Aapravasi Ghat was the first site chosen by the British government to take part in the "Great Experiment", where indentured laborers were used instead of slaves. Between 1834 and 1920, almost half a million contracted workers passed through Port Louis from India, either to work in Mauritius or to transfer to other British colonies.[2]
The ruins of the former Christian holy city contain a church, a baptistery, basilicas, public buildings, streets, monasteries, houses, and workshops, and were built over the tomb of Menas of Alexandria.[3] The World Heritage Committee designated Abu Mena as an endangered site in 2001, due to cave-ins in the area caused by the clay at the surface, which becomes semi-liquid when met with "excess water".[4]
Africa's largest protected area, located in the Saharan desert of Ténéré, consists of the volcanic rock mass of Aïr and a small isolated Sahelian pocket with unique flora and fauna.[5] The natural reserve was placed on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger in 1992, due to the increase in military conflicts and the hostage-taking of six reserve staff in February. Removal from this list was considered in 1999, but as of 2011, its position remains unchanged.[6][7]
The ruins of the city of Aksum, dating from the 1st to the 13th century, mark the heart of ancient Ethiopia and what was the "most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia". It includes monolithicobelisks, giant stelae, royal tombs, and ruins of former castles.[8]
The fortified first capital of the Hammadid emirs was originally built in 1007 and demolished in 1152. It features an 8-bay, 13-aisle mosque, which is one of the largest in Algeria.[9]
The Aldabra Atoll consists of four large coral islands and a lagoon, surrounded by a coral reef. The islands are home to the world's largest population of giant tortoises.[10]
The Amphitheatre of El Jem, built during the 3rd century, is North Africa's largest amphitheatre, and the largest one built outside of Italy, with a capacity of 35,000 spectators, and "illustrates the grandeur and extent of Imperial Rome."[11]
"Founded in the 11th and 12th centuries to serve the caravans crossing the Sahara, these trading and religious centres became focal points of Islamic culture. [...] Typically, houses with patios crowd along narrow streets around a mosque with a square minaret. They illustrate a traditional way of life centred on the nomadic culture of the people of the western Sahara."[12]
The former capital of Egypt and city of the Egyptian god Amun contains relics from the height of Ancient Egypt. The temples, palaces and the necropolises of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens bear "a striking testimony to Egyptian civilization." [13]
Founded in the 9th century BCE, Carthage was developed into a trading empire spanning the Mediterranean, and was, according to UNESCO, "home to a brilliant civilization." The city was destroyed in 146 BCE in the Punic Wars at the hands of the Romans, but was later rebuilt by these.[14]
The formerly Greek colony was Romanized and transformed into a capital, until it was destroyed by the 365 Crete earthquake. The thousand-year-old ruins have remained renowned since the 18th century.[15]
The Roman city of Leptis Magna was enlarged by Emperor Septimius Severus, who was born there. Public monuments, a harbour, a marketplace, storehouses, shops, and homes were among the reasons for its induction into the list.[16]
"A Phoenician trading-post that served as an outlet for the products of the African hinterland, Sabratha was part of the short-lived Numidian Kingdom of Massinissa before being Romanized and rebuilt in the 2nd and 3rd centuries."[17]
The important Roman outpost of Volubilis was founded in the 3rd century BCE to become the capital of Mauretania. It contained many buildings, the remains of which have survived extensively to this day.[18]
The site was the centre of the Kingdom of Kush, a major force active from the 8th century BCE to the 4th century CE. It is home to pyramids, temples, and domestic buildings, among other vestiges.[19]
The site, north-east of Kumasi, hosts the final intact remains of the Ashanti Empire, which peaked in the 18th century. The dwellings, which are made of earth, wood, and straw, are susceptible to the damages caused by the "onslaught of time and weather."[20]
Located at over 2000 metres above sea level, the capital of Eritrea developed from the 1890s onwards as a military outpost for the Italian colonial power. After 1935, Asmara underwent a large scale programme of construction applying the Italian rationalist idiom of the time to governmental edifices, residential and commercial buildings, churches, mosques, synagogues, cinemas, hotels, etc.[21]
