Global Heritage Network

Great Zimbabwe National Monument

2010-09-08

The Great Zimbabwe, or "stone buildings", is the name given to the twelfth to fifteenth century stone ruins spread out over a 722 hectare (1,784 acre) area within the modern-day country of Zimbabwe, which itself is named after the ruins.[1] It is near the town of Masvingo, which before majority rule was called Fort Victoria. The word "Great" distinguishes the site from the many hundred small ruins, known as Zimbabwes, spread across the Zimbabwe highveld.[2] There are 200 such sites in southern Africa, with monumental, mortarless walls and Great Zimbabwe is the largest.[3]

The Ancient City of Nineveh

2010-09-08

Nineveh (Akkadian: Ninua; Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ; Hebrew: נינוה‎, Nīnewē; Greek: Νινευη; Latin: Nineve; Arabic: نينوى, Naīnuwa), an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq.

Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park

2010-09-08

Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is located in Panchmahal district in Gujarat, India. It was inscribed in 2004. There is a concentration of largely unexcavated archaeological, historic and living cultural heritage properties cradled in an impressive landscape which includes prehistoric (chalcolithic) sites, a hill fortress of an early Hindu capital, and remains of the 16th century capital of the state of Gujarat. The site also includes, among other vestiges, fortifications, palaces, religious buildings, residential precincts, agricultural structures and water installations, from the 8th to the 14th centuries. The Kalikamata Temple on top of the Pavagadh Hill is considered to be an important shrine, attracting large numbers of pilgrims throughout the year. The site is the only complete and unchanged Islamic pre-Mughal city. The city has been given a lot of attention by architect Karan Grover, who spent much time and effort in both trying to bring to restore and improve the condition of the city, but also help in the restoration of Indian heritage.

Carchemish

2010-09-08

From Wikipedia: Carchemish (called Europus by the Greco-Romans) was an important ancient city of the Mitanni and Hittite empires, now on the frontier between Turkey and Syria. It was the location of an important battle between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible. The city is said to be known locally as Jarablos (also Jarâblos) [1], linking it to the Biblical city of Jerablus; a corrupted form of the name is Djerabis. Indeed, just to the south of the Turkish-Syrian border lies the town of Carablus; the other side of the border hosts the Turkish town of Karkamis.

La Centinela

2010-09-07

La Centinela was a once prosperous Chincha settlement developed in a lush coastal valley in Peru from around 900 to 1450 CE. Two pyramids, La Centinela and Tambo de Mora, are the most prominent features of the site .

City of Balkh (antique Bactria)

2010-09-07

Ruins of the Masjid Sabz (the "Green Mosque"), named for its tiled dome (in July 2001)

Kashgar Old Town

2010-09-07

Kashgar is an oasis city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Minaret close to Id Kah mosque.

Kars Ancient City

2010-09-02

The ancient city of Kars, controlled in turn by Urartians, Persians, Armenians, Byzantines, Seljuk Turks, Ottoman Empire, Imperial Russia and the Turkish Republic, lies in the heart of the southern Caucasus region, a strategic location in northeastern Turkey near the modern borders of Armenia, Georgia and Iran today. Although the area is struggling with a depressed, largely agrarian, economy and a high level of out-migration, Kars has significant potential for economic, social, and cultural development.

Hampi

2010-09-01

Founded in 1336, the site of Hampi, Karnataka, is located on the banks of the Tungabhadra river with a backdrop of majestic rock boulders and was the capital of the Vijayanagara Kingdom. The 15th century Chandramauleshwar Temple is centrally located in Hampi, and is one of the site’s most prominent architectural buildings, aligned with the primary axis of the Vithhala of Hampi overlooking two rivers and on a popular pilgrimage route to a sacred mountain at Hampi.

Izborsk Fortress

2010-09-01

Located in the western Russian region of Pskov near the border with Estonia, Izborsk Fortress has survived for over 1,500 years it is one of the most ancient Russian towns, mentioned in the chronicles as early as 862. Izborsk began as a small settlement of the Slavic Krivich tribe. A more permanent wooden fortress was built in the mid 10th century, later replaced by a stone fortress occupying the hill´s entire summit at the end of the 11th century.

Dholavira: a Harappan City, Gujarat, Disstt, Kachchh

2010-08-31

Dholavira, an ancient city, and locally known as Kotada Timba Prachin Mahanagar Dholavira, is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. It is located on the Khadir bet island in the Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary, Great Rann of Kutch, Kachchh district of Gujarat, India. The site is surrounded by water in the monsoon season.[1] The site was occupied from c.2650 BCE, declining slowly after about 2100 BCE. It was briefly abandoned and reoccupied until c.1450 BCE.[2] The site was discovered in 1967-8 by J.P. Joshi and is the fifth largest Harappan site in the Indian subcontinent, and has been under excavation almost continuously since 1990 by the Archaeological Survey of India. Eight large urban centers have been discovered: Harappa, Mohenjo Daro, Ganeriwala, Rakhigarhi, Kalibangan, Rupar, Dholavira, and Lothal.

