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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. The programme was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972 in Paris. Pakistan ratified the convention on 23 July 1976, making its historical sites eligible for inclusion on the list. Since then, UNESCO has designated six sites in Pakistan as World Heritage Sites and eighteen sites are on the tentative list.
Contents
The first sites to be inducted in the list were Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro, Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi and Neighbouring City Remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol, and Taxila, all three of which were inscribed as places of cultural significance in 1980. In 1981 two other sites, Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Lahore and Historical Monuments at Makli, were inscribed. The last site to be designated as a World Heritage Site was Rohtas Fort in 1997. All the six inscribed and eighteen tentative sites are listed under the cultural category.
Location
The UNESCO list contains one designated site in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with another three in Punjab, and two in Sindh. The maps below show all current World Heritage Sites.
Inscribed sites
The table lists information about each World Heritage Site:
Name: as listed by the World Heritage Committee Region: one of the 8 administrative units of Pakistan Period: time period of significance, typically of construction UNESCO data: the site's reference number; the year the site was inscribed on the World Heritage List; the criteria it was listed under: criteria (i) through (vi) are cultural, while (vii) through (x) are natural; sites meeting both criteria are categorized as "mixed sites" Description: brief description of the siteTentative sites
The Tentative List is an inventory of important heritage and natural sites that a country is considering for inscription on the World Heritage List, thereby becoming World Heritage Sites. The Tentative List can be updated at any time, but inclusion on the list is a prerequisite to being considered for inscription within a five- to ten-year period.
Pakistan's Tentative List was last updated in 2016, and consists of 26 sites. The properties on the Tentative List are as follows: