By Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times
Fossil-rich cliffs in Canada from 500 million years ago, sea caves used by Neanderthals, 99 artificial islands in the remote Pacific Ocean and 17 structures designed by the French-Swiss Arch. Le Corbusier are among 21 new sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.
The additions include two sites each in China, India and Iran, and give the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda its first site on the list, a historic dockyard.
The additions were made by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Committee, which opened its annual meeting in Istanbul last week. The gathering was supposed to continue through Wednesday, but was cut short by an attempted coup in Turkey. Still, delegates managed to finish their business of making additions to the list, which now totals 1,052 sites.
Inclusion on the list can provide a huge boost to tourism but also puts pressure on governments to preserve and protect the sites in question. In addition to designating new World Heritage Sites, the committee also added sites in Mali, Uzbekistan, Libya and Micronesia to its List of World Heritage in Danger, a tally of places facing grave threats from conflict, neglect, overdevelopment and other forces.
To be chosen for the World Heritage List, sites are to be “of outstanding universal value” and meet at least one out of 10 other selection criteria, among them that they “represent a masterpiece of human creative genius” or “contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.”
Here’s a look at the new sites and why they were selected:
China: Hubei Shennongjia
The largest primary forest remaining in central China, this area is home to many rare animals, including the Chinese giant salamander, the golden or snub-nosed monkey, the clouded leopard, common leopard and the Asian black bear. The area was the focus of international plant-collecting expeditions in the 19th and 20th centuries.
China: Zuojiang Huashan rock art landscape
Thirty-eight sites of rock art in southwest China dating from the fifth century B.C. that illustrate the life and rituals of the Luoyue people; these are the only remains of this culture today.
Architectural works of Le Corbusier
This “site” is actually 17 structures in seven countries designed by the modernist Swiss-born French Arch. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier. The structures, including a chapel, a museum and a home, are in India, Japan, Argentina, France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.
Le Corbusier, born in 1887, built mainly with steel and reinforced concrete, employing geometric forms. The buildings, the committee said, “are a testimonial to the invention of a new architectural language that made a break with the past.”
Le Corbusier died in 1965. “These masterpieces of creative genius also attest to the internationalization of architectural practice across the planet,” the panel added.
Canada: Mistaken Point
A 10-mile stretch of rugged cliffs, this area at the southeastern end of Newfoundland contains a large number of fossils from the Edicarean Period that began 580 million years ago. The marine fossils here “illustrate a watershed in the history of life on Earth: the appearance of large, biologically complex organisms, after almost 3 billion years of micro-dominated evolution,” the committee said.
Mexico: Archipielgo de Revillagigedo
These four islands off Mexico’s Pacific Coast are submerged volcanoes, their peaks poking above sea level. The islands of San Benedicto, Socorro, Roca Partida and Clario provide habitat for seabirds, and the nearby waters have large numbers of whales, sharks, dolphins and manta rays. The islands are southwest of the tip of Baja California Sur, and due west of Mexico City.
Antigua: Naval dockyard and archaeological sites
Becoming the first World Heritage listed area in Antigua and Barbuda, this group of naval buildings was chosen for its historical significance. These Georgian style buildings were constructed by the British navy with the labor of African slaves. The dockyard was built to repair ships and protect the interests of sugar-cane growers when European powers were vying for control of the Eastern Caribbean. Antigua is about 150 miles east of Puerto Rico.
Sudan: Two marine national parks
This site is actually two separate areas, one a coral reef called Sanganeb Marine National Park and the other a collection of reefs, beaches, islets, mangroves and seagrass beds known as Dungonab Bay-Mukkawar Island Marine National Park. The area is home to the dugong, a rare marine animal, as well as fish, turtles, birds and sharks.
Iran: The Lut desert
Strong winds sweep across this desert between June and October, tracing massive corrugated ridges known as aeolian yardang. This region, spanning more than 8,000 square miles in Iran’s southeast, also contains extensive stony deserts and dune fields.
Iran: the Persian Qanat
Qanats are sloping below-ground tunnels or channels designed to divert water where it’s needed in settlements in dry regions. These gravity-based engineering works, spanning miles, include rest areas for workers, water reservoirs and watermills. The traditional communal management system is still in place and allows fair and sustainable water sharing and distribution, the committee said. “The qanats provide exceptional testimony to cultural traditions and civilizations in desert areas with an arid climate,” it added.
Brazil: Pampulha Modern Ensemble
Another architectural selection, these culture and leisure structures—including a casino, a ballroom, a golf yacht club and a church—were designed by Oscar Niemeyer in conjunction with other artists. They formed the center of a “visionary garden city project” created in 1940. Located at Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state, the buildings were designed around an artificial lake.
The complex includes “bold forms that exploit the plastic potential of concrete, while fusing architecture, landscape design, sculpture and painting into a harmonious whole,” the committee said. “It reflects the influence of local traditions, the Brazilian climate and natural surroundings on the principles of modern architecture.”
Image credits: UNESCO/Barrett & MacKay Photography, UNESCO/Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Science, UNESCO/FLC/ADAGP