The park consists of sand dunes, coastal swamps, small islands, and shallow bodies of water; all bordering the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Birds are often found to migrate in the area, accompanied by various species of sea turtles and dolphins, whose presence fishermen often use to attract fish.[22]
Located on the border of plain and mountain forests, the park in south-western Uganda is home to over 160 species of trees, over a hundred species of ferns, and various species of birds and butterflies. Many endangered species are within its boundaries as well, including the mountain gorilla.[24]
The site consists of eight protected areas that are among the richest in plant life worldwide, containing nearly 20% of Africa's total flora. Its scientific value is demonstrated by the presence of fire and radiation adaptivity in plants and seed dispersal by insects.[25]
The 127-site area contains the richest concentration of rock art in Central Africa, ranging from Stone Age paintings to contemporary work from farmers. The symbols depicted in the rock art are strongly centred around women, and retain a cultural significance for the Chewa.[26]
The town, south of the island of Santiago, was the first European colonial outpost in the tropics, with remains dating back to the 16th century. Two churches, a royal fortress, and Pillary Square help comprise the tropical town's original street layout.[27]
The sandy plateau and cliffs of Bandiagara outline the site, featuring houses, granaries, altars, sanctuaries, and Togu-Na meeting-places. Age-old social traditions such as masks, feasts, rituals, and ancestral worship also add to its cultural significance.[28]
Among the largest protected sites of West Africa, the park features the Comoé River and the unique flora which accompanies it.[29] The site was placed on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger in 2003, due to unrest in Côte d'Ivoire, and various other factors such as poaching, wildfires, lack of proper management of the site, and overgrazing.[30]
Among Africa's largest and best protected rain forests, the Cameroonian reserve is almost completely surrounded by the Dja River and contains 107 mammal species, of which five are threatened.[31]
The ruins of a Roman town in a mountainous location, including a forum, temples, basilicas, triumphal arches and houses, each adapted to a location 900 മീ (3,000 അടി) above sea level.[32]
The fortress was the residence of the Ethiopian emperors during the 16th and 17th century. The city remains, which feature buildings with Hindu and Arab influences, were later remodelled with Baroque-style architecture by Jesuit missionaries.[37]
Fort Jesus is a Portuguese fort built from 1593 to 1596 on Mombasa Island to guard the old port of Mombasa, Kenya. The site's layout follows the Renaissance ideal that the human body is perfectly proportionate.[38]
The park has vast savannas, grasslands and woodland, featuring elephants, giraffes, hippopotamuses and the white rhinoceros.[42] Garamba was deemed to be endangered following the diminution of the white rhinoceros population in the area,[43] but it was removed from the list in 1991.[44] However, it later regained the status in 1996, when three rangers were killed and the population of white rhinoceros fell once again.[45][46]
The site represent one of the least-disrupted islands and marine ecosystems in the North Temperate Zone. The cliffs are free of introduced mammals and feature one of the world's largest colonies of seabirds.[48]
The city is on a plateau and surrounded by gorges and savanna. It contains 82 mosques, 102 shrines, and unique interior design in the townhouses. It is said to be the fourth-holiest city of Islam.[50]
One of the world's oldest Islamic cities and in the middle of urban Cairo, the site dates from the 10th century and reached its golden age in the 14th century. It contains mosques, madrasah, hammams and fountains.[51]
A colonial town built during the 19th and 20th centuries, Grand-Bassam was the first Ivorian capital following French rule in the region. Its quarters, which specialised in commerce, administration and general housing, helped the city become the economic and judicial hub of the country, in addition to being its most important port.[54]
Ichkeul Lake and the surrounding wetlands is a destination for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds, including ducks, geese, storks and pink flamingos. It was once part of a chain that extended across North Africa.[55]
