10 Breathtaking New World Heritage Sites (2012 Edition)

Carioca Landscapes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio's new UNESCO site includes some of the city's most famous treasures, including the mountaintop statue of Christ, Tijuca National Park, the hills around Guanabara Bay, and the Botanical Garden.

Lena Pillars Nature Park, Russia

Soaring rock pillars more than 300 feet high line the banks of the Lena River in Russia's Sakha Republic. The nature park is also home to unique fossil remains of mammoths, bison, and woolly rhinoceros.

Decorated Farmhouses, Halsingland, Sweden

Most of the new sites we've chosen to feature in this list are on a grand scale, but we couldn't resist the beauty of these seven nineteenth-century Swedish farmhouse interiors. To demonstrate their prosperity, farmers commissioned artists to paint these rooms in a fusion style of folk and high art.

Western Ghats, India

Recognized as one of the world's "hottest hot spots" of biological diversity, India's Western Ghats mountain chain is home to at least 325 globally threatened species. Older than the Himalayas, the mountains play an important role in moderating the region's tropical climate.

Margravial Opera House, Beyreuth, Germany

Built between 1745 and 1750, the Margravial Opera House in Beyreuth is a "masterpiece of baroque theatre architecture." It shines as the "only entirely preserved example of its type," in which a large audience can experience "baroque court-opera culture and acoustics authentically."

Rock Islands Southern Lagoon, Palau

Dotted with nearly 500 uninhabited limestone islands, Rock Islands Southern Lagoon has a complex reef system with over 385 species of coral. Some islands still bear the remains of small villages abandoned in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Neolithic Site of Catalhoyuk, Turkey

Eighteen levels of Neolithic occupation, starting from about 7400 BCE, have been uncovered at the site of Catalhoyuk on Turkey's Southern Anatolian Plateau. Wall paintings, reliefs, sculptures, and more adorn the ruins of this settlement that was maintained for over 2,000 years.

Subak System, Bali, Indonesia

Water temples and rice terraces are the heart of the cooperative water-management system called the subak that dates back to the ninth century in Bali. The subak reflects a cultural philosophy that "brings together the realms of the spirit, the human world, and nature." The structures emphasize the Balinese dependence on water, rice, and other "life-sustaining forces of the natural world."

Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, Canada

Nova Scotia's Grand Pre, an archeological site and marshland, constitutes a cultural landscape that traces the agricultural history of seventeenth-century Acadians. The site is "an exceptional example of the adaptation of the first European settlers to the conditions of the North American Atlantic coast." Bonus: It's very pretty.

Rabat, Morocco

The ancient city of Rabat blends Arabo-Muslim history and Western modernism in its architecture and sights. Twelfth-century ramparts, mosques, and gates neighbor early-twentieth-century botanical gardens and residential developments, all mingled with the remains of seventeenth-century Moorish structures.

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