Explore UNESCO’s Newest World Heritage Sites

Across the world, there are 1,052 sites that the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recognized as having significant cultural or natural importance to human history. It’s a diverse and storied list, with monuments like the Statue of Liberty and the Pyramids of Giza, natural wonders like Iguazu Falls and Yellowstone National Park, and historical regions like Edinburgh’s Old Town and Angkor Wat.

Recently, UNESCO designated another handful of sites as being worthy of this distinction. A few of our favorites are below, and CNN put together a beautiful slideshow depicting the full list of new sites here.

Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, Canada

Travel to one of the most remote locations North America, and you’ll be rewarded with some of the richest geological deposits on Earth. Mistaken Point, located on the southeastern tip of Canada’s Newfoundland island, is home to a huge array of fossils that represent perhaps the oldest complex organisms that humans have ever discovered.

Philippi, Greece

Philippi was founded in 360 BCE, and was conquered four years later by the Macedonian King Phillip II, who promptly changed the name of the city to something a bit more self-indulgent.  Abandoned since being conquered by the Ottomans in the 1300s, this walled city has an intact Hellenistic theater and a Roman forum. The city is also well known as the location named in the 11th book of the New Testament, “Epistle of Paul and Timothy to the Phillippians,” as Paul the Apostle is said to have visited Philippi on three separate occasions.

Gorham’s Cave Complex, Gibraltar

Naturally hewed out of the limestone face of the Rock of Gibraltar, Gorham’s Cave Complex is a series of four caves which house some of the latest known remnants of Neanderthal habitation in Europe. The entrance to the namesake Gorham’s Cave can be seen at the bottom left of the photo above. When inhabited roughly 55,000 years ago, the cave’s entrance stood some 3 miles from the shoreline.

Antigua Naval Dockyard, Antigua

This stunning tropical paradise is better known as Nelson’s Dockyard, after Admiral Horatio Nelson, one of Britain’s most famous Naval commanders. Nelson lived in the Dockyard from 1784-1787, when the British Empire was at the height of its powers. Today, this sheltered harbor on the island’s south side is home to a number of yachting and sailing exhibitions.

Photos via CNN