The World’s Heritage: A Complete Guide to the Most Extraordinary Places

The World’s Heritage: A Complete Guide to the Most Extraordinary Places is itself an extraordinary publication. Published by UNESCO, it pays homage to all that is great about the world’s historical, cultural and natural heritage. No less than 832 pages – try not to think about the rainforests – have been used to catalogue all UNESCO World Heritage Sites that were listed at the time of publication. That’s a lovely looking, well-designed telephone book for heritage-lovers, a manual for students, a reference tool for academics and a guidebook for armchair travellers the world over (though weighing in at over 1.6kg, it’s much too heavy for the average suitcase).

Keeping it all Digestible

A ‘how to use this book’ spiel is included on the opening pages and duplicated at the back. The repetition is not necessary, however, given the designers of this tome have made navigation a breeze. Once you understand the book's simple structure, the otherwise daunting task of trawling through 878 sites in 145 countries is relatively easy.

A series of maps broken down geographically opens the book. Each map – the sites in Europe are so numerous that two maps are required – is cross-referenced with a list of all sites in that region.

Sites are then catalogued according to the year they were listed by UNESCO. Therefore, the 12 sites that made the grade in the initial round of listings in 1978 open the book (Ethiopia’s rock-hewn churches at Lalibela surprisingly made the list ahead of many more famous sites). Damascus, Lascaux, Carthage, Abu Mena, the tomb of Kazanlak, Abu Simbel, Persepolis, Egypt’s Pyramids, Ancient Thebes, Valcamonica, Cairo and El Jem all follow in the 1979 listings.

Each site – some are given half a page, while others are presented across one or two pages – is colour coded (red for cultural sites; green for natural sites; blue for mixed ones). A statement from UNESCO outlining why the site justifies inclusion is followed by more extensive text containing an overview of the site. Each entry has a map indicating its location within its region, and the timeline across the top reminds the reader what year the site was first listed.

Chronological Order is a Bold Move

The decision to catalogue sites by year rather than by geographical region is an interesting one, and it only works well if the book is read in conjunction with the maps at the front of the book and the extensive index at the back. Armchair travellers or anyone else wanting to explore the world by region may find the order frustrating because sites of a common era or with a common theme (Ancient Egypt, or Rome, for instance) are scattered throughout the book. It does, however, make for good ‘dipping’ because two consecutive entries rarely have anything in common other than the year they were listed. And it’s this element that makes the book such a fascinating read, and one that's full of surprises. The Taj Mahal, for instance, wasn’t listed until 1983, while the Al-Hijr Archaeological Site (Madâin Sâlih), which dates back to the 1st century BC, is the last entry in the book under the 2008 listings.

This serves, however, to also highlight the book’s one glaring omission: nowhere is the process or the politics of qualifying explained. How exactly did such a historically miniature site like the Ironbridge Gorge make the list in 1986 when the Acropolis took one year longer?

A List for All

In his foreword, UNESCO’s Director-General Koichiro Matsuura (who was recently succeeded by Irina Bokova), points out that while some of the most famous places in the world are list (he cites Petra and the Acropolis as prime examples), it’s the presence of the lesser-known sites (like El Jem and Palmyra) that makes the list so special.

Large or small, famous or a hidden gem, the economic benefits of a listing are almost impossible to quantify. A World Heritage Listing attracts funding, draws tourists and, it is hoped, helps conserve and preserve important places for future generations. Of course this isn’t always the case and managing and monitoring the upkeep of sites is a huge task, but few would argue that the list isn’t a great thing for the world’s cultural and natural heritage.

The big problem with converting a list like this into book format is that the list is constantly evolving – new sites are added each year, while others are threatened with removal. And, of course, all this information is available on UNESCO’s own website, and much of it is also available on other sites, including here at Heritage-Key. But none of these issues take away from the exhaustive and detailed nature of this book, from the impressive array of sites showcased within its covers, or the fact that it is published in seven different languages (English, French, French Canadian, Dutch, Estonian, Hungarian and Spanish). There are hundreds of coffee tables books and reference tomes out there that are much less worthy of the price on the jacket (£20/$29.95). And few of them better capture the beauty and magic of the cultural and natural worlds, past, present and, hopefully, well into the future.