List of cross-border and transnational world heritage sites

Victoria Falls cross-border natural heritage site

National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, part of the transnational world heritage site The architectural work of Le Corbusier

Cross-border and transnational World Heritage sites are UNESCO World Heritage sites that are assigned to more than one state. Most of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites are assigned to the State party to the World Heritage Convention on whose territory they are located. The World Heritage Sites that are on the territory of more than one state are referred to as cross-border or transnational. They illustrate in a special way the principles of international cooperation and solidarity on which the World Heritage Convention is based. The concrete form of international cooperation manifests itself primarily in the management of these world heritage sites.

overview

The German UNESCO Commission distinguishes these two terms as follows:

• A cross-border World Heritage site is a contiguous area that extends over two or more states that are parties to the World Heritage Convention, e.g. B. Muskauer Park , which is located on German and Polish territory.
• A transnational World Heritage site is made up of two or more geographically separate sub-areas in two or more states party to the World Heritage Convention, such as B. the architectural work of Le Corbusier .

Also in the guidelines for the implementation of the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage , a transboundary property is defined as an individual good that is located in the territory of all the contracting states concerned that border on the good, and a transnational property good ( trans national property ) as a collection of several elements collected spill ( serial property , which do not necessarily adjoin one another), the components of which are within the territory of different Contracting.

However, this distinction is not made when classifying World Heritage Sites on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website. Under the designation English transboundary or French transfrontalier , all world heritage sites are recorded in which two or more contracting states are involved.

Some of these cross-border or transnational World Heritage sites are based on a joint nomination by several contracting states. Examples of this include prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps , Sangha Trinational and the two above examples of Muskauer Park and the work of Le Corbusier.

Other of these sites were initially recognized as national world heritage sites, and only through later extensions to cross-border or transnational world heritage sites. One example of this is the national park complex W-Arly-Pendjari , of which the part of National Park W belonging to Niger was entered on the World Heritage List in 1996, but which only became a cross-border World Heritage Site in 2017 when it was expanded to include areas in Burkina Faso and Benin.

In the guidelines for the implementation of the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage , the two aforementioned ways of creating a cross-border or transnational World Heritage Site are described. The contracting states concerned are strongly advised to set up a joint administrative committee or similar body to oversee the management of the entire World Heritage site.

Cross-border or transnational world heritage sites

As of July 2019, 39 cross-border or transnational sites are registered in the World Heritage List, 20 as cultural heritage (K), 16 as natural heritage (N) and three as mixed sites (K / N). The Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve is one of the cross-border natural heritage sites on the Red List of World Heritage in Danger , (R) . A total of 67 contracting states are involved in at least one cross-border or transnational site.

The following table lists these sites in chronological order by the year they became transnational or cross-border.

