What is a World Heritage Site, how many are in the UK and where are they?
The United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is in charge of deciding which landmarks make the cut.
FROM the Giants Causeway to Westminster Abbey - sites across the UK which are deemed to be of significant importance are listed as World Heritage Sites.
The United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is in charge of deciding which global landmarks can be called World Heritage Sites - but what are they and how many are in the UK?
What is a World Heritage Site?
The sites or areas can either be a natural or man-made area.
They are deemed to have by UNESCO a cultural, historical, scientific or some other form of significance.
A World Heritage Site is legally protected by international treaties and is regarded as being important to the collective interests of humanity.
Where are the heritage sites in the UK?
There are a number of sites across the whole of the UK.
They are:
- Blaenavon Industrial Landscape in Blaenavon, Wales
- Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England
- Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's Church, Canterbury, England
- Castles and town walls of King Edward, Conwy, Wales
- City of Bath, Bath, England
- Cornwall and West Devon Landscape, Cornwall and Devon, England
- Derwent Valley Mills, Derbyshire, England
- Dorset and East Devon Coast, Dorset and Devon, England
- Durham Castle and Cathedral, Durham, England
- Forth Bridge, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Northern England and Southern Scotland
- Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
- Gough and Inaccessible Islands, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena
- Heart of Neolithic Orkney, Orkney, Scotland
- Henderson Island, Pitcairn Islands, Pacific Ocean
- Historic Town of St George and Related Fortification, St George, Bermuda
- Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire, England
- The Lake District, Cumbria, England
- Liverpool - Maritime Mercantile City, Liverpool, England
- Maritime Greenwich, London, England
- New Lanark, Scotland
- Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, Scotland
- Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey, London, England
- Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal, Wales and England
- Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, London, England
- St Kilda, Scotland
- Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England
- Stonehenge, Avebury and associated sites, Wiltshire, England
- Studley Royal Park (including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey), North Yorkshire, England
- Tower of London, London, England
- Corham's Cave Complex, Gibralter
Are there any sites under consideration in the UK?
The UNESCO does have a tentative list of sites that are under consideration.
The ones in the UK are:
- Chatham Dockyard and its defences, Kent, England
- Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, England
- Darwin's Landscape Laboratory, Greater London, England
- Island of St Helena, South Atlantic Ocean
- Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, England
- Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof: the Zenith of Iron Age Shetland, Scotland
- Slate industry of North Wales, Gwynedd, Wales
- Flow Country, Caithness and Sutherland, Scotland
- The Twin Monastery of Wearmouth Jarro, Tyne and Wear, England
MOST READ IN WORLD NEWS
What famous worldwide landmarks are World Heritage Sites?
There are a number of well-known sites which are marked as a World Heritage Site.
This includes:
- Taj Mahal in India
- Great Barrier Reef in Australia
- Grand Canyon in America
- St Petersburg in Russia
- Acropolis in Greece
- Galapagos Islands in Ecuador
- Machu Picchu in Peru
- Pyramids of Giza in Egypt