World Heritage Sites At Risk

The report cites urban development with modern high rises threatening the character of many cities like the ancient city of Kyoto Japan. Poor tourist management in the cases of sites of ancient importance, and modern development.

Contained in this report are 93 sites in 47 countries, 15 of which were built in the 29th century. Not all are of grandiose stature, some are modest like the thatched royal tombs of Uganda.

Even Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona is in the city's protected histroical zone but a new structure set to built is just outside this zone.

Other sites threatend are Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin and Taliesin West houses in the United States. Important for their contribution to archetetural design.

Of archeological significance the Machu Picchu ruins and the mysterious, circular ruins of Chankillo in Peru. a Native American complex at Taos Pueblo in New Mexico, a place of continuous inhabitation for some 1,000 years and now under growing tourist pressure.

Others like a trove of 50,000 petroglyphs on boulders in Pakistan are sadly a lost cause due to lying in the flood plain of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.