Lut Desert

Lut Desert is it one of the world's driest and hottest places.

Lut Desert

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The Lut Desert, or Dasht-e-Lut, is located in the south-east of the country. Between June and October, this arid subtropical area is swept by strong winds, which transport sediment and cause aeolian erosion on a colossal scale. Consequently, the site presents some of the most spectacular examples of aeolian yardang landforms (massive corrugated ridges). It also contains extensive stony deserts and dune fields. The property represents an exceptional example of ongoing geological processes.  - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1505

Bam and its Cultural Landscape

On 2003 Bam was struck by a major earthquake that killed about 26,200 people and  destroyed 70% of the buildings

Bam

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Bam is situated in a desert environment on the southern edge of the Iranian high plateau. The origins of Bam can be traced back to the Achaemenid period (6th to 4th centuries BC). Its heyday was from the 7th to 11th centuries, being at the crossroads of important trade routes and known for the production of silk and cotton garments. The existence of life in the oasis was based on the underground irrigation canals, the qanāts, of which Bam has preserved some of the earliest evidence in Iran. Arg-e Bam is the most representative example of a fortified medieval town built in vernacular technique using mud layers (Chineh ). - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1208

Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex

The Bazaar of Tabriz is one of the oldest bazaars in the Middle East and the largest covered bazaar in the world

Bazaar of Tabriz

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Tabriz has been a place of cultural exchange since antiquity and its historic bazaar complex is one of the most important commercial centres on the Silk Road. Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex consists of a series of interconnected, covered, brick structures, buildings, and enclosed spaces for different functions. Tabriz and its Bazaar were already prosperous and famous in the 13th century, when the town, in the province of Eastern Azerbaijan, became the capital city of the Safavid kingdom. The city lost its status as capital in the 16th century, but remained important as a commercial hub until the end of the 18th century, with the expansion of Ottoman power. It is one of the most complete examples of the traditional commercial and cultural system of Iran. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1346/

Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System

The Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System is a complex irrigation system that consists of 13 dams, bridges, canals and structures which work together as a hydraulic system.

Shushtar  Historical Hydraulic System

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Shushtar, Historical Hydraulic System, inscribed as a masterpiece of creative genius, can be traced back to Darius the Great in the 5th century B.C. It involved the creation of two main diversion canals on the river Kârun one of which, Gargar canal, is still in use providing water to the city of Shushtar via a series of tunnels that supply water to mills. It forms a spectacular cliff from which water cascades into a downstream basin. It then enters the plain situated south of the city where it has enabled the planting of orchards and farming over an area of 40,000 ha. known as Mianâb (Paradise). The property has an ensemble of remarkable sites including the Salâsel Castel, the operation centre of the entire hydraulic system, the tower where the water level is measured, damns, bridges, basins and mills. It bears witness to the know-how of the Elamites and Mesopotamians as well as more recent Nabatean expertise and Roman building influence. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1315

Tchogha Zanbil

This ziggurat is considered to be the best preserved example of the stepped pyramidal monument by UNESCO

Tchonga Zanbil

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Chogha Zanbil is an ancient Elamite complex in the Khuzestan province of Iran. It is one of the few existing ziggurats outside Mesopotamia.

It was built about 1250 BC by the king Untash-Napirisha, mainly to honor the great god Inshushinak. Its original name was Dur Untash, which means 'town of Untash' in Assyrian, but it is unlikely that many people, besides priests and servants, ever lived there. The complex is protected by three concentric walls which define the main areas of the 'town'. The inner area is wholly taken up with a great ziggurat dedicated to the main god, which was built over an earlier square temple with storage rooms also built by Untash-Napirisha. - in: wikipedia

Ancient City of Damascus

The old city of Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world

Ancient City of Damascus

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Founded in the 3rd millennium B.C., Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East. In the Middle Ages, it was the centre of a flourishing craft industry, specializing in swords and lace. The city has some 125 monuments from different periods of its history – one of the most spectacular is the 8th-century Great Mosque of the Umayyads, built on the site of an Assyrian sanctuary. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/20

Colonies of Benevolence

This sites encompasses four settlements, three in the Netherlands and one in Belgium

Wortel

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Wortel is a village in the Belgian municipality of Hoogstraten. As of 2007, it has 1,844 inhabitants as of 2021.

