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Listen up, everyone. UNESCO’s new World Heritage sites just dropped.
In efforts to identify, preserve and protect cultural heritage spots across the world, UNESCO, aka the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, crafts lists of World Heritage Sites that hold ‘outstanding value to humanity’.
These sites combine the preservation of human history, nature and culture, offering generations the opportunity to learn from the past, appreciate the present and create a better future, all while travelling to some astounding locations. And now, after the body’s 47th session held this month at its Paris HQ, 26 new World Heritage sites have been added to the list.
Among the newcomers are the Mount Mulanje Cultural Landscape in Malwai, a curved and lush terrain in southeast Africa with one of the largest inselburgs (which are isolated rock hills) in the world, Mount Mulanje. According to UNESCO’s description, the Yao, Mang’anja, and Lhomwe Indigenous peoples who live in Mount Mulanje’s surrounding areas use rituals to honour the land’s abundance and sacredness, reflecting the importance of spiritual and ecological harmony between people and nature.
Germany’s Bavarian Palaces of King Ludwig II also made the list this year, and have been open to the public, preserved as museums, since his death in 1886. Each a personal retreat for Ludwig, these palaces, Linderhof, Schachen, Herrenchiemsee and Neuschwanstein impressively blend the era’s romantic architecture with the country’s natural landscapes. Picture white castles rising from deep, green forests, alfresco fountains with mountainous backdrops and even an intimate stage built in a manmade cave called the Venus Grotto.
Other new Heritage Sites include Italy’s domus de janas, or ‘fairy houses’ in Sardinia, the Megaliths of Carnac and of Morbihan in France, the Minoan Palatial Centres of Crete in Greece and Gola-Tiwai Complex of Sierra Leone, consisting of the Gola Rainforest National Park and the Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary.
These are UNESCO’s 26 new World Heritage Sites for 2025
- Cambodian Memorial Sites: From centres of repression to places of peace and reflection, Cambodia
- Cavernas do Peruaçu National Park, Brazil
- Coastal and Marine Ecosystems of the Bijagós Archipelago – Omatí Minhô, Guinea-Bissau
- Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal, Tajikistan
- Diy-Gid-Biy Cultural Landscape of the Mandara Mountains, Cameroon
- Faya Palaeolandscape, United Arab Emirates
- Forest Research Institute Malaysia Forest Park Selangor, Malaysia
- Funerary Tradition in the Prehistory of Sardinia – The domus de janas, Italy
- Gola-Tiwai Complex, Sierra Leone
- Maratha Military Landscapes of India, India
- Megaliths of Carnac and of the shores of Morbihan, France
- Minoan Palatial Centres, Greece
- Mount Kumgang – Diamond Mountain from the Sea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea
- Mount Mulanje Cultural Landscape, Malawi
- Møns Klint, Denmark
- Murujuga Cultural Landscape, Australia
- Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream, Republic of Korea
- Rock Paintings of Shulgan-Tash Cave, Russian Federation
- Sardis and the Lydian Tumuli of Bin Tepe, Türkiye
- The Archaeological Ensemble of 17th Century Port Royal, Jamaica
- The Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá, Panama
- The Palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Schachen and Herrenchiemsee, Germany
- The Prehistoric Sites of the Khorramabad Valley, Iran (Islamic Republic of))
- Wixárika Route through Sacred Sites to Wirikuta (Tatehuarí Huajuyé), Mexico
- Xixia Imperial Tombs, China
- Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son, Kiep Bac Complex of Monuments and Landscapes, Vietnam
Read last year’s UNESCO additions here.
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