Heritage with Related Tags
Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks
Bordering the Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho National Parks and Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Humber Provincial Parks, the region is dotted with peaks, glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, canyons and limestone caves, creating a stunning mountain landscape. The Burgess Shale fossil site is also located here, famous for its fossil remains of soft-bodied marine animals.
Durmitor National Park
This breathtaking national park was formed by glaciers and is crossed by rivers and underground streams. The Tara River Canyon has the deepest gorge in Europe, dense pine forests intersect with clear lakes and is home to a variety of endemic plants.
Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs)
The Tajik National Park is located in the eastern part of the country, covering more than 2.5 million hectares, at the intersection of the highest mountain ranges of Eurasia, in the heart of the so-called "Pamir Knot". The park is divided into plateaus in the east and rugged peaks in the west, some of which reach more than 7,000 meters, with strong seasonal temperature changes. The park has 1,085 glaciers, including the longest valley glacier outside the polar regions, 170 rivers and more than 400 lakes. The park is rich in plant species from the Southwest and Central Asian floras and is home to rare and endangered birds and mammals from all over the country (Marco Polo argali, snow leopard and Siberian ibex, among others). The park is subject to frequent strong earthquakes, is sparsely populated and is almost unaffected by agriculture and permanent human settlement. It provides a unique opportunity to study plate tectonics and subduction phenomena.
The English Lake District
The English Lake District is a mountainous area in northwest England, with valleys shaped by Ice Age glaciers and subsequently by agro-pastoral land use systems, characterised by fields surrounded by walls. The combination of nature and human activity has created a harmonious landscape with mountains reflected in the lakes. Mansions, gardens and parks were deliberately built to enhance the beauty of the landscape. From the 18th century, the Picturesque Movement and later the Romantic Movement greatly admired this landscape, celebrating it in paintings, drawings and writings. It also inspired awareness of the importance of beautiful landscapes and led to early efforts to preserve them.
Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch
The extension of the Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn Natural World Heritage Site (first inscribed in 2001) has increased the site's area from 53,900 to 82,400 hectares to the east and west. The site is an outstanding example of Alpine mountain formation and includes the most glaciated part of the range and the largest glacier in Eurasia. It hosts a wide variety of ecosystems, including successional stages formed by the retreat of glaciers due to climate change. The site is of Outstanding Universal Value not only for its beauty but also for the rich information it contains on mountain and glacier formation and ongoing climate change. It is also invaluable in illustrating ecological and biological processes, especially through planned succession. Its impressive landscapes have played an important role in European art, literature, mountaineering and Alpine tourism.
West Norwegian Fjords – Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord
The Geirangerfjord and the Nærøyfjord are located in southwestern Norway, northeast of Bergen, 120 km apart. They are part of the western Norwegian fjord landscape, stretching from Stavanger in the south to Andalsnes, 500 km northeast. The two fjords are among the longest and deepest in the world and are considered the quintessential fjord landscape, as well as among the most beautiful in the world. Their unique natural beauty derives from their narrow, steep crystalline rock walls, which rise 1,400 metres from the Norwegian Sea and extend to 500 metres below sea level. The steep rock walls of the fjords feature numerous waterfalls, and free-flowing rivers flow through deciduous and coniferous forests to glacial lakes, glaciers and rugged mountains. The landscape features a range of natural phenomena, both terrestrial and marine, such as submarine moraines and marine mammals.
Sagarmatha National Park
Sagarmatha National Park is a unique region with rugged mountains, glaciers and deep valleys, the highest of which is the world's highest peak, Mount Everest (8,848 meters above sea level). The park is home to several rare species such as snow leopards and red pandas. The presence of the Sherpa people and their unique culture adds further interest to the place.
Mount Kenya National Park/Natural Forest
Mount Kenya, at 5,199 metres above sea level, is the second highest peak in Africa. It is an ancient extinct volcano thought to have risen to 6,500 metres during its active period (3.1 to 2.6 million years ago). The mountain is home to 12 remnant glaciers, all of which are rapidly receding, and four secondary peaks that head U-shaped glacial valleys. With its rugged peaks, glaciers and densely forested mountainsides, Mount Kenya is one of East Africa's most impressive landscapes. The evolution and ecology of its Afro-alpine flora is an outstanding example of ecological and biological processes. Through the Lewa Game Reserve and Ngarendare Forest Reserve, the property also includes lower scenic hills and biodiverse arid habitats, located in an ecological transition zone between mountain ecosystems and semi-arid savannah. The area is also located on the traditional migration route of herds of African elephants.
Sangay National Park
With its outstanding natural beauty and two active volcanoes, the park showcases a whole range of ecosystems, from rainforest to glaciers, with snow-capped peaks contrasting with the forests of the plains. The park's isolation has helped to support native species, such as the mountain tapir and the Andean condor.
Rwenzori Mountains National Park
Located in western Uganda, the Rwenzori Mountains National Park covers nearly 100,000 hectares and is the main part of the Rwenzori Mountains, which includes Africa's third highest peak (Mount Margarita: 5,109 meters). The glaciers, waterfalls and lakes in the area make it one of the most beautiful alpine areas in Africa. The park contains natural habitats for many endangered species and rich and exotic flora, including species such as giant heather.
