Riyadh, September 18, 2023, During its 45th session in Riyadh, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee announced that 15 nominated sites had received a majority of the votes necessary to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. "Tell es-Sultan-Jericho" in Palestine was one of the new sites that was included, making it the first Arab site to be added to the UNESCO list during the current session of the World Heritage Committee. The "Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor," one of the common Silk Roads that connected Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, was also declared a part of the World Heritage List by the committee.
The committee also included Ethiopia's "Gedeo Cultural Landscape" and the "Hyrcanian Forests" in Iran and Azerbaijan.
The statement from the World Heritage Committee during its current meeting, detailing the outcomes of the decision to add about 50 new sites to the World Heritage List, is being eagerly awaited by the entire world. These 50 sites include 12 natural sites, two sites of mixed value, and 37 cultural sites. This is in addition to talking about five different boundary changes for existing cultural sites.
The committee started its routine activities last week, which included talking about rules and voting on its lists.
Voting for the addition of a number of nominated sites to the World Heritage List, as submitted by UNESCO member states, started in the second week.
Up until the conclusion of the committee's activities on September 24, the process of adding new sites to UNESCO's World Heritage List is anticipated to continue.