The park features a variety of landforms, including coral reefs, long sandy beaches, coastal dunes, lake systems, and papyrus wetland, caused by fluvial, marine and aeolian processes.[56]
The French colonial settlement from the 17th century is on an island in the mouth of the Sénégal River. It played an important role in the culture and economy of West Africa.[59]
The park is dominated by two extinct volcanoes, Kahuzi and Biega. It also has abundant fauna, including the graueria gorillas.[60] The park was deemed to be endangered in 1997 when deforestation and hunting became a major problem. Militia groups and illegal settlers were also settling in the park, while fire and poaching helped justify the World Heritage Committee's decision.[61]
A unique Islamic city on the Mediterranean coast, the former site overlooks the Carthaginian trading posts of the 4th century BCE. It contains remains of a citadel, old mosques, and Ottoman-style palaces.[63]
The ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape is located at the border with Botswana and Namibia in the northern part of the country, coinciding with the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (KGNP). The large expanse of sand contains evidence of human occupation from the Stone Age to the present and is associated with the culture of the formally nomade ǂKhomani San people and the strategies that allowed them to adapt to harsh desert conditions.[67]
The volcanic massif Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest point at 5,895 മീറ്റർ (19,341 അടി), and is surrounded by a park with savanna and forest featuring numerous mammals.[68]
Two millennia of rock carving, many of high artistic value, have been found at 150 shelters in the site. They tell the tale of socio-economic development from hunter-gatherer to agro-pastoralism.[69]
The Lakes of Ounianga are a series of 18 lakes located in the Sahara desert, in North-Eastern Chad. They exhibit a variety of sizes, depths, chemical compositions and colorations, and some of them are home to aquatic fauna.[75]
Turkana, as Africa's largest saline lake, is an important area for the study of fauna and flora. It is a breeding ground for the Nile crocodile, hippopotamus and several venomous snakes.[76]
The town is the oldest Swahili settlement, and is built in coral stone and mangrove timber. It features inner courtyards, verandas, and elaborate wooden doors.[77]
The rugged mountain that juts into the ocean was used as a shelter by runaway slaves through the 18th and early 19th centuries. They formed small settlements in the caves and on its summit.[79]
The park features vast savannas with a wealth of flora and fauna, such as black rhinoceros, elephants, cheetahs, leopards, wild dogs, red-fronted gazelles and buffalo.[85] The site was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1997 due to grazing and poaching that is thought to have claimed 80% of the wildlife in the park. Also cited was the shooting of four park staff and "a general state of deteriorating security".[86]
The open savanna landscape lies at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers. It was the heart of the Mapungubwe Kingdom until the 14th century, when the area was abandoned, leaving untouched remains of palaces and settlements.[87]
The town of Mbanza Kongo, located on a plateau at an altitude of 570 metres, was the political and spiritual capital of the Kingdom of Kongo, one of the largest constituted states in Southern Africa from the 14th to 19th centuries.[89]
The fortified seaport built during the late 18th century has a mix of North African and European architecture, and was a major trading hub between the Sahara and Europe.[90]
The former capital was founded in the 9th century and features the world's oldest university. The urban fabric and main monuments date from the 13th and 14th centuries.[91]
The town was founded in the 1070s and remained a political, economic, and cultural centre for a long time. Monuments from that period include the Koutoubia Mosque, the kasbah, and the battlements. The city also holds newer features, including palaces.[92]
Morocco's most complete medina served as the main point of contact between Morocco and Andalusia during the 8th century. The town was rebuilt by Andalusian refugees following the reconquista.[94]
The medina holds 700 monuments, including palaces, mosques, mausoleums, madrasah and fourtains, testifying to Tunis' golden age from the 12th to the 16th century.[95]
The falls of the Zambezi River, which is more than 2 കി.മീ (6,561 അടി 8 ഇഞ്ച്) wide, plunge down various basalt gorges resulting in a colorful mist.[97]
