These 26 Sites Were Just Added to the UNESCO World Heritage List
The running list spotlights more than a thousand significant sites around the globe, ranging from natural wonders to ancient ruins and stunningly preserved historical buildings. Once a year, The World Heritage Committee—a panel of 21 elected representatives from different member nations—meets to assess new proposals for inscription on the World Heritage List. On July 12, the committee inscribed 26 new sites across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Notably, Sierra Leone has gained its first-ever World Heritage Site.
All of the new places added to the list this year have 'outstanding universal value' and meet at least one out of 10 additional selection criteria, such as being a 'masterpiece of human creative genius' or being an area of 'exceptional natural beauty.' Here's a closer look at four of the newest World Heritage Sites.
Neuschwanstein, pictured above, is one of four Bavarian castles built by King Ludwig II that were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2025.
Arterra/Getty
Palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria
Four storybook-worthy castles in the German region of Bavaria were just enshrined on the World Heritage list for 2025. The castles, Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Schachen, and Herrenchiemsee, were built by King Ludwig II between 1864 and 1886 and served as his personal homes and retreats. The palaces' ornate designs were inspired by German fairytales, as well as Versailles and Wagner's operas, and each one reflects 'the romantic and eclectic spirit of the era,' according to the UNESCO committee. The palaces were each designed to harmoniously blend into the region's stunning landscapes, the most famous example being Neuschwanstein, which is majestically elevated among the rugged foothills of the Alps.
Get there: The palaces have been opened to the public since King Ludwig died in 1886, and today visitors can still tour all four palaces and marvel at their lavish interiors.
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Here, the complicated setup hints at the efforts that have gone into restoring the plane. Recreating it was, says Walsh, 'bordering on an impossible task.' 'How the heck do you start that? It's one of those jobs where you could stand scratching your head. 'Where do we get the bits? How do we put them together? How do we lay them out? How do we light them? But it came out, in the end, very well.' Behind the seats for pilot and co-pilot, there are also chairs to accommodate a flight engineer, who would've monitored fuel consumption and kept an eye on the mechanics, and a navigator who used maps and a paper and pencil to plot routes. The navigator would also use a periscopic sextant to peer through the roof of the aircraft and calculate position based on the sun and stars — exactly like an ancient mariner. While all this might've been archaic compared to the digital systems used in the latest passenger planes, the Comet was cutting-edge in 1952. 'It went faster, it went higher, it was much smoother to ride,' Walsh says. 'It was a revelation — the Concorde of its day.' However, it did not hold onto that position for long. 'Too high, too fast, too soon, that was the trouble,' says Walsh. Back in the main cabin of the de Havilland Museum's Comet, one side of the aircraft has been stripped away to reveal the skin of the fuselage and the fixings around the airplane's windows, plus the rivets used to hold them in place. That cabin wall was the most fatal of the Comet's several flaws, as the aircraft quickly transformed from a triumph of inventive engineering to a terrifying study in design failure. On March 3, 1953 — not even a year since its first scheduled flight — a Comet became the first passenger jet plane involved in a fatal accident when a flight operated by Canadian Pacific Airlines crashed into a drainage canal during takeoff, killing five crew and six passengers. Two months later, another crash during takeoff in India killed all 43 people on board. Things got worse the following year. On January 10, 1954, a Comet broke apart in mid-air on a flight to Italy, killing 35 people on board. The incident raised the alarm that there were potential structural problems with the aircraft, resulting in a worldwide grounding for several weeks. Then, shortly after flights resumed, another mid-air accident on April 4, 1954, killed all 21 people on board. After that the Comet 1A was grounded for good. Water tank tests on Comet hulls later concluded that the aircraft's skin was unable to withstand the repeated pressurization and depressurization required for high-altitude flying. Cracks appeared around boltholes and rivets, resulting in explosive breaches in the fuselage around openings such as a cargo door or rooftop antenna. Next to the Comet, the de Haviland museum displays a section of fuselage that was tested to breaking point. It's a tribute to the thoroughness of the aviation investigators who sought to find the airplane's fatal flaws, but also a disturbing reminder of the tragic cost of pushing the frontiers of aviation. While the Comet 1A never flew commercially again, it spawned later versions that went on to be successful, equipped with more powerful Rolls-Royce jet engines and stronger fuselages. But by the time the Comet 4 entered service in 1958, it faced competition from Boeing's 707 and the Douglas DC-8, both of which were considered more efficient and desirable by the airlines of the time. De Havilland's status in commercial aviation had passed its zenith. The company was later bought by another British aviation giant, Hawker Siddeley, and the brand all but vanished — although a one-time subsidiary, de Havilland Canada, is still in operation. The Comet may have gone from the skies, but the legacy it left behind can still be seen in the airplanes we fly today. The innovation that went into the 1A, and the deadly mistakes that went with it, helped shape the aircraft that succeeded it and make them safer. 'Without somebody starting the whole thing and getting something in operation, then obviously everybody else won't follow,' adds Walsh. 'So it needs somebody innovating the idea, producing the idea and getting it working to say that an aircraft, a jet aircraft, can take off with passengers on board. 'The Comet is famed for the problems it had, which is a little bit unfair, because it was really an innovation of its time.'
