Fez – The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) confirmed the 2025 World Heritage Site tally at its headquarters in Paris, and approved two boundary extensions that create new transboundary natural parks. With this round, the World Heritage List now counts 1,248 sites across 170 countries, underscoring the program’s reach and the continued demand for international conservation standards.

This year’s cultural inscriptions range from memorial landscapes to ancient ensembles. Cambodia’s “Memorial Sites: From centres of repression to places of peace and reflection” entered the List for bearing witness to Khmer Rouge-era atrocities, while Europe saw additions such as Germany’s Bavarian palaces of King Ludwig II and France’s megalithic alignments at Carnac—each recognized for “outstanding universal value.” Greece’s Minoan palatial centres and Iran’s prehistoric sites in Khorramabad Valley also joined the roster, expanding geographic and chronological coverage.

Natural sites highlighted intact ecosystems and dramatic geology. The coastal and marine ecosystems of the Bijagós Archipelago in Guinea-Bissau were inscribed for exceptional biodiversity—home to endangered turtles, manatees, and vast migratory bird populations—while Brazil’s Peruaçu canyon-and-caves landscape and Denmark’s chalk cliffs at Møns Klint showcased subterranean wonders and Ice Age coastlines. Together, the four natural sites demonstrate the Committee’s emphasis on biodiversity corridors and climate-era resilience.

The year’s single mixed inscription, Mount Kumgang in the DPRK, was recognized both for its long-celebrated granite peaks and for a cultural landscape of temples, hermitages, and centuries of Buddhist practice, illustrating how intangible traditions are embedded in place. Mixed sites remain relatively rare on the list, reflecting the stringent bar for properties that meet both cultural and natural criteria.

Beyond new entries, the Committee approved significant boundary modifications that knit existing sites into cross-border parks—linking Phong Nha–Ke Bang (Viet Nam) with Hin Nam No (Lao PDR) across one of Asia’s most extensive karst systems, and connecting South Africa’s iSimangaliso Wetland Park with Mozambique’s Maputo National Park. Such decisions aim to protect whole ecosystems rather than fragments, a shift conservationists have urged as climate and development pressures intensify.

UNESCO and partner coverage emphasized how roughly a third of this year’s inscriptions illuminate deep human timelines, from petroglyphs in East Asia to megaliths on Europe’s Atlantic fringe, while others address collective memory through sites of conscience. For travelers, the 2025 list opens new itineraries across Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas; for local authorities, inscription brings both obligations and opportunities—management plans, visitor strategies, and access to technical support that can translate prestige into long-term protection.

Full site descriptions, criteria, and maps are available on UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre portal, alongside the complete 2025 roster.