UNESCO Committee Adds 8 New Sites on World Heritage List

ISTANBUL (Sputnik) — The 40th session of the UNESCO committee, which kicked off in Istanbul on Sunday and was due to last through July 20, but adjourned its work three days before schedule due to the UN security protocol put in place following the events that occurred in Turkey on July 15, is reviewing the condition of cultural sites protected by the body as well as examining new proposals to be added to the World Heritage List.

"The World Heritage Committee, on the last afternoon of its 40th session which opened on 10 July, inscribed eight new sites on the List: one transnational site (in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan), and others in Canada, Chad, China, Iraq, Iran, Mexico and Sudan," the UNESCO statement reads.

The newly added natural sites are Hubei Shennongjia in Chinese Hubei Province, Mistaken Point in Canada's island of Newfoundland, Archipiélgo de Revillagigedo in Mexico, Sanganeb Marine National Park and Dungonab Bay — Mukkawar Island Marine National Park in Sudan, Lut Desert in south-east of Iran and a Western Tien-Shan transnational site located in the Tien-Shan mountain system between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

The latterly added mixed, cultural and natural sites are Ennedi Massif: Natural and Cultural Landscape in northeast of Chad and the Ahwar of Southern Iraq: Refuge of Biodiversity and the Relict Landscape of the Mesopotamian Cities in southern Iraq.