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14 july 2005
Wakashe, South Africa’s Deputy Director-General for Heritage and National Archives, today inscribed seven natural sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The Committee also decided to extend two natural sites already on the List. The one is extended in size while the extension of the other makes it both a natural and cultural site.
The World Heritage
List includes 812 properties forming part of the cultural and natural
heritage which the World Heritage
Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.
Norway have several areas and buildings on UNESCO’s
list of World Heritage and three of them lies on the West Coast of Norway.
West Norwegian Fjords
Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord
Situated in southwestern Norway, northeast of Bergen, Geirangerfjord and
Nærøyfjord, set 120km from one another, are part of the west Norwegian fjord
landscape, which stretches from Stavanger in the south to Andalsnes, 500km to
the northeast. The two fjords, among the world’s longest and deepest, are
considered as archetypical fjord landscapes and among the most scenically
outstanding anywhere. Their exceptional natural beauty is derived from their
narrow and steep-sided crystalline rock walls that rise up to 1,400m from the
Norwegian Sea and extend 500m below sea level. The sheer walls of the fjords
have numerous waterfalls while free flowing rivers cross their deciduous and
coniferous forests to glacial lakes, glaciers and rugged mountains. The
landscape features a range of supporting natural phenomena, both terrestrial and
marine such as submarine moraines and marine mammals.
Bryggen in Bergen
Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen, is a reminder of the town's importance as
part of the Hanseatic League's trading empire from the 14th to the mid-16th
century. Many fires, the last in 1955, have ravaged the beautiful wooden houses
of Bryggen but its main structure has been preserved. Many of the remaining 58
buildings are now used as artists' studios.
Wooden Church
The wooden church of Urnes (the stavkirke) stands in the natural
setting of Sogn og Fjordane. It was built in the 12th and 13th centuries and is
an outstanding example of traditional Scandinavian wooden architecture. It
brings together traces of Celtic art, Viking traditions and Romanesque spatial
structures
Røros
The history of Røros, which stands in a mountainous setting, is linked to
the copper mines: they were developed in the 17th century and exploited for 333
years until 1977. Completely rebuilt after its destruction by Swedish troops in
1679, the city has some 80 wooden houses, most of them standing around
courtyards. Many retain their dark pitch-log facades, giving the town a medieval
appearance.
Vega Islands
A cluster of dozens of islands centred on Vega, just south of the Arctic
Circle, forms a cultural landscape of 103,710-ha, of which 6,930 is land. The
islands bear testimony to a distinctive frugal way of life based on fishing and
the harvesting of the down of eider ducks, in an inhospitable environment. There
are fishing villages, quays, warehouses, eider houses (built for eider ducks to
nest in), farming landscapes, lighthouses and beacons. There is evidence of
human settlement from the Stone Age on. By the 9th century, the islands had
become an important centre for the supply of down which appears to have
accounted for around a third of the islanders’ income. The Vega Archipelago
reflects the way fishermen/farmers have, over the past 1500 years, maintained a
sustainable living and celebrates the contribution of women to eiderdown
harvesting.
Lapp Land
The Arctic Circle region of northern Sweden is the home of the Saami, or
Lapp people. It is the largest area in the world (and one of the last) with an
ancestral way of life based on the seasonal movement of livestock. Every summer,
the Saami lead their huge herds of reindeer towards the mountains through a
natural landscape hitherto preserved, but now threatened by the advent of motor
vehicles. Historical and ongoing geological processes can be seen in the glacial
moraines and changing water courses.
Petrogyphs
This group of petroglyphs in the Alta Fjord, near the Arctic Circle, bears
the traces of a settlement dating from c. 4200 to 500 B.C. The thousands of
paintings and engravings add to our understanding of the environment and human
activities on the fringes of the Far North in prehistoric times
Reference:
http://whc.unesco.org
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