Eight new UNESCO Heritage Sites are named
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UNESCO has added eight new locations to its list of World Heritage sites. The sites were named following the 35th session of the World Heritage committee, held from 19-29 June 2011 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. In Japan, ‘Hiraizumi – Temples, Gardens & Archaeological Sites Representing the Buddhist Pure Land’ was proffered World Heritage status. The attraction actually comprises five sites in the north of Honshu Island, including the sacred Mount Kinkeisan. It also features government offices dating back to the 11th Centuries when Hiraizumi was the administrative centre of the northern Japan. The other Japanese entry was Ogasawara Islands; a group of 30 islands covering 7,393 hectares in the Pacific Ocean, which are home to 195 endangered bird species. Meanwhile, the Chinese addition to the World Heritage list was the ‘West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou’, in China’s Zhejiang province. The landscape, which includes temples, pagodas, pavilions, gardens and ornamental trees, is said to have inspired poets, scholars and artists since the 9th century. Western Australia’s Ningaloo Coast is also now a UNESCO World Heritage site, as well as the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia; Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison in Barbados; the Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley and the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians in Germany and Slovakia. More additions are expected in the coming days.
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