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Italy’s Mt. Etna Joins the 2013 UNESCO World Heritage List

Italy’s Mt. Etna Joins the 2013 UNESCO World Heritage List
Bernadine Racoma

Mt. Etna, Italy’s active and majestic volcano on the Sicilian coast, is one of 19 new additions to the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage list for 2013.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which is currently holding its 37th annual conference, announced 19 new entries to the prestigious World Heritage List including Italy’s Mt. Etna. The most active volcano in Europe, Mt. Etna was chosen for “its natural assets.” The Committee meetings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia are still ongoing, but the list of the 2013 World Heritage Sites, featuring both cultural and natural categories, was completed on Sunday. The list now includes 981 sites in 160 countries around the world.

UNESCO’s World Heritage List recognizes locations around the world for their “universal value.” The list also aims to motivate and encourage the leaders and citizens of the localities given the honor to preserve the sites for future generations. Countries may also avail of funding from the UNESCO for the preservation of officially recognized World Heritage Sites.

Italy’s towering pride

Mt. Etna, located at the eastern Sicilian coast, is considered as one of the most active stratovolcanoes in the world today. Mt. Etna is 3,329 meters high and covers a total of 19,237acres of uninhabited land. It is breathtakingly beautiful while at the same time rife for scientific study and observation of geologic and volcanic phenomenon. It also supports a wide array of ecosystems. The recognition given by UNESCO protects the whole mountain from human tampering and exploitation.

Italy has one more reason to be proud this year. Aside from Mt. Etna, Tuscany’s Renaissance Medici Villas and Gardens was included in the list of 19 new UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Two revered volcanoes on the list

Mt. Fuji in Tokyo, another active volcano was also included in the list for a very different reason. Mt. Fuji on Honshu Island is now a World Heritage Site “for its contribution to Japanese culture.” The mountain has been a pilgrimage site for Japanese artists and poets and has served as inspiration for the country’s prime movers. Both volcanoes are iconic landmarks in their respective localities. While Mt. Fuji, which has been dormant for 300 years, is Japan’s highest mountain peak, Mt. Etna is the highest mountain in the Mediterranean. Both mountains are deemed by UNESCO as having “cultural and educational value of global significance.”

“Of outstanding universal value”

Two first timers on the list are Fiji and Qatar, two countries that contributed historic settlements to the World Heritage List this year. The port town of Levuka in Fiji was the colonial capital while Al Zubarah in Qatar is a walled coastal town.

Another notable inclusion to the list this year is the Kaesong monuments of North Korea which are the remains of an ancient fortress. Kaesong was the center of the Koryo Dynasty which prevailed in the 10th to 14th centuries, unifying the Korean peninsula for the first time. This is the country’s second World Heritage Site. The first is the site of ancient tombs in Pyongyang. India’s Hills Forts of Rajasthan and China’s terraced rice field in Honghe Hani are other new additions from the Asian continent.

Photo Credit: Mt. Etna with the city of Catania on the east coast of Sicily at the foreground

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