The UNESCO World Heritage List just got longer. At the close of its 47th session in Paris, the World Heritage Committee inscribed 26 new sites—21 cultural, four natural, and one mixed. Together, they add another sacred layer to humanity’s shared map of memory, landscapes and traditions.
This year, the focus was on Africa. Four new sites were added from the continent by the international body. In contrast, three others, rainforests in Madagascar, the early Christian city of Abu Mena in Egypt, and Libya’s Old Town of Ghadamès, were removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger. For UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay, the move reflects more than symbolism. She noted that making Africa a priority is a concrete, day-to-day, long-term commitment, underscoring the continent’s rightful place in global heritage.
Two of the new African inscriptions are natural firsts: the Bijagós Archipelago in Guinea-Bissau and the Gola-Tiwai rainforest complex in Sierra Leone, the inaugural World Heritage entries for both countries. Two cultural landscapes followed: Cameroon’s Diy-Gid-Biy, where 16 archaeological sites stretch across the Mandara Mountains, and Malawi’s Mount Mulanje, sacred to the Yao, Mang’anja, and Lhomwe peoples.
Elsewhere, UNESCO continued its recognition of remembrance sites. In Cambodia, three former prisons and execution grounds tied to the Khmer Rouge regime were inscribed as memorials, confronting a tragic past while standing as places of peace and reflection.
Asia’s sole mixed inscription this year went to Mount Kumgang in North Korea, Diamond Mountain—where natural beauty meets centuries of Buddhist tradition. Artists, poets, and pilgrims have revered its jagged granite peaks and temple-dotted slopes for over a millennium; three monasteries remain active even today.
Europe added some of the most anticipated sites to the list. Bavaria’s palaces of King Ludwig II, including Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired Disney, finally received their World Heritage badge. France saw the inscription of the megaliths of Carnac and Morbihan in Brittany, stone alignments dating back to between 5000 and 2300 BCE and now confirmed to predate Stonehenge by more than a millennium. Greece celebrated the recognition of Minoan palatial centres, while Turkey’s Iron Age city of Sardis and tumuli of Bin Tepe entered the fold.
The prehistoric theme dominated this year’s list. From the domus de janas tombs in Sardinia, to Iran’s Khorramabad Valley caves, Russia’s Shulgan-Tash rock paintings, Brazil’s Peruaçu canyon caves, and Australia’s Murujuga rock art landscape, the focus was clear: protecting humanity’s earliest chapters.
India, too, gained recognition with the inscription of the Maratha Military Landscapes, a network of forts across Maharashtra that reflect both the strategic genius and architectural imagination of the Marathas.
With these additions, the World Heritage List now totals 1,248 sites across 170 countries. Beyond numbers, the session reaffirmed a truth that needs urgent attention: Safeguarding heritage today is inseparable from the role of local communities and the urgent realities of climate change. Two new transboundary parks, including one spanning South Africa and Mozambique, were also approved, showing how natural heritage often transcends political borders. While inscription doesn’t guarantee tourism revenue, it does bring the world’s highest level of heritage protection and, often, a spotlight that translates into funding, visibility, and renewed pride for communities.
In a year that tied Africa’s future to humanity’s beginnings, the newest World Heritage Sites remind us of our past, which is vast, diverse, and fragile, and belongs to all of us.
(With inputs from various sources.)