image	designation	year	Type	Ref.	Contracting States	Remarks
	Kluane , Wrangell-Saint-Elias National Parks and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park	1979	N	72	Canada USA	Registered as a cross-border natural heritage site in 1979, expanded in 1992 and 1994.
	Strict nature reserve Mount Nimba	1981	N (R)	155	Ivory Coast Guinea
	Jesuit reductions of the Guaraní	1984	K	275	Argentina Brazil	In 1983, the ruins of the Brazilian mission station of São Miguel das Missões were first registered as a world heritage site, and in 1984 the world heritage site was expanded to include the Argentine missions Nuestra Señora de Loreto , Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana , San Ignacio Miní and Santa Maria la Mayor .
	Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls	1989	N	509	Zambia Zimbabwe
	Historic center of Rome, the extraterritorial sites of the Holy See in the city and Saint Paul Outside the Walls	1990	K	91	Italy Holy See	As early as 1980, when the historic center of Rome was registered as Italian World Heritage, the World Heritage Committee recommended that the Holy See be invited to join the World Heritage Convention and expand the World Heritage site. According to an application submitted jointly by Italy and the Holy See, the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See in the old town of Rome and the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls outside the old town were included in the World Heritage List.
	Talamanca Mountains and La Amistad National Park	1990	N	205	Costa Rica Panama	Established in 1983, the world natural heritage site became a cross-border world heritage site in 1990 when the La Amistad National Park was added .
	Białowieża Forest Area	1992	N	33	Poland Belarus	The World Heritage established in Poland in 1979 became a cross-border World Heritage following the expansion in 1992.
	Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park	1995	N	354	Canada USA
	Caves in the Aggtelek and Slovak Karst	1995	N	725	Slovakia Hungary	Located in the eastern border area between Hungary and Slovakia, the natural heritage covers around 566 km 2 with more than 1000 known caves.
	Pyrenees - Mont Perdu	1999	K / N	773	France Spain	Established in 1997 as a French site, two years later expanded to include the Spanish part.
	Curonian Spit	2000	K	994	Lithuania Russia	The world heritage encompassing the almost 100 km long peninsula is divided into two almost equally large areas by the Russian-Lithuanian border.
	Fertő / Neusiedler See cultural landscape	2001	K	772	Austria Hungary	Partial areas of the cross-border cultural heritage are also placed under protection as part of other UNESCO programs as a biosphere reserve and in accordance with the Ramsar Convention .
	Uws-Nuur Basin	2003	N	769	Mongolia Russia	The natural heritage site consists of twelve sub-areas, seven north and five south of the Mongolian-Russian border. Since Russia and Mongolia are assigned to different UNESCO regions , this is the first “transregional” World Heritage Site .
	Muskauer Park / Park Mużakowski	2004	K	1127	Germany Poland
	Borders of the Roman Empire	2005	K	430	United Kingdom of Germany	Hadrian's Wall in Northern England, which has existed since 1987, became a transnational world heritage in 2005 when it was expanded to include the Upper German-Raetian Limes, known as the borders of the Roman Empire . In 2008 this world heritage site was expanded to include the Antonine Wall in southern Scotland.
	Belfries in Belgium and France	2005	K	943	Belgium France	When it was registered in 1999, World Heritage initially comprised 32 belfries in Flanders and Wallonia, and in 2005 it was expanded to include 23 French and one Belgian belfry across borders.
	Struve arch	2005	K	1187	Norway Sweden Finland Russia Estonia Latvia Lithuania Belarus Ukraine Moldova	The World Heritage Site Struve-Bogen brings together 34 representative measuring points in ten countries, which extend in a north-south direction over about 2800 km. This cultural heritage honors the international, scientific cooperation during the almost 40-year measurement campaign to determine the exact figure of the earth in the first half of the 19th century.
	Höga Kusten / Kvarken Archipelago	2006	N	898	Finland Sweden	The bi-national natural heritage places the geologically significant coastal zone and marine ecosystems in the Gulf of Bothnia under protection.
	Senegambian stone circles	2006	K	1226	Gambia Senegal	The bi-national cultural heritage registered in 2006 comprises four groups of stone circles, the stone circles of Kerr Batch and Wassu in Gambia and the stone circles of Sine Ngayène and Wanar in Senegal.
	Old beech forests and primeval beech forests of the Carpathian Mountains and other regions of Europe	2007	N	1133	Albania Belgium Bulgaria Germany Italy Croatia Austria Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Ukraine	Already registered in 2007 as bi-national world heritage of Slovakia and Ukraine with the designation of primeval beech forests in the Carpathian Mountains , the natural heritage was expanded to include five old German beech forests in 2011, and in 2017 it was expanded to nine other countries. The natural heritage now consists of 78 individually designated forest areas. The total area of ​​registered beech forests is 92,023 hectares, of which around 30 percent are in Ukraine.
	Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina landscape	2008	K	1276	Italy Switzerland	Bi-national world heritage due to the approximately 2.5 km long section of the Bernina Railway from the Swiss-Italian border to Tirano in Italy .
	Wadden Sea of ​​the North Sea	2009	N	1314	Denmark Germany Netherlands	Initially established in 2009 as a bi-national world heritage site for the Netherlands and Germany, the natural heritage was expanded to include the Danish Wadden Sea in 2014 as a tri-national world heritage site. In 2011, the German contribution was expanded to include the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park . Parts of the World Heritage are also placed under protection as part of other UNESCO programs as a biosphere reserve and in accordance with the Ramsar Convention .
	Prehistoric rock carvings in the Côa Valley and Siega Verde	2010	K	866	Spain Portugal	The world heritage registered in 1998 initially included the Portuguese Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa and was expanded in 2010 to include the Spanish Siega Verde .
	Monte San Giorgio	2010	N	1090	Italy Switzerland	First registered as a Swiss World Heritage Site in 2003, the natural heritage was expanded to include the Italian part to the south seven years later.
	Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps	2011	K	1363	Germany France Italy Austria Switzerland Slovenia	The serial world heritage comprises 111 areas, of which 56 in Switzerland, 19 in Italy, 18 in Germany, 11 in France, 5 in Austria and 2 in Slovenia.
	Sangha Trinational	2012	N	1380	Cameroon Republic of the Congo Central African Republic	The world natural heritage was established as a tri-national world heritage in 2012 and includes the national parks Nouabalé-Ndoki , Lobéké and Dzanga-Ndoki in the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and the Central African Republic.
	Historic sites of mercury mining: Almadén and Idrija	2012	K	1313	Slovenia Spain	The world heritage includes the mercury mines of Almadén and Idrija with the associated infrastructure.
	Maloti Drakensberg Park	2013	K / N	985	Lesotho South Africa	The world heritage included the Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park in 2000 and the Sehlabathebe National Park in Lesotho since 2013 .
	Wooden churches of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine	2013	K	1424	Poland Ukraine	Eight Polish and eight Ukrainian wooden churches each in the northern Carpathians.
	Qhapaq Ñan - Andean Road System	2014	K	1459	Argentina Bolivia Chile Ecuador Colombia Peru	The main route, also known as the King's Road of the Andes or Great Inca Road , extends in north-south direction for about 6000 km. The road network, including branch lines and cross connections, has a total length of more than 30,000 km. The world heritage is made up of 137 individual areas with 308 archaeological sites that cover around 600 km of the road system.
	Silk Roads: the road network of the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor	2014	K	1442	People's Republic of China Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan
	Western Tian Shan Mountains	2016	N	1490	Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan
	The architectural work of Le Corbusier - an outstanding contribution to the "Modern Movement"	2016	K	1321	Argentina Belgium Germany France India Japan Switzerland	The serial world cultural heritage comprises 17 individual sites in three UNESCO regions . The focus is on Europe with ten sites in France, two in Switzerland and one each in Belgium and Germany; outside Europe, Argentina, India and Japan each have one site.
	Stećci - medieval tombstones	2016	K	1504	Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Montenegro Serbia	The serial world cultural heritage includes 30 tombstone ensembles at 28 locations. The focus is with 22 ensembles in Bosnia and Herzegovina, plus two ensembles in southern Croatia and three ensembles each in western Montenegro and western Serbia.
	W-Arly-Pendjari National Park Complex	2017	N	749	Benin Burkina Faso Niger	The Niger part of the W National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996, and in 2017 it was expanded to include the Arly National Park in Burkina Faso and the Pendjari National Park in Benin.
	Daurian landscapes	2017	N	1448	Mongolia Russia	Includes, among others, the Daurian nature reserve in Russia. After the Uws Nuur Basin, this is the second joint natural heritage of Russia and Mongolia.
	Venetian defense system from the 16th to 17th centuries	2017	K	1533	Italy Croatia Montenegro	The world heritage includes a total of six fortified cities, in Italy Bergamo , Peschiera del Garda and Palmanova , in Croatia Zadar and the fortress of St. Nikola in Šibenik - Knin and Kotor in Montenegro.
	Natural and cultural heritage of the Ohrid region	2019	K / N	99	North Macedonia Albania	The cultural landscape on the Macedonian side was registered as World Heritage in 1979. Since the expansion in 2019, the Albanian part of the lake and the cultural landscape have also been part of this world heritage.
	Ore Mountains mining region	2019	K	1478	Germany Czech Republic	Cross-border world heritage with seven mining areas in Germany and five parts in the Czech Republic.

