UNESCO World Heritage Sites Additions 2014

Chang'an-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road is a 5,000 kilometre stretches from Chang’an/Luoyang, the central capital of China during the Han and Tang Dynasties, to the Zhetysu region of Central Asia. (UNESCO)

Trang An, in Vietnam, is a spectacular landscape of limestone karst peaks permeated with valleys, some of which are submerged, and surrounded by steep, almost vertical cliffs. (UNESCO)

The Tomioka silk mill and related sites in Japan is an historic sericulture and silk mill complex established in 1872 in the Gunma Prefecture northwest of Tokyo. (UNESCO)

Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen’s Stepwell) in Gujarat, India, is located on the banks of the Saraswati River and was initially built as a memorial to a king in the 11th century AD. (UNESCO)

Erbil Citadel is a fortified settlement on the top of an imposing ovoid-shaped tell located in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. (UNESCO)

The Pyu ancient cities in Myanmar include the remains of three brick, walled and moated cities of Halin, Beikthano and Sri Ksetr, which flourished for over 1,000 years between 200 B.C and 900 A.D. (UNESCO)

Pergamon and its multi-layered cultural landscape lies in Turkey’s Aegean region. (UNESCO)

The Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary in the Philippines has an elevation range of 75-1,637 m above sea level, and provides critical habitat for a range of plant and animal species. (UNESCO)

The Grand Canal is a vast waterway system in the north-eastern and central-eastern plains of China, running from Beijing in the north to Zhejiang province in the south. (UNESCO)

Bursa and Cumalıkızık: The Birth of the Ottoman Empire is a serial nomination of eight component sites in the City of Bursa and the nearby village of Cumalıkızık, in the southern Marmara region of Turkey. (UNESCO)

Great Himalayan National Park (GHNPCA) is located in the western part of the Himalayan Mountains in the northern Indian State of Himachal Pradesh and is characterized by high alpine peaks, alpine meadows and riverine forests. (UNESCO)

Van Nellefabriek, in Holland, was designed and built in the 1920s on the banks of a canal in the Spaanse Polder industrial zone northwest of Rotterdam. The site is one of the icons of 20th century industrial architecture. (UNESCO)

The monumental earthworks of Poverty Point owes its name to a 19th century plantation close to the site. It is located in the Lower Mississippi Valley on a slightly elevated and narrow landform. (UNESCO)

This delta in northwest Botswana comprises permanent marshlands and seasonally flooded plains. It is one of the very few major interior delta systems that do not flow into a sea or ocean, with a wetland system that is almost intact. (UNESCO)

The medieval city of Bolgar was an early settlement of the civilization of Volga-Bolgars, which existed between the 7th and the 15th centuries, and was the first capital of the Golden Horde in the 13th century. (UNESCO)

Namhansanseong was designed as an emergency capital for the Joson Dynasty (1392-1910) , in a mountainous site 25 kilometres south-east of Seoul. (UNESCO)

Qhapac Ñan, Andean Road System is an extensive Inca communication, trade and defense network of roads covering 30,000 kilometres. (UNESCO)

This“city under a city” is characterized by a selection of man-made caves, excavated from the thick and homogenous layer of soft chalk in Lower Judea. (UNESCO)

This geological site comprises a 15 km-long fossil-rich coastal cliff, offering exceptional evidence of the impact of the Chicxulub meteorite that crashed into the planet at the end of the Cretaceous, about 65 millions years ago. (UNESCO)

The landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir, is located a few kilometres south-west of Jerusalem. (UNESCO)

Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah (Saudi Arabia) is situated on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. (UNESCO)

The Diquis Delta settlements in southern Costa Rica, which are considered unique examples of the complex social, economic and political systems of the period between 500-1500 AD. (UNESCO)

The vineyard landscape of Piedmont at Langhe-Roero and Monferrato covers five distinct wine-growing areas. (UNESCO)

Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey are located along the Weser River on the outskirts of Höxter, Germany, where they were erected between 822 and 885 A.D. in a largely preserved rural setting. (UNESCO)

Located in a limestone plateau of the Ardeche River in southern France, the property contains the earliest known and best preserved figurative drawings in the world, dating back 30,000 years. (UNESCO)