Macao, Israeli Biblical Vestiges Inscribed on World Heritage List

Old City of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Historical Center of Macao, and Biblical vestiges in Israel are among the 17 new cultural sites inscribed Friday on the World Heritage List.

With the inscriptions, Bahrain, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina enter the list for the first time, during the 29th session of the World Heritage Committee currently meeting in Durban, South Africa.

The sites inscribed this year include three trans-boundary sites and extensions to six sites that were already on the list. One of the sites listed Friday, Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works in Chile, was also inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The historic town of Mostar, spanning a deep valley of the Neretva River, developed in the 15th and 16th century as an Ottoman frontier town and during the Austro-Hungarian period in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Macao, a lucrative port of strategic importance in the development of international trade, was under Portuguese administration from the mid 16th century until 1999, when it came under Chinese sovereignty.

With its Historic street, residential, religious and public Portuguese and Chinese buildings, the historic center of Macao provides a unique testimony to the meeting of aesthetic, cultural, architectural and technological influences from East and West, according to UNESCO.

The 21-member World Heritage Committee has been meeting in Durban since July 10. On Thursday, it added seven new natural sites to UNESCO´s World Heritage List, and earlier in the session, the Committee removed three sites from the List of World Heritage in Danger.