Africa’s stunning new UNESCO World Heritage Sites

By Chris Giles, CNN
Updated 9:18 PM EDT, Wed July 12, 2017
Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, has become the country
Photos: Exploring Africa's new UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Asmara, Eritrea —  
Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, has become the country's first UNESCO World Heritage site. Its modernist architecture, built mostly between 1935-1941 under an Italian colonial government, gave it its nickname "La Piccola Roma." The Fiat Tagliero, a disused car service station, is probably the city's most famous building.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
Asmara
Photos: Exploring Africa's new UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Asmara, Eritrea —  
Asmara's architecture was influenced by an Italian movement known as Futurism. Prisons, cafes and cinemas, like The Impero Cinema, drew from the modernist ideas creating a unique architectural landscape. Eritreans are proud of this heritage. In 2001 the Cultural Assets Rehabilitation Project started to document the city's buildings.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
Located in northern South Africa, on the border with Botswana and Namibia, is a large terrain which has evidence of human occupation from the Stone Age to the present day. The area is home to the Khomani San people who are known for their unique cultural practices arisen from the geography of the region.
Photos: Exploring Africa's new UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Khomani Cultural Landscape —  
Located in northern South Africa, on the border with Botswana and Namibia, is a large terrain which has evidence of human occupation from the Stone Age to the present day. The area is home to the Khomani San people who are known for their unique cultural practices arisen from the geography of the region.
PHOTO: Courtesy: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
The landscape is on the border of Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (KPNG). Many of the Khomani San groups were forcibly removed from their ancestral land in 2002 by neighboring Botswana
Photos: Exploring Africa's new UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Khomani Cultural Landscape —  
The landscape is on the border of Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (KPNG). Many of the Khomani San groups were forcibly removed from their ancestral land in 2002 by neighboring Botswana's government to make way for diamond mining, threatened their nomadic way of life.
PHOTO: Courtesy: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
In 2006, Khomani San groups won an historic ruling against the government allowing them to return to their ancestral land. Many decided to stay in settlements surrounding the land, as there was a lack of direct water.
Photos: Exploring Africa's new UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Khomani Cultural Landscape —  
In 2006, Khomani San groups won an historic ruling against the government allowing them to return to their ancestral land. Many decided to stay in settlements surrounding the land, as there was a lack of direct water.
PHOTO: Courtesy: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
Mbanza Kongo is a town in northern Angola. It was also the capital of the former Kingdom of Kongo, which -- between the 14th and 19th centuries -- was a kingdom that stretched over much of Southern Africa.
Photos: Exploring Africa's new UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Mbanza Kongo, Angola —  
Mbanza Kongo is a town in northern Angola. It was also the capital of the former Kingdom of Kongo, which -- between the 14th and 19th centuries -- was a kingdom that stretched over much of Southern Africa.
PHOTO: Courtesy: Joost De Raeymaeker/Nomination file/Joost De Raeymaeker
The town sits on plateau at an altitude of 1,870 feet. It was the political as well as spiritual center for the Kingdom of Kongo, heavily influenced by the introduction of Christianity by the Portuguese in the 15th century.
Photos: Exploring Africa's new UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Mbanza Kongo, Angola —  
The town sits on plateau at an altitude of 1,870 feet. It was the political as well as spiritual center for the Kingdom of Kongo, heavily influenced by the introduction of Christianity by the Portuguese in the 15th century.
PHOTO: Courtesy: Joost De Raeymaeker/Nomination file/Joost De Raeymaeker
An Nzo is a typical house of Mbanza Kongo. The Portuguese also built stone buildings. The town is known for its ruins of a 16th century cathedral.
Photos: Exploring Africa's new UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Mbanza Kongo, Angola —  
An Nzo is a typical house of Mbanza Kongo. The Portuguese also built stone buildings. The town is known for its ruins of a 16th century cathedral.
PHOTO: Courtesy: Joost De Raeymaeker/Nomination file/Joost De Raeymaeker
Not strictly African, but the city of Rio de Janeiro, and the country of Brazil, have inextricable ties to the continent due to the history of slavery. The Valongo Wharf is one of the most significant physical traces of this legacy, being the arrival point for 900,000 enslaved Africans in the early 19th century.
Photos: Exploring Africa's new UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site —  
Not strictly African, but the city of Rio de Janeiro, and the country of Brazil, have inextricable ties to the continent due to the history of slavery. The Valongo Wharf is one of the most significant physical traces of this legacy, being the arrival point for 900,000 enslaved Africans in the early 19th century.
PHOTO: Courtesy: Milton Guran/Nomination file
(CNN) —  
A picture shows the ancient Roman theatre of Sabratha, 90 kms west of the Libyan capital Tripoli, September 29, 2011. AFP PHOTO/PATRICK BAZ (Photo credit should read PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images)
A picture shows the ancient Roman theatre of Sabratha, 90 kms west of the Libyan capital Tripoli, September 29, 2011. AFP PHOTO/PATRICK BAZ (Photo credit should read PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images)
PHOTO: PATRICK BAZ/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

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For the amount of cultural, scientific and historic sites in Africa, it’s a continent underrepresented on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This year’s intake does little to buck the trend, but it does at least include the recognition of three fascinating locations.

Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, Khomani Cultural Landscape in South Africa, and Mbanza Kongo in Angola have all been added. Another site of African interest, Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site in Rio de Janeiro – an important physical legacy of the transatlantic slave trade – is also present.

Africa now has 138 designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. For a site to be chosen it has to be considered a place of universal value and meet one of 10 criteria. This includes outstanding human settlements, architecture and natural beauty, among others.

At the 41st annual World Heritage Committee session in Krakow, Poland, UNESCO voted to add 21 locations, bringing the global total to 1,073.

Eritrea
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
Eritrea's capital, Asmara, has weathered colonialism and decades of war, and emerged an independent nation with one of the world's best preserved collections of Futurist and Modernist architecture.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
Asmara
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
Asmara's bounty of Modernist buildings is due in part to the influence of Italian architects, who took a 1913 city plan and created a Futurist playground during the 1930s.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
Futurism, which held up modern technology and rejected the past, was a concept created in the beginning of the twentieth century, but later fell out of favor with Italy
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
Futurism, which held up modern technology and rejected the past, was a concept created in the beginning of the twentieth century, but later fell out of favor with Italy's fascist government. As a result, some architects could experiment with Futurist ideas only on the fringes of the Italian colonial project.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
Though some cities have sections that have been given over to Modernist architecture, Asmara is rare in that it has been designed in its entirety as a Modernist creation.
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
Though some cities have sections that have been given over to Modernist architecture, Asmara is rare in that it has been designed in its entirety as a Modernist creation.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
The most famous building in the city is the Fiat Tagliero, a car service station. Its shape is evocative of an airplane -- a typical Futurist motif. Though not in current use, the building is in good working order after having been renovated in the early 2000s.
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
The most famous building in the city is the Fiat Tagliero, a car service station. Its shape is evocative of an airplane -- a typical Futurist motif. Though not in current use, the building is in good working order after having been renovated in the early 2000s.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
A "uniquely protracted" post-colonial situation prevented Eritreans from resenting their colonial heritage, argues Edward Dension, a lecturer at the Bartlett School of Art. He suggests that this is due in part to the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
A "uniquely protracted" post-colonial situation prevented Eritreans from resenting their colonial heritage, argues Edward Dension, a lecturer at the Bartlett School of Art. He suggests that this is due in part to the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
Today Eritreans are proud of their Modernist heritage, and Dension, working under Medhanie Teklemariam at the Asmara Heritage Project, is bidding for the city to become the nation
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
Today Eritreans are proud of their Modernist heritage, and Dension, working under Medhanie Teklemariam at the Asmara Heritage Project, is bidding for the city to become the nation's first UNESCO World Heritage site.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
The heritage movement started in 1996 in an unlikely way: through ex-prison inmates who petitioned against the demolition of their onetime detention center, Caserma Mussolini.
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
The heritage movement started in 1996 in an unlikely way: through ex-prison inmates who petitioned against the demolition of their onetime detention center, Caserma Mussolini.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
In 2001 the Cultural Assets Rehabilitation Project was instigated. Funded by the World Bank, it began documenting the city
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
In 2001 the Cultural Assets Rehabilitation Project was instigated. Funded by the World Bank, it began documenting the city's rich heritage, unknown to most of the world due to Eritrea's turbulent and secluded past.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
The initiative was succeeded by the Asmara Heritage Project, which submitted it
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
The initiative was succeeded by the Asmara Heritage Project, which submitted it's application to UNESCO on February 1. It will be 18 months before the team behind the bid finds out if they were successful.
PHOTO: Edward Denison
"Africa is underrepresented on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and also in Modernist history," Dension argues, suggesting that "Asmara
Photos: Eritrea's Modernist playground
"Africa is underrepresented on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and also in Modernist history," Dension argues, suggesting that "Asmara's bid is just one of many that will increasingly try to redress this imbalance."
PHOTO: Edward Denison

A few countries, like Somalia, are unable to receive World Heritage status for any potential sites having not ratified the 1972 World Heritage Convention. (Although the East African nation did register its intentions to do so in 2016.)

Asmara’s inclusion on the list makes it Eritrea’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was recognized for its futurist and modernist architecture, a product of the era of Italian colonial rule.

Angola’s was also awarded its first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mbanza Kongo is a town in the north of the country and is the former capital of Kingdom of Kongo, which ruled much of Southern Africa from the 14th to the 19th centuries. South Africa now has nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites.