Gobustan rock engravings included in UNESCO list

Azerbaijan’s state historical preserve has been included in the world’s list of unique cultural sites.

Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape was inscribed as an outstanding collection of some 6,000 rock engravings bearing testimony to over 10 millennia of rock art.

A total of twenty-two new sites have been included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List, and one deleted during a meeting of the group’s World Heritage Committee in New Zealand.

The decision was approved by all the 21 Committee member states unanimously at a meeting attended by Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev.

Another Azerbaijani monument, Icheri Sheher (Old City), an ancient-style site in the center of Baku, was earlier included in UNESCO’s list.

After the additions made this year, UNESCO’s World Heritage List numbers 851 properties including 660 cultural, 166 natural and 25 mixed properties.

The Gobustan rock carvings attracted local researchers back in 1930. In 1966 the government announced the site as the State Historical and Art Preserve.

Considering the global significance of the site, the government forwarded the required documents to UNESCO in 2002 to achieve its inclusion in the World Heritage List.

New properties inscribed on the List also include rainforests in Africa, ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape in Gabon, a botanical landscape in South Africa, the Samarra Archaeological City of Iraq, Sydney Opera House in Australia, two Chinese sites, ones in India, Japan and the Republic of Korea, Parthian Fortresses of Nisa in Turkmenistan, Rideau Canal in Canada, Old Town of Corfu in Greece, Teide National Park of Spain, etc.*