UNESCO has announced the annual update to its register of sites worthy of world heritage status, adding 24 new locations to its global list of more than 1,000.
Well-known visitor attractions, including France’s Champagne wine region, The Alamo and Scotland’s Forth Road Bridge are all new additions to the list, with lesser-known sites added to the list now hoping for a boost in tourism numbers.
Denmark, France, Iran and Turkey had two allocations apiece, leading the way in new additions.
In France, the famous Champagne-region vineyards, wine cellars and sale houses – where champagne is produced and sold – were handed World Heritage Status, while the vineyards of Burgundy south of Dijon were also given an allocation by UNESCO.
In the US, the only addition was the San Antonio Missions, a series of 18th century Spanish Roman Catholic sites which include the Alamo – the scene of a famous battle between outnumbered Texas settlers and Mexican forces.
Ancient Greek and Roman settlements in Turkey have been added to the list as Ephesus, once the site of the Temple of Artemis – one of the Ancient World’s Seven Wonders.
A
controversial Japanese bid was unanimously approved for a collection of more than 20 sites illustrating the country’s industrial revolution during the 19th century. The bid was approved only after Japan and South Korea reached an agreement over whether to acknowledge the sites' history of wartime forced labour, particularly that of Gunkanjima.
The Forth Bridge is the sixth Scottish landmark to gain heritage status, with the red structure used to carry trains over the Forth since it opened in 1890. For 125 years the bridge has been seen as an icon of Victorian engineering excellence and as a symbol of Scotland. The bridge
recently underwent a £15m (US$23m €21m) development to build a viewing platform, opening the railway route to the public for the first time.
Full list of new UNESCO World Heritage Sites • Necropolis of Bet She’arim: A Landmark of Jewish Renewal, Israel
• Rjukan–Notodden Industrial Heritage Site, Norway
• Rock Art in the Hail Region of Saudi Arabia
• San Antonio Missions, US
• Singapore Botanical Gardens
• Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining
• Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus, Germany
• Susa archaeological mounds, Iran
• The Forth Bridge, Scotland
• The par force hunting landscape in North Zealand, Denmark
• Tusi Sites, China
• Blue and John Crow Mountains, Jamaica
• Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic System, Mexico
• Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalú and Monreale, Italy
• Baekje Historic Areas, South Korea
• Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” (Al-Maghtas), Jordan
• Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars, France
• Christiansfeld, a Moravian Church Settlement, Norway
• Climats, terroirs of Burgundy, France
• Cultural Landscape of Maymand, Iran
• Diyarbakir Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape, Turkey
• Ephesus, Turkey
• Fray Bentos Cultural-Industrial Landscape, Uruguay
• Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its sacred landscape, Mongolia
