Fortifications designed by French military architect were one of 10 European sites added to World Heritage List UNESCO s World Heritage Committee added a whopping 27 new sites to its World Heritage List at its 32nd session this week, including Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran, a Hindu temple and a butterfly biosphere. Tehran, 9 July 2008:

UNESCO s World Heritage Committee added a whopping 27 new sites to its World Heritage List at its 32nd session this week, including Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran, a Hindu temple and a butterfly biosphere.

Nineteen cultural sites and eight natural sites were inscribed, said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization panel, meeting in this oldest of Canadian cities.

The total number of World Heritage sites now reaches 878 sites in 145 countries, it said.

In this latest bout, four countries - Papua New Guinea, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, and Vanuatu - entered the list for the first time.

The ancient Ottoman town of Berat in central Albania was added to a listing for Gjirokastra, inscribed in 2005, illustrating the "coexistence of various religious and cultural communities," the committee said in a statement.

It features a 13th century castle, many Byzantine churches and mosques built under Turkish occupation, as well as houses used by various religious communities - notably some used by Sufi brotherhoods in the 18th century.

The heritage committee also approved the extension of the Mountain Railways of India with the inscription of the Kalka Shimla Railway, a 96-kilometer (60-mile) long, single track working rail link built in the mid-19th century to provide a service to the highland town of Shimla.

Ten new sites from Europe made the prestigious list of architectural and natural wonders this year, including French fortifications that represent the "finest examples" of the work of Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, a military engineer of King Louis XIV.

Vauban s designs were said to have played a "major role" in the history of fortification in Europe and as far away as the American continent, Russia and East Asia.

At the other end of history, German early 20th century low-income housing, which inspired modern apartment living around the world, also entered the list.

At the same time, the committee warned that the eastern German city of Dresden risked being de-listed next year if construction of a bridge across its Elbe Valley is not halted.

Several sites in Asia were honored too, including two historic Malaysian trading towns and an early agricultural site in Papua New Guinea.

None, however, were more controversial than the listing of the Preah Vihear temple perched on a mountaintop on the Thai-Cambodia border.

Last week, Cambodia deployed riot police to protect the Thai embassy and Thai-owned businesses in the capital Phnom Penh for fear that a border dispute over the Hindu temple could spark violent protests.

In 1962, the World Court ruled the 11th-century temple belonged to Cambodia, however the main entrance lies at the foot of a mountain in Thailand.

On Tuesday, the Thai government s backing of Cambodia s bid to grant the temple World Heritage status was ruled unconstitutional and now poses a political threat to Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej s government, which is already facing mass protests in the streets.

The UN agency also named as a heritage site 15,000 square kilometers (5,800 square miles) of the New Caledonia lagoon, the world s second largest continuous coral reef in the world after Australia s Great Barrier reef, as well as China s Mount Sanqingshan National Park and earthen houses of Fujian Tulou.

The Middle East garnered four new listings: Yemen s Scocotra Archipelago, Saudi Arabia s Archaeological Site of Al-Hijr, Israel s Baha i Holy Places in Haifa and Western Galilee, and Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran.

Africa s The Mijikenda Kaya Forests in Kenya and Le Morne Cultural Landscape in Mauritius were honored with inscriptions too.

Canada s Joggins Fossil Cliffs on its Atlantic coast was enumerated for being the most complete known fossil record of terrestrial life from 354 million to 290 million years ago, as was the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Mexico City, for its "outstanding universal value."

Nearly one billion butterflies from Canada and the United States return to the site every autumn and cluster in the forest, coloring its trees orange and literally bending their branches under their collective weight.

Source : www.chnpress.com

IslamExpo aims to encourage dialogue and debate on a range of pertinent issues

Iran Cultural Office is being represented by way of a pavilion at the exhibition, which features works by Mohammad Baqer Amirkhani, Ali Reza Pahlavan zadeh, Ali Reza Asadi in the fields of illumination, miniature, enamelling and engraving.

Tehran, 14 July 2008: The five-day all-encompassing event follows the successful launch of the unique opportunities for Muslims and non-Muslims to appreciate the best of Islamic heritage at the first IslamExpo in 2006.

"This year promises to be bigger and better. Visitors can expect to enjoy concerts, fashion, comedy and cuisine from all over the Muslim world," said Ismail Patel, Director of IslamExpo.

"With over 80 speakers from around the globe taking part in over 25 debates, IslamExpo aims to encourage dialogue and debate on a range of pertinent issues," Patel said.

Iran s Cultural Office is being represented by way of a pavilion at the exhibition, which features works by Mohammad Baqer Amirkhani, Ali Reza Pahlavan zadeh, Ali Reza Asadi in the fields of illumination, miniature, enamelling and engraving.

