New Additions and One Subtraction from World Heritage List
Wednesday July 1, 2009
UNESCO has added thirteen new sites and has deleted one site to the much coveted World Heritage List. The deletion of the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany from the list is the first European deletion from the World Heritage List in the nearly 40-year history of the list. The World Heritage Committee removed Dresden from the list due to the start of construction of a four-lane bridge, the Waldschlösschen Bridge, in the heart of the cultural landscape.
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For the Geography Action! committee at NG, we’ve put together an activity about UNESCO world heritage sites for students grades 6-8. It’s really interesting how these cultural sites can just change with additions and subtractions.
I am on an education fellowship with Earthwatch this week working at the Roman Fort upon Tyne archeology dig, at South Shields. While here in England I have added two wonderful places to my growing list of World Heritage sites visited. They are Durham Cathedral and Castle and Hadrian’s Wall. The city of Durham has the feel of a medieval town and the cathedral is magnificent as the best Norman cathedral anywhere. Hadrian’s Wall I appreciated more because of the Northumberland landscape it crosses in the northern interior of England.