Intramuros, Manila

2010-08-31

Intramuros, located along the southern bank of the Pasig River, was built by the Spaniards in the 16th century and is the oldest district of the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Its name, in Latin, intramuros, literally "within the walls", meaning within the wall enclosure of the city/fortress, also describes its structure as it is surrounded by thick, high walls and moats. During the Spanish colonial period, Intramuros was considered Manila itself.

Cyrene

2010-08-31

Cyrene, a colony of the Greeks of Thera founded in 631 BC, was one of the principal cities in the Greek world. Romanized in 74 BC, Cyrene remained a great city, with over 1000 years of rich history. Only the earthquake of AD 365 and, in particular, the growing aridity of the region brought about a partial decline. Cyrene is considered one of the most important Classical Greek sites outside of Greece – also in Libya – yet today Cyrene is one of the most neglected and endangered UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Mediterranean Basin.

National History Park - Citadel, Sans Souci, Ramiers

2010-08-31

The Citadelle Laferrière or, Citadelle Henri Christophe, or simply the Citadelle (in English, spelled Citadel), is a large mountaintop fortress located in northern Haiti, approximately 17 miles (27 km) south of the city of Cap-Haïtien and five miles (8 km) uphill from the town of Milot. It is the largest fortress in the Americas and was designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Heritage Site in 1982—along with the nearby Sans-Souci Palace. The mountaintop fortress has itself become an icon of Haiti. The Citadel was built by Henri Christophe, a key leader during the Haitian slave rebellion, after Haiti gained independence from France at the beginning of the 19th century.[1]

Catalhöyük

2010-08-31

Çatalhöyük is a 9500-year-old town, one of the earliest in the world, with rich art and sculpture in its houses. The site has revealed the world's earliest mural art and is often seen as central to the origin of civilization in Turkey and the Middle East. However, the houses at Çatalhöyük are made of unfired mud brick and so offer a major challenge for conservation and site presentation. Additionally there has also been much change in land management in the area over recent decades leading to a major drop in the water table and changes in runoff and erosion, factors which are also affecting the site negatively.

My Son Sanctuary

2010-08-26

My Son Sanctuary is one of Vietnam’s only archaeological sites to be inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and was inhabited from the 4th- through the 15th century AD. Located in central Vietnam in one of the country´s least developed provinces, a large majority of My Son’s exquisite architecture was destroyed by aerial bombing during a single week of the Vietnam War.

Lijiang Ancient Town

2010-08-26

In the heart of Northern Yunnan province in southwest China, near the borders of Burma and Tibet, is one of the last surviving ancient towns in China. Lijiang Ancient Town has survived intact for more than 1,000 years with over 4,000 native families living within its Core and Protected Areas. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, Lijiang’s Naxi people still preserve much of their native Dongba culture and deep linkage to nature.

Foguang Temple

2010-08-26

Built during the Tang Dynasty (7th-10th centuries AD), Foguang Temple is a tribute to the peak of Chinese Buddhist art and architecture. Its main structure, the Grand East Hall is the second oldest and one of the most important remaining wooden architectural jewels of ancient Chinese civilization. Grand East Hall also contains previous wall paintings and polychrome statues from the Tang Dynasty. However, the temple was forgotten for centuries and was rediscovered by the great architectural historian Liang Sicheng in 1937, based on a wall painting from Mogao Grotto, depicting the location of the temple in Wutai Mountain.

Ur

2010-08-26

Ur founded in prehistoric times during the ‘Ubaid period, the earliest stage of village settlement in Southern Mesopotamia, is an important example of the Sumerian cities and civilization in Southern Mesopotamia. The excavated objects from the Royal Tombs of Ur (First Dynasty of Ur, ca. 2600 BC) can be considered as emblematic of the wealth, power, and sophistication of the Sumerian civilization. They provide very early evidence for the international exchange of semi-precious stones and metals from as far away as India and Afghanistan on an institutional scale. GHF’s project at Ur will be in two stages: Stage 1 will include topographic mapping of the entire site, establishing a site boundary, creating a photographic database of the site’s current state of preservation and begin conservation planning on the structures facing the greatest threats; Stage 2 will include installation of a site boundary fence, Master Conservation Planning and Site Management Planning, implementation of the conservation plan created in Stage 1, and site interpretation and presentation.

