War cemeteries, wine and other world wonders considered for Unesco heritage list
Unesco’s World Heritage committee meets in Bahrain until July 4.
Inuit hunting grounds, first world war cemeteries, Art Deco heritage in Mumbai and Italy’s wine-producing Prosecco hills are among 30 hopefuls in the running to join Unesco’s famous list of World Heritage Sites.
Delegates at the World Heritage Committee’s annual gathering in Bahrain would also debate adding locations including Kenya’s Lake Turkana and Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley to those sites considered “in danger”, but could remove the Belize Barrier Reef from the risk list due to an oil activity ban.
The roster of contenders for this year’s new additions spans the globe from the Aasivissuit and Nipisat hunting grounds in the frozen expanses of Greenland to the sun-scorched Al-Ahsa Oasis in the deserts of Saudi Arabia.
Eye-catching – or lip-smacking – sites among them include the Prosecco Hills in northwest Italy where famed sparkling wine has been made for centuries, as well as the town of Zatec in the Czech Republic renowned for its hops.
In India, a collection of Victorian and Art Deco landmarks in bustling Mumbai is being billed as “the largest such conglomeration of these two genres of architecture in the world”.
The push to include funeral and memorial sites in Belgium and France for those killed on the Western Front has sparked debate over how to treat locations associated with recent conflicts.