The toponym means carrot or root in Dutch. Wortel was established in the early 19th century by the Society of Benevolence as a farming colony for the able-bodied working poor. It was meant to provide employment during a time when poverty rates were very high in the Low Countries. Along with the other colonies constructed by the Society of Benevolence, Wortel was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021 as an excellent example of a unique method of housing reform and urban planning. - in: wikipedia

Dutch Colonies of Benevolence

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The transnational serial property encompasses four settlements; cultural landscapes with one colony in Belgium and three in The Netherlands. Together they bear witness to a 19th century experiment in social reform, an effort to alleviate urban poverty by establishing agricultural colonies in remote locations. Established in 1818, Frederiksoord (the Netherlands) is the earliest of these colonies and home to the original headquarters of the Society of Benevolence, an association which aimed to reduce poverty at the national level. Other components of the property are the colonies of Wilhelminaoord and Veenhuizen, in the Netherlands, and Wortel in Belgium. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1555/

Wilhelminaroord

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Wilhelminaoord is a village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Westerveld, and lies about 26 km northwest of Hoogeveen.

Wilhelminaoord was one of the farming colonies established by the Society of Benevolence in the early 19th century to decrease poverty by providing sustainable employment for able-bodied poor people. Along with the other colonies constructed by the Society, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021 because of its testimony to a unique method of housing reform and its urban planning. - in: wikipedia

Veenhuizen

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Veenhuizen is a village with around 800 inhabitants in the province of Drenthe in the Netherlands. In the early 19th century, a reform housing colony for the poor and homeless was established in Veenhuizen by the Society of Benevolence. In the late 19th century, the complex was turned into a penal colony. The village became freely accessible in 1984 and has been part of the municipality of Noordenveld since 1998. The National Prison Museum is located here. Along with other colonies established by the Society of Benevolence, Veenhuizen was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021, for its testimony to a unique method of housing reform and its urban planning. - in: wikipedia

The colonies (in red what I have):

• Wortel
• Frederiksoord
• Wilhelminaoord
• Veenhuizen

Royal Palaces of Abomey

The royal palaces of Abomey are a unique reminder of the vanished kingdom of Dahomey

Royal Palaces of Abomey

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The Royal Palaces of Abomey are 12 palaces spread over an area of 40 hectares (100 acres) at the heart of the Abomey town in Benin, formerly the capital of the West African Kingdom of Dahomey. The Kingdom was founded in 1625 by the Fon people who developed it into a powerful military and commercial empire, which dominated trade with European slave traders on the Slave Coast until the late 19th century, to whom they sold their prisoners of war. At its peak the palaces could accommodate for up to 8000 people. The King's palace included a two-story building known as the "cowrie house" or akuehue. Under the twelve kings who succeeded from 1625 to 1900, the kingdom established itself as one of the most powerful of the western coast of Africa. - in: wikipedia

Matobo Hills

These hills were formed over 2 billion years ago

Matobo Hills

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The area exhibits a profusion of distinctive rock landforms rising above the granite shield that covers much of Zimbabwe. The large boulders provide abundant natural shelters and have been associated with human occupation from the early Stone Age right through to early historical times, and intermittently since. They also feature an outstanding collection of rock paintings. The Matobo Hills continue to provide a strong focus for the local community, which still uses shrines and sacred places closely linked to traditional, social and economic activities. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/306

Virunga National Park

 Virunga National Park was one of the first protected areas in Africa

Virunga National Park

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Virunga National Park (covering an area of 790,000 ha) comprises an outstanding diversity of habitats, ranging from swamps and steppes to the snowfields of Rwenzori at an altitude of over 5,000 m, and from lava plains to the savannahs on the slopes of volcanoes. Mountain gorillas are found in the park, some 20,000 hippopotamuses live in the rivers and birds from Siberia spend the winter there. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/63

Lake Turkana National Parks

Lake Turkana National Parks is a group of three national parks located around Lake Turkana in Kenya.

Lake Turkana National Parks

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The most saline of Africa's large lakes, Turkana is an outstanding laboratory for the study of plant and animal communities. The three National Parks serve as a stopover for migrant waterfowl and are major breeding grounds for the Nile crocodile, hippopotamus and a variety of venomous snakes. The Koobi Fora deposits, rich in mammalian, molluscan and other fossil remains, have contributed more to the understanding of paleo-environments than any other site on the continent. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/801/