UNESCO adds 25 new sites to World Heritage list, including Normandy beaches

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has added 25 new sites to its World Heritage list, raising the total number of World Heritage sites to 1,273 across 173 countries.

The announcement was made during the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee, held at the BEXCO Convention Center in the coastal city of Busan, South Korea.

Among the newly listed sites are "Asuka-Fujiwara: Archaeological Sites of Japan’s Ancient Capitals and Related Properties," which features remains from Japan’s Asuka period, and the "D-Day Landing Beaches, Normandy, 1944" in northwestern France, which include the beaches where Allied forces landed, a turning point in World War II.

South Korea secured an extension of the boundaries of its tidal flats, known as "Getbol," which were inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2021, to include additional tidal flat areas on the country’s western and southern coasts. The boundaries of two sites, including the Korean tidal flats, were expanded, and a separate case saw a change in criteria.

The committee reviewed the conservation status of 148 sites, adding six to the List of World Heritage in Danger, including the ancient city of Tyre in Lebanon and the historic inner city of Paramaribo in Suriname, due to threats to their integrity.

In a controversial move, delegates voted to remove the "Historic Centre of Vienna" from the List of World Heritage in Danger after lengthy discussions about the tension between urban development and the protection of the city’s historic and cultural landscape. The decision drew sharp criticism from some heritage experts and delegations.

The next session of the World Heritage Committee is scheduled to be held in Istanbul, with Turkey set to chair the committee next year according to tradition. Armenia, Grenada, Vietnam, Tanzania, and Kuwait were elected as vice-chairs for the upcoming session.

Turkey previously hosted the 40th session in Istanbul in July 2016, but the meeting was disrupted by an attempted military coup and later resumed at UNESCO headquarters in Paris three months afterward.