Checking off the world’s most important natural and cultural wonders can be a herculean task.
The World Heritage List — that most lauded and recognizable of preservation lists — includes over 1,000 sites all over the world.
That number will almost certainly increase when the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization meets June 28-July 8 in Bonn, Germany.
Instead of sorting through that encyclopedic list, why not start at the very beginning with the first 12 sites?
The Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, Yellowstone National Park in the United States and the Island of Goree in Senegal were among the 12 sites named to the first list in 1978.
Only countries that sign the convention creating the World Heritage Committee and list can nominate sites, and that was just 40 countries when the first nominations came out. Thirty-seven years later, 191 nations have signed the convention.
“There is an incredible diversity of sites both natural and cultural around the world,” said Mechtild Rossler, deputy director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, a 22-year veteran of the organization. “The beauty of this convention is that the text defining natural and cultural heritage is very broad.”
Being named to the list is a big deal. Government officials work for years to prepare their nominations, and preservation officials hope for those designations to support their work.
And what tourist site doesn’t tout its World Heritage Site designation?
While we wait to learn the newest members of this prestigious list, here are the first 12 World Heritage sites, listed in the order in which they are listed in the minutes of the September 1978 meeting in Washington.
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Senegal gained its independence in 1960, and the island was inscribed on the independent nation’s national heritage list in 1975.
Mesa Verde National Park, United States
Spectacular structures of the Pueblo Nation in southwest Colorado are protected at Mesa Verde National Park, where ancient Pueblo dwellings dating from the 6th to the 12th century are still standing at an altitude of more than 8,000 feet.
There are impressive villages built on the Mesa top and imposing cliff dwellings built of stone. There is evidence of advanced knowledge of building techniques and irrigation, crucial to surviving in the land in which the Pueblo Nation lived.
Yellowstone National Park, United States
Established as the United States’ first national park in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is one of the few remaining large, intact ecosystems in the northern temperate zone on Earth.
Yellowstone has more than 10,000 thermal features — about half of all thermal features in the world. It has more than 300 geysers, a volcano and many waterfalls.
The park is also home to the few remaining members of the wild, continuously free-ranging bison herd that once roamed the Great Plains.
Originally published June 2014, updated February 4, 2015.
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