The Mountains of the Pamirs in Tajikistan and 16 wooden tserkvas, or churches, in Poland and Ukraine, as well as the Golestan Palace in Tehran, have been granted World Heritage status by the UN cultural agency UNESCO. UNESCO made the announcement Sunday at its annual meeting in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.
UNESCO also bestowed World Heritage status on the city of Kaesong in North Korea, and the Bergpark Wilhelmshoehe in the German city of Kassel.
The New sites on UNESCO World Heritage List.
1
Tajikistan National Park covers more than 2.5 million hectares in the east of the country, at the center of the so-called “Pamir Knot”, a meeting point of the highest mountain ranges on the Eurasian continent
2
It consists of high plateaux in the east and, to the west, rugged peaks, some of them over 7,000 meters high, and features extreme seasonal variations of temperature.
3
Subject to frequent strong earthquakes, the Park is sparsely inhabited, and virtually unaffected by agriculture and permanent human settlements. It offers a unique opportunity for the study of plate tectonics and subduction phenomena.
4
The longest valley glacier outside the Polar region is located among the 1,085 glaciers inventoried in the site, which also numbers 170 rivers and more than 400 lakes.