BAKU, Azerbaijan 8 July 2019: India’s Jaipur City, in Rajasthan state, joins the prestigious list of UNESCO World Heritage sites following the UN agency’s annual general meeting in Baku at the weekend.
Famed as the Pink City, Jaipur City, Rajasthan, is an exceptional example of a planned city combining ancient Hindu, Mughal and even contemporary Western ideas.
Most cities in India have an abundance of modern structures with just a few historic structures or buildings. Jaipur is different in the sense that it really has a consistent historic core. You can walk through a sprawling historical town centre known as the “Pink City” where the colour of the houses denotes hospitality. It was painted pink in the preparation for a visit by the Prince of Wales in 1876.
In Southeast Asia’s Mekong Region, Bagan in Myanmar and the Plain of Jars were both awarded UNESCO World Heritage status.
Bagan, Myanmar
Bagan is a landscape of monumental Buddhist architecture, covering almost 3,600 stupas, temples, monasteries and associated structures. The site represents the core of the largest Buddhist empire of its time (11-13th centuries). It is still in active religious use and is especially related to the practice of merit making.
Plain of Jars, Laos
The Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang (better known as the Plain of Jars) are a testimony to Iron Age funerary practices.
The sites include 1,325 ancient sandstone jars, crafted by a civilization that lived in the area from 500 BCE. The densest location, close to the town of Phonsavan, has 400 jars plus associated stone objects such as lids and discs.
Other sites joining cultural list
Ancient Iron Metallurgy Sites
The Ancient Iron Metallurgy Sites in Burkina Faso represent an early phase of iron production in Africa.
The five locations, spread out over Burkina Faso’s territory, comprise of iron ore smelting furnaces, slag heaps and other traces of mining. The development of this technology has lead to blacksmith traditions that are still alive today.
Babylon
Babylon is the archaeological site of what once was one of the largest and oldest settlements in Mesopotamia.
It comprises the – largely unexcavated – remains of the ancient Neo-Babylonian city, its city walls and temples. Particularly during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (604–561 BC) the complete reconstruction of the imperial grounds, including the Etemenanki ziggurat, and the construction of the Ishtar Gate took place. The historical site is located in Iraq, about 85 km south of Baghdad.
Budj Bim Cultural Landscape
The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape in southwest Victoria, Australia, covers an ancient aquaculture system developed by the Gunditjmara Aboriginal people.
They manipulated the water flow through volcanic rock and trapped fish there (especially kooyang). The associated practices are still part of the Gunditjmara living cultural tradition.
Dilmun Burial Mounds
The Dilmun Burial Mounds in Bahrain represent the architecture and sepulchral traditions of Early Dilmun culture. The site comprises 21 components with thousands of burial mounds.
French Austral Lands and Seas
The French Austral Lands and Seas is a group of extremely isolated volcanic islands in the sub-Antarctic region.
It covers the Crozet Archipelago, Kerguelen Islands and Amsterdam and St Paul Islands. They are known for their marine birds (especially the world’s largest colony of King Penguins) and mammals such as seals and dolphins.
Hyrcanian Forests
The Hyrcanian Forests in Iran comprise an 850km long massif covered in ancient natural broad-leaved forests.
It has 15 components, mostly located on higher elevations. They show high floristic biodiversity and are home to especially forest birds.
Kladruby nad Labem
Kladruby nad Labem is a village and municipality in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic, located about 6 km northwest of Přelouč or 22 km west of Pardubice. The village is renowned as the home of the Kladruber horse breed.
Krzemionki prehistoric striped flint mining region
Krzemionki, also known as Krzemionki Opatowskie, is a region of four Neolithic and early Bronze Age complex of flint mines for the extraction of Upper Jurassic banded flints located about 8 km northeast of the Polish city of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski.
Liangzhu Archaeological Site
The Archaeological ruins of Liangzhu City, China, show the accomplishments of the urban civilization in the Yangtze River Basin from the late fourth and third millennium BC.