Ciudad Perdida

2010-08-26

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a UNESCO designated Biosphere Reserve, is a triangle-shaped mountainous massif comprising 12,000 square miles that rises from the Colombian coastline to an altitude of approximately 19,000 feet within 30 miles of the Caribbean, making it one of the highest and most ecologically diverse coastal mountains in the world. From A.D. 200 and until A.D. 1600-1650, the northern portion of the massif was inhabited by a number of autonomous polities of varying size and political power known collectively as the Tayrona. Archaeological research since the early 1920s has shown that during this time period the Tayrona built over 250 stone masonry towns spread out through a 2000 square mile area. Ciudad Perdida, which means “Lost City”, was accidentally discovered in 1975 by “guaqueros” or looters, the people responsible for the destruction of many archaeological sites throughout the Sierra Nevada and Colombia as they search for pre-Columbian objects. After 30 years of research at the Park, archaeologists have located more than two hundred structures covering an area of approximately thirty hectares (80 acres). The structures include dwellings of various sizes, terraces, stone-lined paths and staircases, plazas, ceremonial and feasting areas, canals, and storehouses. Outside these thirty hectares, and still covered by forest, more structures can be found awaiting further archaeological research. Although the upper section of the Buritaca river is currently uninhabited, five hundred years ago Ciudad Perdida was surrounded by settlements. Ciudad Perdida was one of the more than two hundred and fifty towns inhabited by the Tayrona up until the end of the 16th century. In comparison to the other twenty six settlements found in the upper section of the Buritaca river basin, it appears to be the largest and most impressive of them all, which it is believed to be the center of political, social, and economic power in this specific part of the Sierra Nevada. Nevertheless, we are only beginning to understand Ciudad Perdida’s complex history and the changes it underwent throughout time. Ciudad Perdida is reached through a 20 kilometer trail that winds upriver from the small town of El Mamey.

Fujian Tulous - GHF Project Site

2010-08-26

Fujian Tulou is a unique Chinese multi-storey rammed earth architectural form of the Hakka and Minnan people in Fujian Province, China, built for communal living and defense. The literal translation of the term "tulou" is "earthen building," and there are about 3000 tulou located in southwestern Fujian province. These are mostly located in the mountainous regions of Longyan City and Zhangzhou City precincts and were mostly built between the 12th and the 20th centuries. The Chinese State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) has identified many of the Fujian tulous as a National Cultural Heritage Protection Unit. Out of these, six tulou clusters and four tulou structures, consisting of a total of 46 tulou structures, were inscribed in 2008 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is worth noting that given the large number of Fujian tulou, there are many tulou of great significance and in need of critical care that were excluded from the WHS nomination. One such tulou is Shengwu lou. Shengwu lou is located in Pinghe County, which also houses Zhuangshang Dalou, the largest known Fujian tulou, and Juening lou, the largest known circular Fujian Tulou. The tulou in Pinghe County, especially Shengwu lou, are regarded as of significant values, and the local government had great regrets when the tulou in Pinghe County failed to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination due to various political decisions.

Pingyao Ancient City

2010-08-26

Pingyao Ancient City is considered to be the first banking capital of China. At its zenith in the late Qing Dynasty, there were as many as 22 draft banks in the city, with more than 400 branches countrywide. Pingyao is well-connected to Taiyuan, the provincial capital of Shanxi, by highways. Located about 100 km from Taiyuan, Pingyao is only an hour flight from Beijing, 2 hours flight from Shanghai; and the train station is only 0.2km away from the Ancient City.

Wat Phu

2010-08-26

Wat Phu Monumental Complex is the largest archaeological site in Laos and was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2000 – the only site with such status in the entire country. The foundation of the site is dated to the mid-5th century AD when the Chenla kingdom (5th-7th c. AD), started its expansion towards northern Cambodia.

Chavín de Huántar

2010-08-26

Chavín de Huántar, which lends its name to the rich pre-Inca Chavín culture, is one of the oldest major cultures in Peru and thrived between 1500 BC and 400 BC. One of the more unique elements to Chavín was that rather than emphasizing conquest and warfare, this seemed to be a broad-spread religious cult whose art and style became dominant through sophisticated convincing techniques carried out in elaborated ceremonial centers throughout northern Peruvian interaction sphere,. In 1985, UNESCO designated Chavín a World Heritage site for bearing exceptional testimony to an ancient cultural tradition or civilization.

Mirador

2010-08-26

Mirador Archaeological and Wildlife Preserve, a proposed 525,100 acre protected area located in the heart of the Maya Biosphere in northern Guatemala, is home to the earliest and largest Preclassic Maya archaeological sites in Mesoamerica, including the largest pyramid in the world - La Danta. Indeed, Mirador’s priceless ancient cities and monuments of the Preclassic Maya period are the most spectacular and unique in Central America, and as such it is Guatemala’s leading nomination for UNESCO World Heritage designation.