The reserve features Mount Nimba, its slopes covered in dense forest and grassy mountain pastures.[99] In 1992, the park was inscribed on the World Heritage Committee's danger list, citing a proposed iron and ore mining concession inside the park's boundaries and the apparition of refugees. The state party later stated that there was an error with the proposed mining site's boundaries, and that it was not in the reserve.[100] However, as of 2011, the site remains on the list due to poor security on the Ivorian side.[101]
The forests and savannas bordering the Gambia River have a diverse fauna, including Derby eland, chimpanzees, lions, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.[104] The park was listed as being endangered for low mammal populations, the construction of a dam, and management problems.[105]
Covering a fifth of the Ituri Rainforest in the Congo River basin, the reserve contains many threatened species of primates and birds. It is inhabited by the nomadic pygmyMbuti and Efé tribes.[107] In 1997, looting, the killing of elephants, and the departure of reserve staff led the World Heritage Committee to place the reserve on its List of World Heritage in Danger, only a year following its inscription as a natural heritage site.[108]
Located in an oasis, Ghadames is one of the oldest pre-Saharan cities and represents a traditional architecture with vertical division of functions.[111]
The fortification, akin to Renaissance military design from the early 16th century, was taken over by Morocco in 1769. Surviving buildings include the cistern and a Gothic church.[114]
Rebuilt under the direction of the French from 1912 to the 1930s, the city blends historic and modern features, such as botanical gardens, the Hassan Mosque, and the remnants of Moorish and Andalusian settlements from the 17th century.[116]
The site consists of six national parks, and protects the island's unique biodiversity, which has evolved in isolation for 60 million years.[117] The park was deemed to be in danger in 2010, when logging and hunting activities continued to escalate, despite a ban by Madagascar on exporting illegal timber.[118]
The mountainous desert sustains the semi-nomadic livelihood of the Nama, which includes seasonal migrations that have gone unchanged for two millennia.[119]
Between the 17th and 20th century, the island was used as a prison, including for political prisoners, a hospital for socially unacceptable groups, and a military base.[120]
The city held the seat of twelve kings who ruled the Kingdom of Dahomey between 1625 and 1900. All but one king built their palace within the area.[124]
The site features the remains of two ports used extensively for trade across the Indian Ocean from the 13th and 16th century.[125] It was placed onto the list of List of World Heritage in Danger by the World Heritage Committee in 2004, citing "the continuing deterioration and the serious threats affecting the property of the Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara".[126] Conditions subsequently improved and the site was removed from the World Heritage in Danger list in 2014.[127]
More than a thousand years old, Loropéni is the best-preserved of ten fortresses in Lobi, which were part of about a hundred stone enclosures built during the trans-Saharan gold trade.[128]
Covering most of the Rwenzori Mountains, including Mount Margherita, Africa's third-highest peak, the park features glaciers, waterfalls and lakes in an Alpine landscape. It also features various endangered species and unusual flora.[129]
The site comprises eleven forests spread 200 കി.മീ (660,000 അടി) along the coast of Kenya. They hold the remains of villages built during the 16th century by the Mijikenda, and are now considered sacred sites.[130]
The orthodox monastery from the 6th century is positioned near Mount Horeb where, according to the Old Testament, Moses received the Tablets of the Law. The region is sacred for Christians, Muslims and Jews.[131]
Situated in the central Red Sea, Sanganeb, Dungonab Bay and Mukkawar Island feature a diverse system of coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, beaches and islets, and host populations of seabirds, marine mammals, fish, sharks, turtles, manta rays and dugongs.[135]
The city contains two centres: the unplanned Upper Town, and the planned Lower Town, laid out according to philosophical principals. Many of the buildings date from the 16th to the 18th centuries.[136]
The park's vegetation varies from dense thickets to open wooded grasslands, and features large numbers of elephants, black rhinoceros, cheetahs, giraffes, hippos and crocodiles.[138] It was placed onto the list of List of World Heritage in Danger by the World Heritage Committee in 2014 due to widespread poaching, especially of elephants and rhinoceros.[139]
