To qualify for World Heritage status, sites must meet at least one of ten selection criteria, and securing the coveted designation can be hard work. Eight buildings by the iconic American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, were also added to the list. Iceland’s Vatnajökull National Park, a spectacular swath of land comprised of canyons, river systems and subglacial volcanoes Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene, a historic wine-growing region in Italy and Jaipur, an 18th-century city in India that is famed for its majestic architecture. considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.” This year’s additions can be found around the world, include both developed and natural landscapes, and range from locations that are thousands of years old to relatively modern additions.Īmong them are the ancient metallurgy sites of Burkina Faso, which boast a history of iron production dating back to the 8th century B.C. Launched in 1978, the list now includes more than 1,100 sites of “cultural and natural heritage. But in a major nod to Babylon’s cultural importance, the ancient city was recently added to Unesco’s World Heritage List, along with 28 other sites. Today, visitors to the site might have a hard time picturing its illustrious history much of the ruins, located in modern-day Iraq, are unexcavated, and the area has sustained considerable damage from human development, ill-advised restoration efforts and conflict. The site of Babylon has been selected to be inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site.Īmeer Al Mohammedaw/picture alliance via Getty Imagesīabylon was once a thriving, splendorous city of the ancient world, home to hundreds of thousands of people and ruled by such famed historic leaders as Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar. View of the rebuilt walls of Babylon, a kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia, now located in the modern-day city of Hillah.

Where was babylon located