UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. It adopted the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972.
UNESCO places to visit
Some places of natural heritage and world culture are easier to visit than others. To find ones you want to travel to, check out the UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Make it your mission to see at least ten sites.
Remember you don’t have to go on a long expedition to the other side of the world to see them. There are some marvels close to home, such as the Tower of London and Maritime Greenwich.
The UK’s World Heritage Sites
There are 30 world heritage sites in the UK. The latest addition was the Lake District, which was added on Sunday, 9 July 2017.
- Blaenavon Industrial Landscape (2000)
- Blenheim Palace (1987)
- Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine’s Abbey at St Martin’s Church (1988)
- Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd (1986)
- City of Bath (1987)
- Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (2006)
- Derwent Valley Mills (2001)
- Dorset and East Devon Coast – Jurassic Coast (2001)
- Durham Castle and Cathedral (1986)
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire (1987)
- Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast (2001)
- Gorham’s Cave Complex (2016)
- Gough and Inaccessible Islands (1995)
- Heart of Neolithic Orkney (1999)
- Henderson Island (1988)
- Ironbridge Gorge (1986)
- Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City (2004)
- Maritime Greenwich (1997)
- New Lanark (2001)
- Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (1995)
- Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey, including St Margaret’s Church (1987)
- Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal (2009)
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003)
- Saltaire (2001)
- St Kilda (1986)
- Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (1986)
- Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey (1986)
- The English Lake District (2017)
- The Forth Bridge (2015)
- Tower of London (1988)
