New World Heritage sites to add to your bucket list

Updated
World Heritage Sites for 2014
World Heritage Sites for 2014



The World Heritage Committee recently added 26 news sites to Unesco's World Heritage List of places of outstanding universal value.

The new additions brings the list of the world's cultural and natural wonders on the preservation list to more than 1,000.

This year's additions are extremely varied, and include many off-the-beaten-track gems, from the stunning Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands to the Tomioka Silk Mill in Japan. Stevns Klint in Denmark, where there is evidence of the end of the dinosaur age, is also added.

Other beautiful additions include Mount Fuji in Japan, the University of Coimbra in Portugal and India's Hill Forts of Rajasthan.

So how does the list get compiled?

In addition to a site being seen as offering outstanding universal value, an inscribed site needs to meet at least one of 10 criteria. These include "representing a masterpiece of human creative genius"; featuring "exceptional natural beauty"; being an "outstanding example of a human settlement" or "containing superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance".

To find out what magnificent sites made the list for this year, check out the slideshow below. Let us know if you have visited any of them and whether you agree with this year's additions!



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Cave Tunnels in Israel Declared UNESCO World Heritage Site
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