I was looking at the World Heritage Sites list at the UNESCO site. I was curious to see how many India has, how many I have seen, etc.
Well, here is the India list (reproduced from UNESCO site, I have only changed the bullet points to bullet numbers)
- Agra Fort (1983)
- Ajanta Caves (1983)
- Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi (1989)
- Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park (2004)
- Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) (2004)
- Churches and Convents of Goa (1986)
- Elephanta Caves (1987)
- Ellora Caves (1983)
- Fatehpur Sikri (1986)
- Great Living Chola Temples (1987)
- Group of Monuments at Hampi (1986)
- Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram (1984)
- Group of Monuments at Pattadakal (1987)
- Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi (1993)
- Khajuraho Group of Monuments (1986)
- Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya (2002)
- Mountain Railways of India (1999)
- Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi (1993)
- Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka (2003)
- Sun Temple, Konârak (1984)
- Taj Mahal (1983)
- Kaziranga National Park (1985)
- Keoladeo National Park (1985)
- Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (1985)
- Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks (1988)
- Sundarbans National Park (1987)
I have seen seven of these sites (nos 1, 5, 9, 14, 18, 21, 23) but the way we maintain some of the monuments on the list!
I am amazed at the kind of Graffiti I have seen at Agra Fort! In small amounts you can even find it at the Taj Mahal. But at Agra Fort it is unbelievable.
Finally, here is the file from where I calculated that we are at number seven (jointly with Mexico) in terms of the number of the World Heritage Monuments in the world. According to my calculation this is the standing-
- Italy 41
- Spain 39
- China 33
- Germany 32
- France 30
- UK 27
- India 26, Mexico 26
I can never ever see all the heritage sites around the world but I can surely try to see all in India. I wonder if some tour operator will offer a grand tour of all the sites in India some day (or are they already offering it?) but then I am going to see all of these on my own.
PS. I hope I am not violating any copyrights by playing around with the UNESCO documents.
oh! good 12 down and 14 to go…unfortunately its been 2 years since the last one!
I have just seen 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 18, 21 in India. Its a pity only 26 of our structures are classified as heritage. There ought to be more. The ASI/Government/general public’s apathetic outlook limits, what do you think?Graffiti – what could be the reason? The sense of ‘pride’ about our heritage is never instilled in minds of children. We hav always been taught “politically correct” history (which is just BS), at least in MH board.About the copyright – yea its not permitted to use materials from other websites for distribution without their permission. Anyway I didn’t understand the purpose of a .doc rather than just a link :)cheers
What I find most disappointing is that we, with a vast land area and thousands of years old civilazation, have only 26 heritage sites to boast of – almost half as much as Italy and Spain, which are far smaller in terms of size!My tally includes – 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, 18, 20, 21, 23 – a total of nine. And after living in NCR for years now, I havent been to Humayun’s tomb!!
Think U missed “Hampi” its Vijayanagar empire spred around 25 km radius..here in Karnataka. Its a world heritage center tooo. Awesome place.
Rossoneri, welcome to my blog. So what are the plans of visiting some more heritage places now?Priyank (final_transit) thanks for your advice but let us see what happens on this one. If someone asks I am willing to make whatever changes they wish. Sigma, thanks for sharing your perspective. Never thought of it like that. And your tally is bigger than mine!Ajeya, Hampi is listed at number 11. Have you been there?
I agree with sigma and was disappointed when I have seen the list in wikipedia few months back. The problem is in promoting tourism. For an example if we see West Bengal, the Ranga mati Temples in Bankura are exotic and unique, associated with history; same for Hajar Duyari of Murshidabad; which are comparable to any heritage places of the World.. Even the small Khargeswer temple of Kharagpur (my home town) has historical significance(check wikipedia). But unfortunately we don’t promote these places in proper way and destroy by drawing graffiti.
Hi Mridula,My first visit to your Travel Tales from India. An Indian employed in Kuwait, I always feel I haven’t seen enough of India but from your list of World Heritage Sites, I made a note of the sites I’ve seen and felt slightly better. I have, so far, seen 1, 5, 6, 9, 14, 17, 18 and 21. Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks and Sundarbans are on top of my list for visits.My interest in travelling and photography makes me wonder if I should start blogging too. In doing so,perhaps I would get an opportunity to be more in touch with amazing people I meet here online.
Hmmm. How old is the data ? Or how often it is updated should be the question.I agree with some commenters here. Same thoughts came to my mind that we are not counting many of our heritages.Let me see now how many from this list I have visited. 1, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, 18, 21. A total of nine.Huh.. I can see many more have not been included in the list which I have visited. What about Mohanjodaro/ Harappa ? And there is nothing from Rajasthan as well.
Celina, thanks a lot for your comment and first visit. I would say do blog and give me a link. I dream of Valley of Flowers every week at least once 🙂 Have to pull it off by the next year.Cuckoo this is the current official list of UNESCO, as they have the final word on what goes into the world heritage list. I do not know much about the process (but they have it on their website) but as of now they look at these 26 as world heritage sites in India. There is tentative list too but I have not explored it much.
There was some speculation about Chandigarh (the city of my birth) being declared a world heritage site, at one point of time, but it never happened.
Sidhu, I think we have many more places of heritage than we have on this list.