Two Tanzanian Indian Ocean ports were added in July to the 32 sites on the United Nations cultural organizations List of World Heritage in Danger because the ports are suffering from lack of maintenance.
UNESCOs 21-member World Heritage Committee, holding its 28th annual session in Suzhou, China earlier this month, said the 13th to 16th century Tanzanian ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara show their historical position as hubs of trade in gold, silver, pearls, perfumes, Arabian crockery, Persian earthenware and Chinese porcelain.
Portugal has offered Tanzania assistance in preserving the two seaports.
Meanwhile, the committee removed three other sites from the danger list. The three were the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia, the immense earthen Bahla Fort in Oman and the Rwenzori Mountains National Park, home to rich and usual plant life and endangered animals, in Uganda.
By putting a site on the danger list, the committee calls the attention of a government and its international partners to the risks and dangers the area faces, whereas de-listing signals that the management of and security at the location has reached acceptable international standards.
The Committee also inscribed 13 sites on the list of places whose heritage belongs to all of mankind, bringing the total to 788. They included the mud-layered buildings in the 6th to 4th century BC Iranian city of Bam, which also made it simultaneously to the list of sites in danger.
The December earthquake, which took 26.000 lives, extensively damaged the mud structures in the old city. The quake, however, also allowed experts to see even earlier, previously undiscovered settlements in the area.
Kilde: FNs nyhedstjeneste
