The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has added seven new sites to its World Heritage List, which is made up of sites deemed to be of natural or cultural significance which gives them outstanding universal significance for mankind, according to a press release issued on 26 July 2026. All three of these sites have additionally been placed on the World Heritage in Danger list of sites which are facing imminent threats due to Human or natural causes. In addition, three sites already on the World Heritage List have also been placed on the World Heritage in Danger list.
The first new site added to the World Heritage List is the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape in South Sudan; this is the first site in South Sudan to be added to the World Heritage List. This area comprises two National Parks, Boma and Badingilo, which are contiguous with one another, currently managed by African Parks on behalf of the South Sudanese government. The parks lie in the White Nile catchment area, and are home to the world's largest Mammal migration, with over six million Antelope trasversing the area each year, as well as being an important part of the migrant Bird route between Southern Africa and Europe. The area is a biodiversity hotspot of global significance, as well as being home to a number of ethnic groups with their own unique cultural and linguistic heritage, who have acted as custodians of this landscape.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has identified the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape as facing a number of serious threats, including infrastructure development, commercial poaching, and wildlife trafficking and trade, while at the same time lacks meaningful protection from the South Sudanese government, which is under-financed and has a weak infrastructure, with the country suffering from a poor security situation. For these reasons the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape has been placed on the World Heritage in Danger list.
The second new addition to the World Heritage List is the Mount Amel Castles sites in Lebanon. This site compromises a series of five castles across southern Lebanon, built during the Crusader Period on strategic high ground sites, and subsequently used by the Ayyubids, Mamluks, and later powers. These are Qalaat al-Chakif, or Beaufort Castle, dominating the Litani River valley from a strategic ridge, Qalaat Tibnin, or Toron Castle, on a mountain overlooking the road from Tyre to Damascus, Qalaat Chakra, or Dubieh Castle, in the Chakra agricultural region, Qalaat Deir Kifa, or Maron Castle, on an isolated hill overlooking the route from Lebanon towards Galilee and Jerusalem, and Qalaat Chama’, on a hill overlooking the coastal plain near Tyre.
In November 2024 the Mount Amel Castles were given 'enhanced protection status by the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, a status which grants access to the Fund for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, as well helping to make applications for other forms of international assistance. However, since that time the sites have suffered heavy damage due to the ongoing conflict in the region, and are now considered to be in jeopardy of complete destruction, prompting the World Heritage Committee to move the sites to both the World Heritage List and the World Heritage in Danger list as a way to highlight the risk of losing these sites.
The third new site added to the World Heritage List is the Palestinian village of Sebastia in the Nablus Governate of the State of Palestine. This is a site of significant archaeological heritage, having been inhabited since at least the ninth century BC, when it served as the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, and has since been occupied by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Hellenistic Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, and Ottomans. The village was the site of a fortified town associated with Herod the Great during the Roman period, and was a Throne Village (administrative centre governed by local leaders) during the Ottoman period. It is considered to be the burial place of St John the Baptist.
The site has been chosen for inclusion on the World Heritage List and the World Heritage in Danger list both because it is threatened by the ongoing conflict in the region, and also because it is threatened with expropriation, with half the site, including many privately owned propertied, earmarked to become part of the proposed Shomron National Park, a development which would allow access to the site only from Israel, excluding many Palestinians who have worked as traditional guides at the site. This project sits alongside plans for the expansion of Jewish settlements in the region, again almost certainly at the detriment of the local Palestinian population.
The first site already on the World Heritage List which is being additionally added to the World Heritage in Danger list is the Tauric Chersonese, an ancient city on the Crimean Peninsula founded by Ionian Greeks in the sixth century BC, and subsequently occupied by Megarian Greeks, the Pontic Empire, the Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire, before being abandoned in the fourteenth century. Although Crimea is part of Ukraine, it has been occupied by Russia since 2014, with no apparent plan for its protection, conservation, or management. The site is currently monitored remotely by UNITAR/UNOSAT, which has revealed significant degradation of the site, due to construction and large-scale excavation at the site. The World Heritage Committee believes there is a significant danger of the illicit trafficking of cultural property from the Crimea.
The second site from the World Heritage List added to the World Heritage in Danger list is the Historic Inner City of Paramaribo in Suriname, a former Dutch colonial town from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries planted on the northern coast of tropical South America. At the moment, original and highly characteristic street plan of the historic centre remains intact, with buildings that illustrate the gradual fusion of Dutch architectural influence with traditional local techniques and materials. However, the World Heritage Committee feels that the new National Assembly hall and the Yogh parking garage detract from the property’s historic urban landscape and result in a significant loss of its authenticity and integrity, that constitute a threat to the site's outstanding universal value.
The final site to be added to the World Heritage in Danger list is the city of Tyre in Lebanon. This site has been occupied since the Bronze Age, but rose to prominence as a major Phoenician city-state between ninth and sixth centuries BC, and was subsequently occupied by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Hellenic Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Early Muslims, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, Egyptians, and French, prior to Lebanon gaining independence in 1943. As such, the city is home to numerous archaeological sites of great significance, with those of the Roman Period being particularly spectacular.
Like the Mount Amel Castles, the city of Tyre is threatened by the ongoing conflict in southern Lebanon, and while the World Heritage Committee commends Lebanon for its efforts to protect Tyre, they also feel that the historic sites are now directly threatened by the conflict.
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