UNESCO Adds 4 Sites to World Heritage List, Including D-Day Beaches and Mount Olympus
Updated
Updated · NBC News · Jul 26
UNESCO Adds 4 Sites to World Heritage List, Including D-Day Beaches and Mount Olympus
3 articles · Updated · NBC News · Jul 26
Summary
Busan delegates on Sunday inscribed four headline sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List: France’s D-Day beaches, Greece’s Mount Olympus, Japan’s ancient capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara, and South Sudan’s Boma-Badingilo landscape.
150,000 Allied troops landed across Normandy’s five beaches and Pointe du Hoc on June 6, 1944; UNESCO advisers said the remains still visible there warrant stronger monitoring against tourism pressure, climate change, sea-level rise and nearby wind-farm development.
2,918-meter Mount Olympus won mixed cultural and natural status after a 12-year Greek push, with officials saying the listing raises protection duties as tourism grows.
19 archaeological sites in Asuka and Fujiwara preserve the buried foundations of Japan’s first centralized state, while Boma-Badingilo became South Sudan’s first World Heritage entry with about 6 million migrating antelope across wetlands and savannas.
The committee is meeting in Busan through Wednesday to review dozens of nominations, with the new inscriptions spanning wartime memory, mythology, state formation and biodiversity.