A total of 29 new UNESCO World Heritage sites have been added to the official list for this year, including one for the UK. Here are 8 of our favourites.
Starting closer to home, the landmark Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire has been named as the UK’s newest UNESCO World Heritage site, becoming the UK’s 32nd such site to join the list.
Owned by the University of Manchester, the observatory hosts a number of radio telescopes and is part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics.
Famous as the home of the Lovell Telescope, the world’s third largest steerable radio telescope, the observatory welcomes groups on weekday afternoons to discover more of the stories behind the observatory and telescope.
Visitors can enjoy a private tour of the extensive gardens and arboretum as well as finding out about the ground-breaking science that takes place at the observatory.
The announcement about Jodrell Bank came as the World Heritage Committee met to determine which landmarks should be added to the list. Other UK sites include the Giant’s Causeway, Stonehenge and the Lake District.
Here’s the full list of new sites:
1. Ancient ferrous metallurgy sites of Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso
2. Archaeological ruins of Liangzhu City, China
3. Babylon, Iraq
4. Bagan, Myanmar
5. Budj Bim cultural landscape, Australia
6. Churches of the Pskov School of Architecture, Russia
7. Dilmun Burial Mounds, Bahrain
8. Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, Czechia and Germany
9. French Austral Lands and Seas, France
10. Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan’s Palace, Azerbaijan
11. Hyrcanian Forests, Iran
12. Jaipur City, India
13. Jodrell Bank Observatory, UK
14. Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region, Poland
15. Landscape for Breeding and Training of Ceremonial Carriage Horses at Kladruby nad Labem, Czechia
16. Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene, Italy
17. Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang – Plain of Jars, Lao People’s Democratic Republic
18. Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase I), China
19. Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group: Mounded Tombs of Ancient Japan, Japan
20. Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, Indonesia
21. Paraty and Ilha Grande – Culture and Biodiversity, Brazil
22. Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape, Spain
23. Royal Building of Mafra – Palace, Basilica, Convent, Cerco Garden and Hunting Park (Tapada), Portugal
24. Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga, Portugal
25. Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies, Republic of Korea
26. The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, The USA
27. Vatnajökull National Park - dynamic nature of fire and ice, Iceland
28. Water Management System of Augsburg, Germany
29. Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi, Canada