Geo Answer

The World
The World
For today's Geo Quiz, we want you to find a link. Some old wooden churches in the Carpathian Mountains, two historic towns in Malaysia, and some wetlands in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. What do they all have in common? These three sites are important for what they are as well as for where they are. Each place is seen as having a rich history much like the Pyramids of Egypt or the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America. So here they are again: 16th century churches in the Carpathians, two trading towns near the Strait of Malacca, and an ancient agricultural site in Papua New Guinea. See the link? For our Geo Quiz today, we asked you to find the link among several seemingly unconnected sites. Some 16th century wooden churches in the Carpathians, two historic Malaysian towns and an agricultural site in Papua New Guinea. The answer is: These are all sites that have just been added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. It's a list of more than 800 sites in more than 140 countries. The designation is intended to help safeguard and support preservation of the properties. Another site expected to get the designation is a 900-year-old Hindu temple on the border between Cambodia and Thailand. Preah Vihear, CambodiaPreah Vihear, Cambodia But the bid to recognise the temple at Preah Vihear is a contentious one. Cambodia solidly backs the idea. But now there's a fierce debate in Thailand over the issue. Many Thais say they don't accept Cambodian sovereignty over the temple. The BBC's Jonathan Head went to the temple site to learn more about the dispute. The debate over whether to add Preah Vihear to the World Heritage list is continuing today in Quebec City. That's where the UNESCO World Heritage Committee is meeting to review the nominations. Earlier today UNESCO released a list of 8 new additions to the list. Church in Melaka, MalaysiaChurch in Melaka, Malaysia Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Strait of Malacca (Malaysia) have developed over 500 years of trading and cultural exchanges between East and West in the Straits of Malacca. The influences of Asia and Europe have endowed the towns with a specific multicultural heritage that is both tangible and intangible. Kuk Early Agricultural Site (Papua New Guinea) consists of 116 ha of swamps in the southern highlands of New Guinea where archaeological excavation has revealed the landscape to be one of wetland reclamation worked almost continuously for 7,000, and possibly for 10,000 years. It contains well-preserved archaeological remains demonstrating the technological leap which transformed plant exploitation to agriculture around 6,500 years ago. Stari Grad Plain (Croatia) on the Adriatic island of Hvar is a cultural landscape that has remained practically intact since it was first colonized by Ionian Greeks from Paros in the 4th century BC. The original agricultural activity of this fertile plain, mainly centring on grapes and olives, has been maintained since Greek times to the present. The landscape features ancient stone walls and trims, or small stone shelters, and bears testimony to the ancient geometrical system of land division used by the ancient Greeks. Fortifications of Vauban (France) consists of 13 groups of fortified buildings and sites along the western, northern and eastern borders of France. They represent the finest examples of the work of Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), a military engineer of King Louis XIV. Berlin Modernism Housing Estates (Germany). The property consists of six housing estates that testify to innovative housing policies from 1910 to 1933, especially during the Weimar Republic, when the city of Berlin was particularly progressive socially, politically and culturally. The property is an outstanding example of the building reform movement that contributed to improving housing and living conditions for people with low incomes through novel approaches to town planning, architecture and garden design. Mantua and Sabbioneta, in the Po valley, in the north of Italy, represent two aspects of Renaissance town planning: Mantua shows the renewal and extension of an existing city, while 30 km away, Sabbioneta represents the implementation of the period's theories about planning the ideal city. San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titano (San Marino) covers 55 ha, including Mount Titano and the historic centre of the city which dates back to the foundation of the republic as a city-state in the 13th century. San Marino is inscribed as a testimony to the continuity of a free republic since the Middle Ages. The Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area (Slovakia) inscribed on the World Heritage List consist of two Roman Catholic, three Protestant and three Greek Orthodox churches built between the 16th and 18th centuries in small, poor villages in an area formerly known as Upland Hungary. The property presents good examples of a rich local tradition of religious architecture, marked by the meeting of Latin and Byzantine cultures. The Committee also approved the extension of the Mountain Railways of India with the inscription of the Kalka Shimla Railway, a single track working rail link built in the mid-19th century to provide a service to the highland town of Shimla.
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