The city was the centre of power and belief of the Liangzhu culture, an early regional state. The culture possessed advanced agriculture, including irrigation, paddy rice cultivation and aquaculture.
Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase I). The Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea – Bohai Gulf of China cover a mudflat system serving as foraging and resting areas for birds. The inscribed area with two components is the first part of a much broader future one.
Mining Cultural Landscape Erzgebirge
Erzgebirge / Krušnohoří is a mining region that has been used from the Middle Ages onwards.
The Ore Mountains or Ore Mountain Range in Central Europe has formed a natural border between Saxony and Bohemia for around 800 years, from the 12th to the 20th centuries. Today, the border between Germany and the Czech Republic runs just north of the main crest of the mountain range.
Altenberg is one of several towns around Dresden in a mountainous area close to the border with the Czech Republic and popular for cross country skiing. It was one of the mining towns collectively that was nominated by Germany for World Heritage status.
Mozu-Furuichi Kofungun
The Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Japan comprises of 49 distinctive, often keyhole-shaped earthen burial mounds.
They were the stage for funerary rituals of kings and can be up to 500m in length. The kofun date from the late 4th and early 5th century.
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto
The Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage located in Indonesia’s West Sumatra city of Sawahlunto is a late 19th-century industrial system built by the Netherlands colonial government.
The mines were worked by local labourers (including forced labourers), the town of Sawahlunto grew to 7,000 inhabitants. The site comprises 12 locations, including mines, coalfields, tunnels, a Mining School and railway system.
Paraty Culture and Biodiversity
Paraty Culture and Biodiversity comprises five components along the Brazilian coast: 4 parks/nature reserves and the historical centre of the town of Paraty. The mountainous, forested area was the scene of an early encounter between Europeans and natives. Most of the landscape is covered in Atlantic forest with great biological diversity.
Seowon, Neo-Confucian Academies
The Seowon nine Neo-Confucian Academies are relevant for their architectural types and their role in education in Korea.
They were founded in the 16th and 17th centuries. From these academies, located across the country, Neo-Confucianism took root and spread across Korea. Mainly aristocrats and future civil service administrators were educated here.
Vatnajökull National Park
Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland has a wide variety of tectonic, volcanic and glacial-volcanic features.
Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It is situated on large and active tectonic rift systems. The park comprises 14% of the territory of Iceland.
Water Management System of Augsburg
The German city of Augsburg was granted World Heritage status for its over 800-year-old water management system boasting an aqueduct, water towers, ornate fountains, canals and hundreds of bridges.
The 2,000-year-old city in Bavaria state calls the system, which has since the Middle Ages provided clean drinking water and sanitation with an “intricate interplay between the innovative spirit and a technical tour de force.
Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi
Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi is a living sacred landscape for Blackfoot people in Alberta Canada.
Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park is located about 100 km southeast of Lethbridge, Alberta, or 44 km east of the community of Milk River, and straddles the Milk River itself. It is one of the largest areas of protected prairie in the Alberta park system and serves as both a nature preserve and protection for a large number of aboriginal rock carvings and paintings.
The area holds thousands of examples of indigenous rock art, carved into the sandstone. For the Blackfoot society of the past and the present, there is also a spiritual connection to its impressive landforms such as hoodoos and canyons. The inscription comprises the sites of Áísínai’pi, Haffner Coulee and Poverty Rock.
Churches of the Pskov School of Architecture
Churches, cathedrals, monasteries, fortification towers and administrative buildings make up the site, a group of monuments located in the historic city of Pskov, on the banks of the Velikaya River in the northwest of Russia. Characteristics of these buildings, produced by the Pskov School of Architecture, include cubic volumes, domes, porches and belfries, with the oldest elements dating back to the 12th century. Churches and cathedrals are integrated into the natural environment through gardens, perimeter walls and fences. Inspired by the Byzantine and Novgorod traditions, the Pskov School of Architecture reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries and was one of the foremost schools in the country. It informed the evolution of Russian architecture over five centuries.
https://www.incredibleindia.org/content/incredibleindia/en/destinations/jaipur.html
(Source: World Heritage Site)
