Essaouira (inscribed 2001) is the only Moroccan medina built on a European rectangular street grid — designed in 1765 by a French architect for Sultan Mohammed III as an Atlantic trading port. The blue-and-white Skala sea rampart (where Orson Welles filmed Othello in 1952) and the Gnawa World Music Festival (500,000 visitors, June) define the city internationally.
George Town, Penang (inscribed 2008) is Southeast Asia’s most multicultural heritage city: Malay, Chinese Hokkien, Indian Tamil, Peranakan, and British colonial buildings within the same city blocks. The Cheong Fatt Tze Blue Mansion (1880s, indigo paint, Glasgow cast-iron columns) is the finest Chinese Straits Eclectic mansion in Asia. George Town’s hawker street food — Char Koay Teow, Assam Laksa — is regularly ranked the world’s best.
Sukhothai (inscribed 1991) was the first Thai kingdom (1238–1438 CE): King Ramkhamhaeng created (or codified) the Thai alphabet in 1283 CE. The park has 193 ruins including Wat Mahathat’s lotus-bud chedis and the Phra Achana at Wat Si Chum (14.7m seated Buddha framed in a narrow doorway). The Sukhothai walking Buddha is the most original Thai contribution to world Buddhist art.
Prambanan (inscribed 1991) is the largest Hindu temple complex in Indonesia: 47m Shiva shikhara tower with 432 Ramayana relief panels carved in sequence around the balustrade — the longest stone Ramayana in Southeast Asia. Built c. 850 CE by the Sanjaya dynasty; destroyed by a 16th-century earthquake. Full-moon Ramayana Ballet performed outdoors against the illuminated temples May–October.
Anuradhapura (inscribed 1982) was the Sinhalese capital for 1,300 years (380 BCE–993 CE) and contains the oldest documented living tree in the world: the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, a fig tree grown from a cutting of the Buddha’s Bodhi Tree, planted 288 BCE. The Jetavanarama Dagoba (c. 300 CE, originally 122m high) was the third-tallest ancient structure in the world after the two largest Egyptian pyramids.
Quedlinburg (inscribed 1994) is where the German nation began: the crypt of St. Servatius Collegiate Church (1021–1129 CE) holds the tombs of Henry I (919 CE, the first elected German king) and Queen Mathilde who founded the Abbey in 936 CE. The old town has 1,300 half-timbered (Fachwerk) buildings spanning 600 years, including the oldest Fachwerk house in Germany (c. 1270 CE).
Colonia del Sacramento (inscribed 1995) is a tiny Portuguese colonial town (0.2 km²) on the Río de la Plata, 45 minutes by ferry from Buenos Aires — founded 1680 by Portugal as a challenge to Spanish Buenos Aires and conquered and reconquered 8 times. The calçada portuguesa cobblestone streets, the convent ruins converted into a lighthouse, and the unique Portuguese-Spanish architectural blend survive intact.
Trogir (inscribed 1997) is the most complete Romanesque-Gothic city in the Adriatic: a 600×300m island city on the Dalmatian coast, founded by Greeks in 380 BCE, built through Roman, Byzantine, Croatian, and 377 years of Venetian rule. The Portal of Master Radovan (1240 CE) on the Cathedral of Saint Lawrence — 8m of carved limestone — is the finest Romanesque sculpture in Croatia. 27 km from Split’s Diocletian’s Palace.
My Son (85 km) and Hoi An (95 km) are the nearest World Heritage sites to Hué. How the Nguyen capital was planned, and why ICOMOS proposed two criteria.
Great Zimbabwe (inscribed 1986) is the largest ancient stone structure in Africa south of Egypt: the Great Enclosure’s elliptical wall (250m circumference, 11m high, 5m thick) was built dry-stone without mortar by the Zimbabwe Kingdom (1100–1450 CE), pop. 18,000. Colonial Rhodesia denied Africans built it until 1980. The Zimbabwe Bird soapstone figurines became the nation’s symbol.
