Discover ten stories from UNESCO’s World Heritage List: The list of the most outstanding natural and cultural sites in the world.

Hear what locals and visitors have to say about the beauty and importance of these sites.

Have you visited any of them, or would you like to?

Add your voice to the conversation through this app!

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the 1972 UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and to further its objectives, the Smithsonian and UNESCO have partnered to produce the Stories of World Heritage app and website http://worldheritage.si.edu.

Uniting 189 countries in the collective protection of our shared outstanding and universal heritage, this Convention is the most successful legal international conservation instrument in existence, and the only one which links together, in a single document, the concepts of nature conservation and the preservation of cultural properties.
The Convention is a vital instrument for concrete action in preserving threatened sites and endangered ecosystems. We hope you will support its important work by adding your voice to the Stories of World Heritage project!