrupt elevation, produces a remarkable diversity in terrain, climate, and vegetation. In this landscape, the ancient Greeks situated the abode of their Twelve Olympian Gods, with Zeus as their sovereign, as well as the Muses and Graces. Through the writings of Hesiod and Homer, Mount Olympus became a central point of reference for Greek mythology throughout the Greek and Roman worlds, rendering Mount Olympus an enduring emblem of Greek civilisation.
21) Alamut Castle and Related Fortifications (Iran): The serial property comprises of Alamut Castle and six associated fortifications — Lambesar, Navizarsah, Sams Kelayeh, Qosṭinlar, Sirkuh, and Ilan — strategically positioned within the rugged landscape of the Alborz Mountains in Qazvin Province, northern Iran. From the late 11th century CE, Alamut served as the political, military, and intellectual centre of the Nezari Ismaʿilis, an influential Islamic movement whose reach extended across Iran and the wider Islamic world.
22) Aalto Works (Finland): The property consists of 13 modern buildings and ensembles across Finland (1928–1988) that exemplify the 20th‑century Modern Movement and its response to broad social needs. These civic, community, and residential structures — found in both urban and rural settings — are internationally associated with Alvar Aalto, yet they reflect the collaborative creativity of Aalto, Aino Marsio‑Aalto, Elissa Aalto, the Aalto studio, and their design partners.
23) Beaches of the D-Day Landings, Normandy, 1944 (France): The serial property comprises six component parts along approximately 80 km of the Normandy coastline, encompassing Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches, as well as Pointe du Hoc. These sites are directly associated with the Allied landings of June 6, 1944, the opening phase of Operation Overlord, which marked the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation during the Second World War.
24) The system of Italian-style condominio theatres of the 18th and 19th centuries in Central Italy: The serial property comprises ten Italian‑style condominio theatres built between the mid‑18th and late 19th centuries across Emilia‑Romagna, Marche, and Umbria in central Italy. Architecturally representative of Neoclassicism with Late Baroque influences, these theatres feature tiered boxes, carefully designed auditoriums for optimal acoustics and visibility, stalls, foyers, ridotti, and historic stage machinery. They embody the innovative “condominio” system, a model of collective ownership and public‑private financing that enabled municipalities and private citizens to collaborate in constructing theatres in small and medium‑sized towns.
25) Gdynia Modernist City Centre (Poland): Located on the Baltic Sea coast, Gdynia Modernist City Centre encompasses the two most significant east-west and north-south streets, featuring interwar planning blocks and the majority of the city centre’s preserved buildings from that period, which reflect the large-scale application of modernist ideas in architectural design. The city centre, with its buildings, villas on Kamienna Gora hill, and other residential buildings of this period, illustrates a critical break with historicism in the progression of turning the village of Gdynia into a new major sea gateway of the first Polish Republic between the First and Second World Wars.