The Grand Canyon is one of many US sites protected by Unesco
Unesco adds 27 World Heritage sites
10 July 2008The World Heritage committee of Unesco met in Quebec for its 32nd session on July 8th and confirmed 27 locations that will be added to its list of protected sites this year.
A broad variety of destinations were added to the World Heritage programme, including 19 cultural sites and eight natural locations.
Among the cultural attractions now classed as World Heritage sites are Cambodia''s Preah Vihear temple, the historic centre of Camaguey in Cuba and Berlin''s modernism housing estates.
The island of Surtsey in Iceland, the Joggins fossil cliffs in Canada and the monarch butterfly biosphere reserve in Mexico were some of the natural properties added to the Unesco list.
Unesco founded its World Heritage programme in 1972 and the scheme now includes 878 sites.
Among the more famous locations protected by the UN are Robben Island in South Africa, the Grand Canyon and the Great Wall of China.
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