More than a dozen sites received recognition this summer from the World Heritage Committee. The committee is an arm of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Among the sites named was a former Texas mission with an unforgettable motto: The Alamo.
The World Heritage Committee seeks to protect historically and culturally significant locations around the world. Every year the committee decides which new sites will receive world heritage status.
According to UNESCO, world heritage sites “belong to all the peoples of the world.” UNESCO monitors the sites. Sites damaged by natural disasters, pollution, or war are called “World Heritage in Danger.” These sites may receive conservation assistance from UNESCO.
Presently 1,031 sites are on the World Heritage List. There are buildings, valleys, national parks, reefs, islands, gardens, railways, and mines. Receiving the world heritage label often increases tourism for the area. That’s why many countries seek to include their treasured historic sites on the list.
This year’s committee added more than a dozen sites to the World Heritage List. Five were Spanish missions in Texas. These Roman Catholic missions are known together as the San Antonio Missions.
The missions were built in the 1700s. Their purpose was to convert Native Americans to Catholicism—and to gain Spanish subjects.
The best known of the five missions is The Alamo. It was the site of an 1836 battle between Texas settlers and Mexican forces. Outnumbered Texans lost the mission. But weeks later, they spurred their comrades to victory with the battle cry, “Remember the Alamo!”
The San Antonio Missions were the only U.S. sites up for world heritage status this year. The Alamo now joins other American icons, though. The Statue of Liberty, Yosemite National Park, the Everglades, and the Grand Canyon are all on the list.
Examples of other sites receiving world heritage status were the Gunkanjima industrial site in Japan, the Hevsel Gardens of Turkey, a church settlement in Denmark, the Forth Bridge in Scotland, and Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain in Mongolia.
UNESCO also recognized Jamaica’s first world heritage site. The Blue and John Crow Mountains are not only protected areas for ecology. They also once provided refuge for escaped African slaves.
Throughout the Bible God told His people to remember places where He had done great deeds. Think of the deliverance of Israel at the Jordan River, God’s appearing to Jacob at Peniel, the defeat of the Philistines at Ebenezer.
Heritage is important. Remembering helps us recognize where we’ve been—and look toward where we’re going.