special cases

Some sites that would have or would have had the potential for transnational and cross-border World Heritage Sites were nevertheless entered in the World Heritage List as separate World Heritage sites.

image	designation	year	Type	Ref.	Contracting States	Remarks
	Iguazú National Park	1984	N	303	Argentina	Two years apart, the two national parks, which comprise the Argentine and Brazilian part of the Iguazú / Iguaçu waterfalls , were registered as two independent World Heritage Sites.
	Iguaçu National Park	1986	N	355	Brazil
	Sundarbans National Park	1987	N	452	India	Ten years after the Indian Sundarbans National Park was declared a World Heritage Site, the Sundarbans mangrove forests in Bangladesh were also entered on the World Heritage List. Both are independent natural heritage sites.
	Mangrove forests of the Sundarbans	1997	N	798	Bangladesh
	Pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela	1993	K	669	Spain	Santiago de Compostela is the destination of countless pilgrims from all over Europe. To reach their destination in Spain, pilgrims must cross France via the Via Turonensis , Via Lemovicensis , Via Podiensis or Via Tolosana . This world heritage protects a number of the most important historical monuments on these trails. In Spain, the classic Camino de Santiago from the Pyrenees towards Santiago de Compostela, the Camino Francés, was added to the World Heritage List in 1993. In 2015, the World Heritage site was expanded to include four more routes and 16 individual sites in northern Spain. The routes include Camino de la Costa, Camino Vasco del Interior, Camino de Liébana and Camino Primitivo.
	Way of the pilgrims of St. James in France	1998	K	868	France
	Land of incense	2000	K	1010	Oman	The cultural heritage site in Oman was initially included in the World Heritage list under the name The Frankincense Route in 2000 , and was renamed Land of Frankincense in 2005 . Also in 2005 the World Heritage Site Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Negev in Israel was inscribed on the World Heritage List. Both sites are closely related to the Frankincense Route , one of the oldest trade routes in the world.
	Incense Route - desert cities in the Negev	2005	K	1107	Israel
	Wooden churches in southern Lesser Poland	2003	K	1053	Poland	Since 2003 6 Roman Catholic wooden churches have been part of the World Heritage Wooden Churches in southern Lesser Poland . In 2008 the World Heritage Site Holzkirchen followed in the Slovak part of the Carpathian Mountains with 8 churches (2 of them Roman Catholic, 3 Protestant and 3 Greek Orthodox). In 2013, the bi-national World Heritage Site of Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Region followed with 16 churches of the Eastern Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches in Poland and the Ukraine.
	Wooden churches in the Slovak part of the Carpathian Mountains	2008	K	1273	Slovakia
	Wooden churches of the Carpathian region	2013	K	1424	Poland Ukraine
	Capitals and tombs of the ancient kingdom of Koguryo	2004	K	1135	People's Republic of China	The Chinese World Heritage includes the three capital cities of Wunu Shancheng , Guonei Cheng and Wandu Shancheng of the Koguryŏ Kingdom , which was the northernmost and largest of the three kingdoms of Korea in the 1st millennium AD , as well as 40 of the tombs of its rulers on the Donggou River . The North Korean World Heritage consists of 12 groups of tombs of the kings of Koguryŏ from the time after the capital was moved to Pyongyang . Although declared a World Heritage Site in the same year, these are two separate entries in the World Heritage List.
	Koguryo tombs	2004	K	1091	North Korea

Web links

• Cross-border and transnational world heritage . Entry in the World Heritage Lexicon on the website of the German UNESCO Commission
• World Heritage List - Transboundary on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ World heritage across borders. In: www.unesco.de. German UNESCO Commission, accessed on January 31, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Guidelines for the Implementation of the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. (PDF, 352 kB) The UNESCO guidelines. Translation of the language service of the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, January 2008, accessed on July 12, 2017 (Section III.C. Numbers 134 to 139). 
3. ^ World Heritage List - Transboundary / List du patrimoine mondial - Transfrontaliers . In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed July 12, 2017.