The List That Started With a Drowned Temple

In 1959, the Egyptian government began building the Aswan High Dam. The reservoir behind it would flood a stretch of the Nile that included the temples of Abu Simbel, carved by Ramses II in the 13th century BCE. UNESCO put out a call: the temples would be cut into 1,036 blocks weighing up to 30 tons each, hauled 65 meters uphill, and reassembled. Fifty countries contributed money and engineers. The work took until 1968 and cost around $40 million.

The campaign convinced the United Nations that some places mattered to humanity in a way that crossed national boundaries. In 1972 UNESCO adopted the World Heritage Convention. Countries that signed agreed to identify, protect, and report on culturally or naturally significant sites within their borders, and to consider helping preserve sites elsewhere. The first twelve sites were inscribed in 1978, including the Galápagos Islands, Yellowstone, and the Aachen Cathedral.

The list has grown to more than 1,200 sites in 167 countries. Inscription is voluntary, requested by the host country, and reviewed by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee. The status confers no legal protection on its own, only an obligation that the host country accepts. UNESCO can move a site to a danger list and, in extreme cases, delist it entirely. Liverpool's waterfront was delisted in 2021 after large-scale modern development at the docks. Dresden's Elbe Valley was delisted in 2009 after a four-lane bridge cut through it.

The list reflects the politics of any global organization: nominations require diplomatic effort, and well-resourced countries dominate the count. Italy and China each have over 50 sites. Many countries with rich cultural heritage have far fewer, mostly because their governments have not done the paperwork.