World Heritage Site

World Heritage Sites are places in the world which are very important from a cultural or natural point of view. A part of the United Nations called UNESCO selects these sites.

The World Heritage Convention ("Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage")^[1] is a United Nations treaty. It governs how World Heritage Sites are selected and protected. Nations that have agreed to the treaty elect 21 countries to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.^[2] That committee sets the list of sites.^[3]

Each site is a place or a thing (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city). As of 2014^[update], there were 1007 sites in 161 different countries. These included 779 cultural sites, 197 natural sites, and 31 mixed properties (which are both naturally and culturally important).^[4][5] Italy has 50 World Heritage Sites - more than any other country.

Each World Heritage Site is part of the legal territory of the nation where the site is located.

UNESCO wants everyone in the world to work to protect each site. Sometimes UNESCO provides funds to help protect a site. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have destroyed some sites.

1. ↑ "Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage" (PDF). Retrieved October 16, 2011.
2. ↑ "The World Heritage Committee". UNESCO World Heritage Site. Retrieved October 16, 2011. As of 2011, World Heritage Committee members are: Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Iraq, Jordan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and United Arab Emirates.
3. ↑ According to the UNESCO World Heritage website, States Parties are countries that signed and ratified The World Heritage Convention. As of November 2007, there are a total of 186 States Parties.
4. ↑ World Heritage List, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites.
5. ↑ Twenty-seven new sites inscribed, UNESCO World Heritage Sites official sites.