© RSE Kazrestavratsiya MKI RK Rock mosques of Mangistau, Kazakhstan. Objects in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List Culture and education
The session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee ended in Busan, Republic of Korea, with the inscription of 25 new sites on the List. Two of them are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Kazakhstan is now represented in the List by rock-cut mosques and associated sacred sites. The facility is located on the Mangistau Peninsula, which is located on the coast of the Caspian Sea. It includes five sacred rock-cut complexes, as well as extensive adjacent burial grounds. The history of the complexes is associated with Sufi mentors who lived from the 12th to the 18th centuries.
The list also includes the modernist architecture of Tashkent, combining urbanism and traditions of Central Asia. The property is an ensemble of ten modernist buildings and urban complexes built between the 1960s and the early 1990s. This time became a key stage in the restoration and transformation of Tashkent after the devastating earthquake of 1966. The ensemble includes museums, exhibition halls, hotels, residential complexes, cultural institutions, as well as scientific and infrastructure facilities, reflecting the wide functional spectrum of late Soviet architecture.
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For the first time, three states “received” their world heritage sites – Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and South Sudan. This is an important breakthrough for Africa: three countries of the continent were included in the global register of cultural and natural treasures. Comoros President Azali Assoumani personally attended the session to mark the historic moment, emphasizing its significance for his country.
Mount Olympus, which is located in northern Greece and is the country’s highest mountain, was also included in the List. Thanks to the works of Hesiod and Homer, Olympus became one of the central images of Greek mythology throughout the Greco-Roman world and became a symbol of Greek civilization.
After the inclusion of new sites, the number of states without a single heritage site was reduced to 23. In total, the UNESCO World Heritage List now includes 1,273 sites in 173 countries.