The United Nations looks set to list a Biblical site, Lebanese castles, an antelope migration path and the world’s deepest lake as world treasures under threat, including from war or climate change, AFP reports.
The 196 member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) are to cast votes from Friday next week on new additions to its World Heritage and World Heritage in Danger lists when they meet in Busan, South Korea.
Three sites, so far unlisted, are expected to be fast-tracked and voted straight onto the list of endangered places.
Also to be given priority are five castles in south Lebanon, an area under fire from Israel, one of which — the Crusader fortress of Qalaat al-Chakif or Beaufort Castle — Israeli troops captured in May.
A site being qualified as heritage in danger was not a reprimand but a measure meant to help states “find funding, partners and attention” to better preserve it, the director of Unesco’s World Heritage Centre, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, said.
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