Ali Mohammad Helmi, Iran s cultural attache, is also due to deliver a lecture on the role of Iran in flowering Islamic civilization on Saturday.

IslamExpo s vast exhibition space is being themed into 14 zones over 2 floors comprising: sport, cookery, family activities, fashion, health & lifestyle, Islamic gardens, knowledge, entertainment, arts, education and much more.

Themes this year include forums on key issues affecting society and the world today and tackles such topics as: How to understand the Quran, Who represents British Muslims?, The Islamist Threat: Myth or Reality?, Muslims and the Environment: The Green Jihad.

Preceding the event, an Ethical Investment in Britain Conference was held on Thursday, examining how London can become the world leader in Islamic Finance.

London Olympia exhibition halls opened its doors Friday to tens of thousands of visitors attending IslamExpo 2008, Europe s largest celebration of Islamic culture, tradition, innovation and art

Source : www.chnpress.com

The call for the inclusion of the Persian Gulf was made on the final day of a two-day conference The Persian Gulf should be listed by UNESCO for its world heritage, an international conference at Durham University in northern England was told Wednesday.

Tehran, 7 July 2008: The Persian Gulf should be listed by UNESCO for its world heritage, an international conference at Durham University in northern England was told Wednesday.

Deputy head of Iran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), Hamid Baghaee, said the Persian Gulf, which has performed a historical and vital role, also had global significance in links between East and West.

"This waterway not only links culture and civilization of Islamic countries of the region, but also facilitates relations of the Islamic countries of the region to the nations of the far east and south east Asia," Baghaee said.

"We believe that the Persian Gulf, one of the most important world waterways, which has had an undeniable role in complicated and convoluted evolutions from ancient era to now, should register and be identified as a world cultural heritage," he said.

The ICHTO deputy head said that preliminary endeavours to submit the Persian Gulf file as a world cultural heritage were already being pursued and expressed hopes that they would materialize before the second international forum on the Persian Gulf.

To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of 10 selection criteria, including exhibiting an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world.

The call for the inclusion of the Persian Gulf was made on the final day of a two-day international archaeology conference on the pre-history and history of the waterway.

The conference, sponsored by ICHTO, the British Institute of Persian Studies, and Durham University, was looking at the key role the vital waterway has played in the development of human settlements in the region from the pre-historic to the present.

Unlike many previous workshops on the Persian Gulf that have focused on single issues, themes and periods, the international conference is taking a broader, multi-disciplinary approach through a series of examinations to define its distinctive character.

Speakers presenting papers included many British academics as well as from Australia, Italy, the US and France as well as from the Iranian Centre of Archaeological Research (ICAR) in Tehran

Source : www.chnpress.com

The Dresden Elbe Valley stretches some 18 kilometers from Ubigau Palace to the Elbe River Island UNESCO s World Heritage Committee meeting in this oldest of Canadian cities decided Thursday not to de-list the eastern German city of Dresden from its prestigious list of protected world sites. Tehran, 5 July 2008: QUEBEC CITY (AFP) — UNESCO s World Heritage Committee meeting in this oldest of Canadian cities decided Thursday not to de-list the eastern German city of Dresden from its prestigious list of protected world sites.

But it also vowed to remove the property from its world heritage list next year if construction of a bridge across the city s Elbe Valley -- said to be a blight on the 18th- and 19th- century landscape -- is not reversed.

In a statement, the committee said a reprieve was granted in the hope that the building of a four-lane bridge would cease, and that damage already caused by construction is reversed.

It said it wanted to "give Dresden more time in view of legal proceedings underway in Germany" to stop construction.

However, "if the work on the bridge continues and if the construction works already undertaken are not removed, then the committee at its 33rd session in 2009 will delete this property from the world heritage list," committee chair Christina Cameron told a press conference.

In the interim, the site would remain on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization s so-called danger list, she said.

The construction of the four-lane Forest Castle Bridge began in November last year, after a court dismissed arguments by conservationists that it would pose a threat to rare horseshoe bats that live on the banks of the Elbe.

Residents of the city have mostly been supportive of the project because they believe it will ease traffic congestion.

Thousands have also held weekly protests to try to preserve its beauty and save the city s coveted heritage designation.

"It is a victory for the citizens of Dresden who have been demonstrating every single Monday for the last year," Dresden university architecture professor Ralf Weber told AFP.

The Dresden Elbe Valley stretches some 18 kilometers from Ubigau Palace and Ostrahege fields in the north-west to Pillnitz Place and the Elbe River Island in the south-east.

The property, which was inscribed on the world heritage list in 2004 and marked "in danger" last year, features low meadows, and numerous monuments and parks from the 16th to 20th century.

Source : www.chnpress.com