UNESCO announces new sites added to its list of World Heritage in Danger. : NPR
Odessa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater
Alexey Acepovsky, Yuri Filonenko, Dmitry Moiseev/GN Consulting Agency/UNESCO
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Alexey Acepovsky, Yuri Filonenko, Dmitry Moiseev/GN Consulting Agency/UNESCO
Odessa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater
Alexey Acepovsky, Yuri Filonenko, Dmitry Moiseev/GN Consulting Agency/UNESCO
UNESCO has announced additions to its list of World Heritage in Danger, citing threats to the monuments of the ancient Kingdom of Sheba, Marib (Yemen), the Rashid Karameh International Fair in Tripoli (Lebanon) and the historic center of the port city of Odessa (Ukraine).
“Odessa, a free city, a world city, a mythical port which has left its mark on cinema, literature and the arts, is thus placed under the reinforced protection of the international community”, writes Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO, “While the war continues, this inscription embodies our collective determination to ensure that this city, which has always weathered global upheaval, is preserved from further destruction.”
Lebanese pavilion of the Rachid Karami-Tripoli International Fair
Wassim Naghi/UNESCO
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Lebanese pavilion of the Rachid Karami-Tripoli International Fair
Wassim Naghi/UNESCO
The Rachid Karameh International Fair in Tripoli in northern Lebanon was designed in 1962 by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. According to UNESCO, “The fair was the flagship project of Lebanon’s modernization policy in the 1960s. The close collaboration between Oscar Niemeyer, the architect of the project, and Lebanese engineers resulted in a remarkable example of exchange between different continents.”
The World Heritage Committee added the site “due to its alarming state of conservation, the lack of financial resources for its maintenance and the latent risk of development proposals which could affect the integrity of the complex”.
The ancient city of Ma’ribSource: German Archaeological Institute, Orient Department
Irgard Wagner/UNESCO
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The ancient city of Ma’ribSource: German Archaeological Institute, Orient Department
Irgard Wagner/UNESCO
The Monuments of the Ancient Kingdom of Sheba, Marib in Yemen, include “seven archaeological sites that testify to the rich kingdom of Sheba and its architectural, aesthetic and technological achievements from the 1st millennium BCE to the arrival of Islam around 630 CE,” according to UNESCO.
The agency singles out the ancient Ma’rib irrigation system for its “technological prowess in hydrological engineering and agriculture on a scale unparalleled in ancient South Arabia, culminating in the creation of the largest ancient man-made oasis”.
These sites were added, “due to threats of destruction from the ongoing conflict”.
World Heritage sites, according to UNESCO, “must be of outstanding universal value” and meet at least one of 10 selection criteria. Criteria include representing “a masterpiece of human creative genius” and bearing “testimony to a cultural tradition or civilization living or dead”.
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