The eroded Ethiopian plateau comprises jagged mountain peaks, deep valleys, and sharp precipices dropping about 1,500 മീ (4,900 അടി).[141] The decrease of the walia ibex, bushbuck, and bushpig populations, as well as an increase of the human population in the park prompted the World Heritage Committee to place it on their List of World Heritage in Danger in 1996.[142]
The groups of stone circles are among over 1,000 different monuments along the Gambia River. Used as burial grounds, they were erected between the 3rd century BCE and the 16th century CE.[143]
The site is in a landscape with 15,000 cave engravings that record climatic changes, animal migrations, and the evolution of human life, dating from 6,000 BCE to the first centuries CE.[147]
The national park features the Teidestratovolcano, which at 3,718 മീ (12,198 അടി) is Spain's tallest mountain and the world's third-tallest volcano.[148]
The city was a centre for the propagation of Islam in the 15th and 16th centuries, and features three mosques and many madrasahs.[149] The sites were deemed endangered after the Battle of Gao in June 2012, which followed several weeks of constant threats to the area. Days later, some sites within Timbuktu were destroyed by Ansar Dine, an Islamist group, citing religious reasons.[150]
First a Carthaginian trading center, Tipasa was converted into a military base by the Romans. Heavy Christian influences can be seen from the 3rd and 4th centuries, though Tipasa went into steady decline in the Byzantine period.[152]
Built in 1495, the pyramid was built as a tomb for Emperor Askia Mohamed. It represents the power of an empire that controlled the trans-Saharan gold trade.[154] The site was deemed endangered after the Battle of Gao in June 2012, which followed several weeks of constant threats to the area.[155]
The tombs, built after 1884, are a major example of prime architecture using organic materials, principally wood, thatch, reed, and wattle and daub.[156] The tombs were almost completely destroyed by a fire in March 2010, prompting the World Heritage Committee to reluctantly mark the site as being in danger. The Ugandan government has since called for the reconstruction of the tombs, and UNESCO has agreed to mobilise funds for the project.[157][158]
The canyon of the Manambolo River comprises karstic and limestone landscapes cut into peaks and a forest of limestone needles. It also holds undisturbed forests, lakes and mangrove swamps, which are the habitat for lemurs and birds.[159]
The site features more than 4,500 rock art paintings in the Kalahari Desert. Archaeological records provide evidence of human and environmental activities ranging over 100,000 years.[160]
The park comprises swamps, savannas, and snowfields.[163] Virunga was inscribed on the World Heritage Committee's List of World Heritage in Danger in 1994, due to the war in Rwanda and the subsequent increase of the refugee population in the park, deforestation, poaching, departure of park staff, and depletion of forests.[164]
The crater, with a diameter of 190 കി.മീ (620,000 അടി), is the largest, oldest, and most deeply eroded astrobleme found on Earth, dating back more than two billion years.[165]
Located in western Egypt, the site contains fossil remains of the now extinct Archaeoceti, mapping the evolution of the whales from a land-based to an aquatic mammal.[167]
കുറിപ്പുകൾ
↑For purposes of this article, "Africa" includes the entire African continent, along with certain Atlantic and Indian ocean islands in the geographic vicinity of Africa that remain under the sovereignty of European states. This differs from UNESCO's regional classification which places several North African countries in the "Arab States" region, while World Heritage Sites on the islands are included in the "Europe and North America" region with their respective metropolitan states. Also see the table legend.
↑Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa was originally inscribed as Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs. The World Heritage Committee adopted the changed name in 2013.
↑Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites was originally inscribed as James Island and Related Sites. The World Heritage Committee adopted the changed name in 2011.
↑Extended in 2017 to include Arli National Park and Pendjari National Park. The name of the site was changed accordingly from W National Park of Niger at the time of inscription to the present name in 2017.
