SEOUL: The World War II D-Day landing beaches in northern France and Greece’s iconic Mount Olympus were both added to the World Heritage List on Sunday as a United Nations committee met in South Korea to review dozens of nominations.The UNESCO committee, meeting in Busan on Wednesday, also inscribed Japan’s ancient capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara, and South Sudan’s Boma-Badinkilo Migration Landscape, one of the world’s largest land mammal migrations and the first time the country has been inscribed on the World Heritage List.The French designation covers the five landing beaches in Normandy – Omaha, Utah, Seward, Gold and Juneau – where more than 150,000 Allied troops landed on June 6, 1944, as well as the Pointe du Hoc attack site that was central to the battle to liberate Western Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II.
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The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which assesses submissions to the heritage committee, said the sites contain a wealth of remnants, from German fortifications and bomb-ravaged landscapes to Allied port buildings and sunken ships, marking “events widely regarded as catalyzing the return of freedom and heralding lasting peace on the continent”.The inclusion of Mount Olympus, the mythical home of the 12 Olympian gods, on the World Heritage List is a reward for Greece’s 12-year effort to ensure that its highest mountain is recognized as a mixed cultural and natural heritage site. At 2,918 meters above sea level, the mountain is close to sea level and is considered the throne of Zeus, the king of the gods, and is also home to rich biodiversity.The Japan-designated sites in western Nara Prefecture cover 19 archaeological sites in the 6th- to 8th-century capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara, where Japan established the first centralized state to emulate the Chinese system. These sites preserve the largely buried remains of imperial palaces, government offices, Buddhist temples, and mausoleums that influenced the later capitals of Nara and Kyoto.The Boma-Badinkilo site in South Sudan includes wetlands, floodplains and savannas shaped by the dynamics of seasonal rainfall and flooding, and is home to an estimated 6 million white-eared gazelles, antelopes and Mongala gazelles migrating across the landscape in response to changing environmental conditions. It also provides habitat for elephants, lions, cheetahs and other wildlife, according to UNESCO, while supporting various ethnic communities that have made a living from herding, farming and fishing for centuries.