Volcanoes of Kamchatka
This is one of the world's most famous volcanic regions, with a high density of active volcanoes, a wide variety of types, and a rich variety of associated features. The six sites included in the sequence designation bring together most of the volcanic features of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The interaction of active volcanoes and glaciers has created a beautiful dynamic landscape. The sites have an extremely high diversity of species, including the world's largest known population of salmon and large populations of sea otters, brown bears, and sea eagles.
Los Glaciares National Park
Los Glaciares National Park is an area of outstanding natural beauty, with rugged, towering mountains and numerous glacial lakes, including the 160-kilometer-long Lake Argentino, at the far end of which three glaciers converge to release their fetid gases into the milky grey glacial waters, and huge icebergs fall into the lake like igloos, splashing water everywhere.
Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area
Huanglong Valley is located in the northwest of Sichuan Province and is made up of snow-capped peaks and China's easternmost glaciers. In addition to the mountainous landscape, there are diverse forest ecosystems, as well as spectacular limestone landforms, waterfalls and hot springs. The area is also home to a large number of endangered animals, including giant pandas and Sichuan golden monkeys.
Ilulissat Icefjord
Located on the west coast of Greenland, 250 km north of the Arctic Circle, Ilulissat Icefjord is the mouth of the Selmaq Kujallek glacier, one of the few glaciers from the Greenland ice sheet that flows into the sea. Selmaq Kujallek is one of the fastest-flowing and most active glaciers in the world. It calves more than 35 cubic kilometers of ice each year, accounting for 10% of all ice calving in Greenland and more than any other glacier outside Antarctica. It has been studied for more than 250 years, helping us to deepen our understanding of climate change and ice sheet glaciology. The massiveness of the ice sheet and the loud sounds of fast-flowing glacial ice streams calving into the iceberg-covered fjords combine to create this exciting and awe-inspiring natural phenomenon.
Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley
The cultural landscape of the Madriu-Perafita-Claro valleys offers a microcosm of how people have harvested the resources of the Pyrenees for thousands of years. The glacial landscape is spectacular, with steep cliffs and glaciers, tall open pastures and steep wooded valleys, and covers an area of 4,247 hectares, or 9% of the Principality’s total area. It reflects past changes in climate, economic wealth and social systems, as well as the persistence of pastoralism and a strong mountain culture, notably the survival of a system of communal land ownership dating back to the 13th century. The site features houses, summer settlements, terraces, stone roads and remains of iron smelting.
Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand
The landscape of this park in southwestern New Zealand is a result of successive glaciations that have shaped fjords, rocky coasts, towering cliffs, lakes and waterfalls. Two-thirds of the park is covered in southern beech and podocarp trees, some of which are more than 800 years old. The world's only alpine parrot, the kea, lives in the park, as well as the rare and endangered taka, a large flightless bird.
The Dolomites
The Dolomites are a mountain range located in the Alps in northern Italy, with 18 peaks exceeding 3,000 metres above sea level and covering an area of 141,903 hectares. It is home to some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes in the world, with vertical walls, steep cliffs and a dense concentration of narrow, deep and long valleys. The site consists of nine areas and presents a spectacular landscape of international geomorphological significance, marked by spires, pinnacles and rock faces, as well as glacial landforms and karst systems. It is characterised by dynamic processes, with frequent landslides, floods and avalanches. The site also contains one of the best preserved examples of a Mesozoic carbonate platform system, for which there is a fossil record.
Pirin National Park
The site is located in the Pirin Mountains in southwestern Bulgaria, at altitudes between 1008 and 2914 metres, and covers over 27,000 hectares, including a diverse limestone mountain landscape with glacial lakes, waterfalls, caves and predominantly coniferous forests. The site was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1983. The extension currently covers an area of about 40,000 hectares in the Pirin Mountains, overlapping with the Pirin National Park, with the exception of two areas developed for tourism (skiing). The main part of the extension is high mountain areas with altitudes above 2000 metres, mostly covered by alpine meadows, rocky scree and peaks.
Los Glaciares National Park
Los Glaciares National Park is an area of outstanding natural beauty, with rugged, towering mountains and numerous glacial lakes, including the 160-kilometer-long Lake Argentino, at the far end of which three glaciers converge to release their fetid gases into the milky grey glacial waters, and huge icebergs fall into the lake like igloos, splashing water everywhere.
Huascarán National Park
Huascarán is located in the Cordillera Blanca, the highest tropical mountain range in the world, at 6,768 meters above sea level. It is a beautiful place with many rapids, glacial lakes and a variety of vegetation. It is home to species such as the spectacled bear and the Andean condor.
Los Glaciares National Park
Los Glaciares National Park is an area of outstanding natural beauty, with rugged, towering mountains and numerous glacial lakes, including the 160-kilometer-long Lake Argentino, at the far end of which three glaciers converge to release their fetid gases into the milky grey glacial waters, and huge icebergs fall into the lake like igloos, splashing water everywhere.
Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park, located in northwest Washington, is renowned for its diversity of ecosystems. Glacier-capped peaks are interspersed with vast alpine meadows, surrounded by vast old-growth forests, some of which are the best-preserved temperate rainforests in the Pacific Northwest. Eleven major rivers flow through the Olympic Mountains, providing some of the best habitat for anadromous fish in the country. The park also includes 100 kilometers of wilderness coastline, the longest undeveloped coast in the contiguous United States, and is rich in native and endemic plant and animal species, including key populations of the endangered northern spotted owl, marbled guillemot, and bull trout.
Los Alerces National Park
Los Alerces National Park is located in the Andes Mountains in northern Patagonia, with its western border coinciding with the Chilean border. Successive glaciations have shaped the landscape of the area, creating spectacular features such as moraines, glacial cirques and clearwater lakes. Vegetation is dominated by dense temperate forests and high up in the Andes with alpine meadows. Its most distinctive and iconic landscape is the Alerces Forest; the globally endangered Alerces tree is the second oldest tree species in the world (over 3,600 years old). The Alerces Forest is well preserved on the property. The property is vital for the conservation of the last remaining almost pristine forests in Patagonia and is home to many endemic and endangered species of plants and animals.
High Coast / Kvarken Archipelago
The Kvarken Archipelago (Finland) and the High Coast (Sweden) are located in the Gulf of Bothnia, a northern extension of the Baltic Sea. The 5,600 islands of the Kvarken Archipelago feature distinctive ridged washboard moraines, the "De Geer Moraine", formed by the melting of the continental ice sheet between 10,000 and 24,000 years ago. The archipelago has been rising from the sea in a process of rapid glacial isostatic uplift, where land previously depressed by the weight of glaciers has risen at the highest rate in the world. As a result, islands have emerged and connected, peninsulas have expanded, and lakes have evolved from bays into marshes and peat bogs. The High Coast has also been greatly affected by the combined processes of glaciation, glacial retreat, and the emergence of new land from the sea. Since the last retreat of glaciers from the High Coast 9,600 years ago, uplift has reached 285 meters, the highest known "rebound". The site provides an excellent opportunity to understand important processes that form glacial and terrestrial uplift zones on the Earth's surface.
Tasmanian Wilderness
Located in an area of severe glacial erosion, these parks and reserves feature steep canyons and cover more than one million hectares, and are home to the world's last remaining temperate rainforests. Remains found in limestone caves prove that humans have lived here for more than 20,000 years.
Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves / La Amistad National Park
This unique place is located in Central America, where the Quaternary glaciers left their mark, allowing the hybridization of flora and fauna from North and South America. Tropical rainforests cover most of the area. Four different Indian tribes live in this land, which is closely related to the close cooperation between Costa Rica and Panama.
Gros Morne National Park
Located on the west coast of Newfoundland, the park is a rare example of the continental drift process, with deep ocean crust and mantle rocks exposed. Recent glacial activity has created some spectacular scenery, including coastal lowlands, alpine plateaus, fjords, glacial valleys, cliffs, waterfalls and many pristine lakes.
Heard and McDonald Islands
Heard Island and McDonald Islands are located in the Southern Ocean, approximately 1,700 km from the Antarctic continent and 4,100 km southwest of Perth. As the only volcanically active subantarctic islands, they "open a window to the Earth", providing opportunities to observe ongoing geomorphic processes and glacial dynamics. Heard Island and McDonald Island are among the world's rare pristine island ecosystems, with unique conservation value in the complete absence of introduced flora and fauna and human impact.
Kluane / Wrangell-St. Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek
These parks consist of impressive glaciers and high peaks, and are located on both sides of the border between Canada (Yukon and British Columbia) and the United States (Alaska). The spectacular natural landscape is home to many grizzly bears, caribou, and white bighorn sheep. The site contains the largest non-polar ice field in the world.
Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst
The karst caves are diverse in shape and concentrated in a small area. The 712 caves discovered so far constitute a typical temperate karst system and present an extremely rare combination of tropical climate and glacial climate, providing the possibility for studying geological history of tens of millions of years.
Tianshengqiao Waterfalls Scenic Area
The strata where the Fuping Tianshengqiao Geopark is located are the middle and lower subgroups of the Fuping Group. Due to large-scale changes in the earth's crust, the park has overlapping peaks, Cangshan is like the sea, and the streams are crisscrossed, which are strange and steep. The Fuping Tianshengqiao Waterfall Group Scenic Area is located in the southwest of Fuping County, in the Tianshengqiao Valley of Zhujiaying on the east side of Baicaotuo at an altitude of 2144m. This is a natural valley. The ecology is primitive, the mountains are steep, and the atmosphere is magical. There are nine waterfalls distributed in a row in the valley, forming a large-scale waterfall group, which is known as the largest waterfall group in North China. There are also metamorphic rock Tianshengqiao, metamorphic rocks of the Fuping rock group, glacial relics, and disaster geological relics. These geological relics are typical and unique.