UNESCO adds 27 new sites to its heritage list; India’s Shantiniketan, Hoyasala ensembles also added

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee has finally taken its decision of adding 27 new sites to its prestigious heritage list and India’s Shantiniketan has also made it to the list, making it a happy and proud moment for India.

To be added to the esteemed list, a natural or cultural site must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of the 10 other criteria for selection. It must be a “masterpiece of human creative genius,” or have “areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.”
The decision was taken on Monday, when UNESCO unveiled 27 new World Heritage Site designations. Among them are a diverse slate of culturally significant regions, including sacred temples in Cambodia, China’s ancient tea forests, and European towns.

Recently, the committee had added several sites in Ukraine to its Endangered List because of the ongoing Russian invasion. Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral and Lviv were also added to the list. The statement released by the UNESCO read, “Faced with the risk of direct attack, these sites are also vulnerable to the shockwaves caused by the bombing of the two cities.”

These are the new 27 sites added to the list:

1) Koh Ker archaeological site in Cambodia
2) Santiniketan, West Bengal, India
3) Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er, China
4) Mongolia's Deer Stone Monuments
5) Korea's Gaya Tumuli burial mounds
6) Türkiye's archaeological site of Gordion
7) Germany's Jewish medieval historic center of Erfurt
8) Architecture of the town of Kaunas, Lithuania
9) Guatemala's National Archaeological Park Tak’alik Ab’aj
10) Old town of Kuldīga, Latvia
11) Prehistoric Sites of Talayotic Menorca
12) The Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor of the Silk Road
13) Ethiopia's Gedeo Cultural Landscape
14) Iran's Persian Caravanserai
15) Canada's Tr’ondëk-Klondike region
16) The Czech town of Žatec and its tradition of Saaz Hops
17) Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan
18) “Köç Yolu” Transhumance Route in Azerbaijan
19) Djerba in Tunisia
20) India's Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas
21) Indonesia's Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta
22) Bale Mountains National Park in Ethiopia
23) The Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua in Congo
24) Volcanoes and forests of Mount Pelée and pitons of Martinique
25) Viking-age ring fortresses in Denmark
26) The Maison Carrée of Nîmes, France
27) Russia’s Astronomical Observatories of Kazan Federal University