history Archives | Page 4 of 9 | World Heritage Sites

A stone church with a small open bell tower in its center with 4 bells visible.

Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of Asturias

Six buildings that are unique to the short-lived Asturian monarchy.

A marea with black paving stones on the ground, a wall of standing stones at the far end.

Taputapuātea

An ancient site of great historical and cultural significance to indigenous Polynesians.

A flat grassy field with, at a distance, a large grass-covered mound, flat on its top.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

The largest and earliest pre-Columbian city in North America.

View up a cobbled street, low adobe houses on either side.

Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia del Sacramento

A well-preserved colonial city that reflects both Spanish and Portuguese influences.

Historic Centre of Puebla

An intact Renaissance city full of Spanish-colonial baroque architecture.

A row of 2-3 story houses, the nearer ones painted white and the furthest one red brick with a small round turret.

Flemish Béguinages

Centuries-old architectural ensembles in Flanders that once housed religious communities of women.

View of a large cliff dwelling tucked into a large cave: many ruined walls with gaps for windows.

Mesa Verde National Park

Ruins of ancient cliff dwellings used over a thousand years ago by Ancestral Pueblo people.

Looking down a canal with large red-brick warehouses lining both sides.

Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus

An ensemble of warehouses and office buildings resulting from Hamburg’s port trade in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The entranceway in the dille is arched and quite grand, with pillars inside it. The building extends out on both sides, lower than the central archway, with smaller arches along its length.

Historic City of Ahmedabad

A medieval walled city of unique gated communities and many architectural monuments in a mix of styles.

A jumble of buildings on the edge of a steep gorge.

Historic Walled Town of Cuenca

A medieval fortress town in a dramatic location, perched on cliffs.

The imposing fortress on a small hill: mud walls and a tall round tower at its corner.

Bahla Fort

A massive mud-brick fortress, the capital of the Banu Nebhan and the centre of Ibadism in the Middle Ages.

A path between green rice fields leads to a group of houses with peaked thatched roofs.

Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama

Mountain villages with unique traditional farmhouses where silkworms were cultivated.

View down a hill with mountains in the background. On the hill below some of the ruins are visible: the amphitheater and some columns and low walls.

Archaeological Site of Delphi

An important religious site for ancient Greeks, who considered it the center of the world.

View of one of the shrine buildings at Jongmyo: a low structure with a grey tiled roof but otherwise all painted dark red. PIllars along the building support the eaves of the roof.

Jongmyo Shrine

A Confucian shrine housing the spirit tablets of Korean royal ancestors.

Three statues, with more behind them that are barely visible, support a large flat stone, forming a table. The statues have human faces wearing headresses and carrying clubs of some sort.

San Agustín Archaeological Park

Burial mounds and statuary from a complex pre-Columbian culture.

A view between trees down a path to a small church with a steeple.

Landscape of Grand Pré

An agricultural area that commemorates the history of the Acadians and their expulsion from Canada.

Looking through a thick stone doorway to a row of arches and through them to the palace in the distance.

Anjar

Remains of an 8th-century Umayyad town that offers insight into Umayyad town planning and architecture.

View of the front of the building: red brick, symmetrical, and wider than it is tall.

Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal (D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station)

The largest and most powerful steam-driven pumping station ever built.

A pillared building with a shallow pool in front of it.

The Great Spa Towns of Europe

Towns in seven countries where an early tourism industry thrived around natural hot springs.

A view from above of a long stretch of beach lined with palm trees and a pedestrian and bike path.

Nice, Winter Resort Town of the Riviera

An early example of a city that developed due to tourism.

A view of the central circle at Stonehenge

Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites

Two mysterious prehistoric stone circles: one, the most sophisticated in the world; the other, the largest.

A bright yellow house on a sloping hill.

Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaíso

An important 19th-century port city that preserves its urban industrial architecture to this day.

Looking up at a dome on the mausoleum showing beautiful decorative tile work.

Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi

An unfinished mausoleum and mosque that allows an understanding of Timurid construction methods.

Itchan Kala

An excellent illustration of the traditions of Islamic architecture in Central Asia.

Sunrise, with the temple towers silhouetted in the foreground, the forest spreading out behind that, swathed in cloud, and the sun breaking through the low clouds in the distance.

Borobudur Temple Compounds

A massive and intricately-carved 9th-century Buddhist temple.

View of a bridge across a river leading to a pretty town of white buildings with red roofs, a steeple peeking up above them.

Old City of Berne

A unique example of urban planning from the Middle Ages that has developed over time while still respecting the original plan.

A massive tree fills most of the picture, forming a neat ceiling of a sort over a pedestrian area.

Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent Mines

A colonial-period silver-mining center, with subterranean streets and Baroque architecture.

On a hill above the lake, a palace and a pagoda.

Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing

A summer retreat for China’s emperors, with extensive classical gardens, an artificial lake, and a collection of palace buildings.

A large round pagoda with three roofs and concentric walls around it, each higher than the one outside it.

Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing

A religious complex used by Ming and Qing dynasty emperors that is significant both symbolically and architecturally.

A street in Lijiang: shop houses along the right, with red lanterns hanging from the eaves. Motorbikes parked, a child walks in the street, willow trees overhang the street on the left.

Old Town of Lijiang

A charming traditional Chinese town that combines Naxi, Han, Bai and Tibetan influences.

Semi-circular rings of stone benches slant down to the circular stage area at the bottom.

The Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus

Ruins of an ancient place of healing, with a huge and still intact Greek theater.

Front view of Schonbrunn palace seen from a distance to fit such a large structure into the picture.

Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn

Former home to the powerful Habsburg emperors: an opulent Baroque castle and its gardens.

A bonsai evergreen tree in a small pot against a whitewashed wall.

Classical Gardens of Suzhou

Nine traditional Chinese gardens that artfully mirror the natural world in very limited spaces.

The church itself, with two towers, and elegant curved stairways up to its entrance on either side.

Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga

An exquisite example of Portuguese Baroque architecture expressing a spiritual journey.

A view from lake level with the lake in the foreground and the village clustered picturesquely opposite, mountains to the left and behind the village.

Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut Cultural Landscape

A picturesque little village surrounded by a breathtaking mountainous landscape.

View over the city. In the foreground, a large monument with a cross. Below, the city, with its grid of streets, and in the background, the volcano, its peak surrounded by clouds.

Antigua Guatemala

A lovely city that illustrates Spanish colonial-era architecture, city planning, and culture.