Unesco has added 25 places to its list of World Heritage Sites, including one in South Africa.
The inclusion of the !Xam Khomani Heartland, in the Northern Cape, brings to nine the number of sites in SA that Unesco regards as places of "outstanding universal value".
The World Heritage Committee met last week in Krakow, Poland, to consider 35 nominees, put forward by their own countries.
"The Heartland" is made up of two areas, one south of Upington, which was home to the now-vanished !Xam, a clan of the San; and another north of Upington, which is still home to the Khomani, thought to be the last surviving indigenous San community in SA.
Unesco said: "The !Xam area, in a unique way, links the memory of a vanished people to the meaning of Southern African rock art. It is a unique memorial to lost pre-colonial cultures in Africa."
The rest of the new arrivals include some other fascinating places:
1) Okinoshima, Japan - The sacred Japanese island has been worshipped for its kami (divine being) for centuries and houses tens of thousands of artifacts from across the world, kept on the island as ritual offerings. Sadly, access is prohibited to all except Shinto priests - which means no civilians and no women.
2) The Lake District, UK - This is a region and a national park in northwest England, famed for its glacial ribbon lakes and rugged mountains. It is home to England's largest natural lake, Windermere, and highest mountain, Scafell Pike, and is the UK's first national park to win world heritage status.
Unesco said its valleys had been carved by glaciers in the Ice Age, and then later shaped by agriculture. "The combined work of nature and human activity has produced a harmonious landscape", which had inspired great poets and writers, and which had been further beautified with "grand houses, gardens and parks".3) Asmara, Eritrea - Eritrea's capital is sometimes called "Africa's Miami" because of its many Art Deco buildings, built when it was an Italian colony and a drawcard for Italian architects who could try out their boldest ideas there.
Unesco said: "It is an exceptional example of early modernist urbanism at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context."4) Mbanza Kongo, Vestiges of the Capital of the former Kingdom of Kongo, Angola - Mbanza Kongo was the political and spiritual capital of the Kingdom of Kongo, one of the largest constituted states in Southern Africa, from the 14th to the 19th centuries.
It is Angola's oldest urban centre and the capital of its Zaire province.
Unesco said, "Mbanza Kongo illustrates, more than anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, the profound changes caused by the introduction of Christianity and the arrival of the Portuguese into Central Africa".
5) The Old Town of Hebron al-Khalil, Palestine - Unesco noted this West Bank town's claim to be one of the oldest cities in the world, dating from more than 3,000 years BC and at various times conquered by Jews, Romans, Crusaders and Mamluks. It has a holy site known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi mosque and Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
The decision to add it to the list - and the UN's recognition of Hebron as a Palestinian area - has been controversial, with Israeli officials saying the vote negated the deep Jewish ties to the biblical town and its ancient shrine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "delusional decision"...