UNESCO World Heritage Sites – What Are They and How Many Have We Visited?

If you love to travel, you have probably heard of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but what are they? How do you get designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site? Are they worth visiting?

I must admit, we have visited many UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but didn’t know what it really meant and what the criteria were for selection. Our view was, “Well, it is recognized by UNESCO, so it must be pretty good!” The other day I started wondering, “How many have we visited? What does being a World Heritage Site really mean?”

UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. It was formed in 1946 with the initial goal of rebuilding schools, libraries, and museums in Europe damaged or destroyed in World War II. While I am most familiar with UNESCO and the designation of World Heritage Sites, its goals go much deeper than that. UNESCO was formed with the idea of promoting peace, understanding, and tolerance throughout the world. The Second World War was marked by atrocities in anti-Semitic and other racist violence. One of the ways UNESCO hopes to achieve peace and global understanding is through the promotion of cultural heritage and the equal dignity of all cultures.

UNESCO’s programs are divided into five sectors: education, natural science, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information. It is the cultural sector that manages the protection of World Heritage Sites.

Countries nominate places for consideration as World Heritage Sites. To be considered as a World Heritage Site, the nominee must meet at least one of ten criteria demonstrating “outstanding universal value.” The criteria range from cultural criteria to natural criteria. As of 2018, there are 1092 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The sites are designated as Cultural, Natural, or Mixed sites. As a frame of reference, Italy has the most sites of any country in the world with 54 sites – 49 Cultural and 5 Natural. The United States of America has 23 sites – 10 Cultural and 12 Natural.

We love UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We find them interesting and often very beautiful. Knowing that to achieve World Heritage Status involves a rigorous selection process means quite a bit to us rather than simply choosing places to visit based on the hype and marketing of countries or entities promoting their own attractions.

As of December 15, 2018, we have visited 55 of the 1092 sites. It is a big world, we have a long way to go to make a dent in the list. However, we are up to the challenge and will continue our quest to see the world, learn about other cultures and meet people!

Take a look at the map that shows the UNESCO World Heritage Sites we have visited. If you click on the details, a link will take you to the UNESCO website with more information about that particular site.