New natural & cultural World Heritage Sites from UNESCO

UNESCO has added 27 new sites to the list of World Heritage Sites — eight natural and 19 cultural. If you think you’re an expert in world travel, you might want to take a look at the list and see if you’ve been to, or even heard of, some of the locations. I’ve got some studying to do because the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico is the only one that I’d heard of.

Studying up on World Heritage Sites could take a while: There are 878 sites on the list (679 cultural sites, 174 natural sites and 25 mixed sites in 145 countries). Here is the full UNESCO World Heritage List.

Here are photos of seven of the eight new natural wonders:

Surtsey, Iceland; Sigurdur Á. Thráinsson / © UNESCO

Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Canada; Walley Hayes / © UNESCO

Mount Sanqingshan National Park, China; Liu Feng / © UNESCO

Lagoons of New Caledonia Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems in France; Service de la Marine Marchande Gouvernement NC / © UNESCO

Socotra Archipelago, Yemen; Linda Shen / © UNESCO

Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico: Monarchs swarm the Santuario de la Mariposa Monarca (Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary) near Morelia; Jerry V. Haines

The Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona in Switzerland; Gaetan Bally / EPA

Note: Saryarka — Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan was also on the list of eight new natural wonders.

And here’s a list of the 19 new cultural sites that made the list:

Preah Vihear Temple (Cambodia); Fujian Tulou (China); Stari Grad Plain (Croatia); Historic Centre of Camagüey (Cuba); Fortifications of Vauban (France); Berlin Modernism Housing Estates (Germany); Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran; Baha’i Holy Places in Haifa and Western Galilee (Israel); Mantua and Sabbioneta (Italy); The Mijikenda Kaya Forests (Kenya); Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca (Malaysia); Protective town of San Miguel and the Sanctuary of Jesús de Nazareno de Atotonilco (Mexico); Le Morne Cultural Landscape (Mauritius); Kuk Early Agricultural Site (Papua New Guinea); San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titano (San Marino); Archaeological Site of Al-Hijr (Madâin Sâlih) (Saudi Arabia); The Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area (Slovakia); Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Cultural Landscape (Switzerland/Italy); Chief Roi Mata’s Domain (Vanuatu)

How many have you seen?

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal blogger

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 1:34 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Global, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.