The committee that considers requests for inscription on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage List will have 47 nominated sites to choose from when it meets for its annual session next month in Canada.
UNESCO announced last week the nominations comprise 13 natural sites and 34 cultural sites, including two that cross national boundaries, according to a press release issued by UNESCO ahead of the nine-day World Heritage Committee meeting, scheduled to start in Québec on 2 July.
The nominating countries include five States that have no sites inscribed on the World Heritage List: Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, San Marino, Saudi Arabia and Vanuatu.
UNESCO said the committee would also scrutinize the state of conservation of 30 sites that have been placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger because of problems such as pollution, pillaging, the impact of natural disasters or poorly managed mass tourism.
Those sites include the cultural landscape of the Dresden Valley in Germany, which may be deleted from the World Heritage List if the 21-member committee determines that the building of a bridge in the heart of the landscape warrants the move.
Currently there are 851 wonderful and amazing sites of “outstanding universal value” in 141 countries that have been inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Each year sites are added after applications are first reviewed by either the International Council on Monuments and Sites or the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
woensdag 25 juni 2008
donderdag 12 juni 2008
UNESCO World Heritage List and Palmyra in Syria
This week the UNESCO-agency of the United Nations is inviting us to make a trip to explore the extraordinary roman remains in Palmyra, an oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus in Syria.
Palmyra, in Arabic Tadmor, was in ancient times an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 120 km southwest of the Euphrates river.
The city contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
From the 1st to the 2nd century, the art and architecture of Palmyra, standing at the crossroads of several civilizations, married Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences.
Next to this, it has long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert.
The earliest documented reference to the city by its pre-Semitic name Tadmor, Tadmur or Tudmur, is recorded in Babylonian tablets found in Mari.
Though the ancient site fell into disuse after the 16th century, it is still known as Tadmor in Arabic, and there is a small newer settlement next to the ruins of the same name.
The Palmyrenes constructed a series of large-scale monuments such as limestone slabs with human busts representing the deceased.
An oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus, Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
http://www.WHTour.org/23
Palmyra, in Arabic Tadmor, was in ancient times an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 120 km southwest of the Euphrates river.
The city contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
From the 1st to the 2nd century, the art and architecture of Palmyra, standing at the crossroads of several civilizations, married Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences.
Next to this, it has long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert.
The earliest documented reference to the city by its pre-Semitic name Tadmor, Tadmur or Tudmur, is recorded in Babylonian tablets found in Mari.
Though the ancient site fell into disuse after the 16th century, it is still known as Tadmor in Arabic, and there is a small newer settlement next to the ruins of the same name.
The Palmyrenes constructed a series of large-scale monuments such as limestone slabs with human busts representing the deceased.
An oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus, Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
http://www.WHTour.org/23
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