World heritage

To be named as a World Heritage site, a place must be of exceptional value to the world. This might be somewhere like a ruined city from a civilisation that no longer exists, or a nature site that is the home for endangered species. These sites have to be protected for future generations.

Think how much poorer our world heritage would be without icons like the Egyptian pyramids, the temples at Machu Picchu in Peru, or the Old City of Jerusalem. It is nice to know that these sites are being protected so that children in future will also be able to learn about them.

The idea of creating an organisation to preserve world heritage was proposed after World War I, but it was not until the 1960s that the idea began to take off. In the 1960s, countries all over the world donated over US$80 million to help in the preservation of the temples of Ramses II and Queen Nefertari at Abu Simbel in Egypt. The valley the temples were built in was going to be flooded as part of a dam project on the River Nile and the temples would be lost forever. The money was raised and by 1968 five of the temples were moved to an area where they would be safe.

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At the same time, other places of cultural and natural value around the world were also under threat. The international community decided to create a list of all the places of importance to world heritage. The list was compiled by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). In 1972 UNESCO adopted an international treaty called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Over 170 countries are now signed up to that convention which means they have to preserve heritage sites in their own countries and work with other countries to preserve World Heritage.

To be placed on the World Heritage list a site is classified as either 'natural' or 'cultural'.

To be a natural site it must be an outstanding example of:

A stage in the Earth's history.
Ongoing evolution in the Earth's biology and ecology.
An important natural habitat for plants and animals.
An area of outstanding beauty.

To be listed as a 'cultural' site it must be;

A place that shows human creativeness in areas like science, art or history.
A place that shows human development and progress.
An example of a civilisation that has disappeared or died out.
Representative of a significant stage in human history.

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Australians are lucky because the country is particularly rich in World Heritage listed areas, with 17 sites (both natural and cultural). Most of Australia's World Heritage sites are from the natural world. Here is a list of just some of them:

Natural

The Great Barrier Reef (Queensland)
Kakadu National Park (Northern Territory)
The Blue Mountains (New South Wales)
The Willandra Lakes Region (New South Wales)
Shark Bay (Western Australia)

Cultural

The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens (Melbourne)
The Sydney Opera House (added June 2007)

The great thing about World Heritage sites is that they belong to ALL the people of the world, so you can own the heritage of places as far away as Peru and Ireland as well as the amazing heritage in Australia. Have a look at some World Heritage sites outside Australia.

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Giant's Causeway

The Giant's Causeway lies on the north coast of Antrim in Northern Ireland. It is made up of over 40 000 huge rock columns that stick out of the sea. Irish legends say that the Causeway was built for giants to be able to walk over the sea to Scotland. The amazing site was created by volcanoes over 50 million years ago.

Machu Picchu

The ancient Inca sanctuary in Peru is situated 2400 metres above sea level in the middle of a tropical mountain forest in Peru. The city and its high walls were built out of the mountain and are an amazing feat of engineering for such an ancient civilisation.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is another amazing feat of engineering. It was built more than 2000 years ago to protect China from invaders. It is the longest building in the world, at 6000 kilometres.

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Every year, new places are put on the World Heritage list for protection, but there are also many more that are put on the endangered list. These are places where the site is in danger of being lost forever. Many older structures were built from mud bricks which are naturally eroding and cannot last forever. Many sites are also endangered through pollution, de-forestation and through many other examples of human interference. Wars also take their toll on World Heritage sites. The 13th century city of Dubrovnik in Europe was badly damaged during the war in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. During the second Gulf War, there were great concerns for many of the ancient cities in Iraq. The National Museum in Baghdad was looted and many of the national treasures there were stolen or destroyed. Thankfully the World Heritage-listed sites of Hatra and Ashur remain undamaged by the conflict.