The World's Heritage

In 1972 UNESCO adopted the Convention concerning the Protection of the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage and six years later the Galapagos Islands were designated the first World Heritage Site. This complete guide to 890 UNESCO World Heritage sites gives us all the world’s treasures both man-made and natural in a single volume, now updated to include all sites designated in 2009. Here you will find a gloriously illustrated guide to the city of Petra, the Acropolis and the Great Barrier Reef alongside less famous sites like the city of Chan Chan in Peru, the monastery-crowned rock pinnacles of Meteora in Greece and the rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras. Each entry is accompanied with an informative text and locator map. Whether they are well-known or obscure, this beautiful and authoritative guide is sure to awaken a thirst to explore these wonders.

Even the least intrepid traveller could not fail to be inspired. Arranged in the order in which they were assigned World Heritage Site status, there is an informative description and locator map for each site. Most are shown in glorious colour – there are over 650 photographs – and a series of continent maps pinpoint the positions of all of the sites.