Park of China
Cultural 103Natural 49Mixed 6
Africa has 158 World Heritage Sites (103 cultural, 49 natural, 6 mixed). Below are its 158 sites in 48 countries. Hover over or tap a dot to see its name; click a name in the list to show it on the map. Listed by year of inscription.
- Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela are 11 medieval monolithic churches cut from rock in a mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia, near a traditional village of round dwellings. Lalibela, the 13th-century 'New Jerusalem', is a high place of Ethiopian Christianity and still a place of pilgrimage and devotion.
- Island of Gorée The island of Gorée lies off Dakar, Senegal. From the 15th to the 19th century it was the largest slave-trading centre on the African coast, held in turn by Portuguese, Dutch, British and French. Its surviving buildings, including the slave house, serve as a place of remembrance.
- Simien National Park Simien National Park, on the northern Ethiopian plateau, has a landscape of jagged peaks, deep valleys and precipices dropping some 1,500 m, created by massive erosion. It is home to rare animals such as the gelada baboon, the Simien fox and the walia ibex, found nowhere else.
- Fasil Ghebbi, Gondar Region Fasil Ghebbi, in Gondar, was the fortress-city residence of the Ethiopian emperor Fasilides and his successors in the 16th and 17th centuries. Within a wall about 900 m long are palaces, churches, monasteries and unique public and private buildings, showing Hindu and Arab influences later transformed by the Baroque style brought by Jesuit missionaries.
- Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions Along the coast of Ghana between Keta and Beyin stand the remains of fortified trading posts erected between 1482 and 1786. They were links in the trade routes the Portuguese established in many parts of the world during their era of maritime exploration.
- Medina of Tunis The Medina of Tunis is the historic core of the Tunisian capital. Under the Almohads and Hafsids, from the 12th to the 16th century, Tunis was one of the greatest and wealthiest cities of the Islamic world, and about 700 monuments remain, including palaces, mosques, mausoleums and madrasas.
- Archaeological Site of Carthage The Archaeological Site of Carthage lies on the Gulf of Tunis, on the edge of present-day Tunis. Founded in the 9th century BC, Carthage became from the 6th century BC a trading empire across much of the Mediterranean, and was later destroyed and rebuilt by Rome. The site includes its harbours, cemeteries and Roman-era buildings.
- Amphitheatre of El Jem The Amphitheatre of El Jem, in the town of El Jem in central Tunisia, was built in the 3rd century and is the largest Roman amphitheatre in North Africa, holding up to 35,000 spectators. It illustrates the reach of Roman power in the province.
- Ngorongoro Conservation Area Ngorongoro Conservation Area, in northern Tanzania, spans highland plains, savannah and forest and is known for its huge volcanic caldera. It was set up as a multiple land-use area in which wildlife coexists with semi-nomadic Maasai herders, and it also holds important early human sites.
- Virunga National Park Virunga National Park, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, covers about 790,000 ha and ranges from swamps and lava plains to the snowfields of the Rwenzori above 5,000 m. It is home to mountain gorillas and large numbers of hippopotamuses, and hosts migratory birds from Siberia in winter.
- Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur Memphis, capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, is surrounded by funerary monuments including rock tombs, ornate mastabas, temples and pyramids, stretching from Giza to Dahshur. In ancient times the site was counted among the Seven Wonders of the World.
- Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis Thebes, city of the god Amon, was the capital of Egypt in the Middle and New Kingdoms, on the Nile in the south of the country. The temples and palaces of Karnak and Luxor and the necropolises of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens testify to Egyptian civilisation at its height.
- Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae The Nubian Monuments lie along the Nile in southern Egypt and include the Temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel and the Sanctuary of Isis at Philae. They were saved from rising Nile waters by the International Campaign launched by UNESCO from 1960 to 1980.
- Historic Cairo Historic Cairo, set within the modern city, is one of the world's oldest Islamic cities, with famous mosques, madrasas, hammams and fountains. Founded in the 10th century, it became the new centre of the Islamic world and reached its golden age in the 14th century.
- Abu Mena Abu Mena, in the desert west of Alexandria in Egypt, is an early Christian holy city. Its church, baptistery, basilicas, public buildings, streets, monasteries, houses and workshops were built over the tomb of the martyr Menas of Alexandria, who died in AD 296.
- Lower Valley of the Awash The Lower Valley of the Awash, in eastern Ethiopia, has one of the most important groups of palaeontological sites in Africa, the oldest remains dating back at least 4 million years. The 1974 discovery of 52 fragments of the skeleton of 'Lucy' changed ideas about the history of human evolution.
- Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad, in the mountains of northern Algeria, is the ruined first capital of the Hammadid emirs, founded in 1007 and demolished in 1152. It gives an authentic picture of a fortified Muslim city; its mosque, with a 13-aisle prayer hall, is one of the largest in Algeria.
- Tiya Tiya, south of Addis Ababa in the Soddo region of Ethiopia, is among the most important of about 160 archaeological sites found there. It has 36 monuments, including 32 carved stelae covered with symbols, most of them difficult to decipher; the culture's age is not yet precisely determined.
- Garamba National Park Garamba National Park lies in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the transition zone between Guineo-Congolian forest and Sudanian savanna. Grasslands, wooded savanna, gallery forest, rivers and marshes make up a mosaic still shaped by fire, grazing animals and seasonal flooding.
- Kahuzi-Biega National Park Kahuzi-Biega National Park is in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, centred on the extinct volcanoes Kahuzi and Biega and covered by primary tropical forest. It protects one of the last populations of eastern lowland gorillas, living at 2,100 to 2,400 m.
- Aksum Aksum, in northern Ethiopia near the border with Eritrea, was the heart of ancient Ethiopia, when the Kingdom of Aksum was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia. The ruins, dating from the 1st to the 13th century AD, include monolithic obelisks, giant stelae, royal tombs and castle ruins, and Ethiopian emperors continued to be crowned there after its political decline.
- Lower Valley of the Omo The Lower Valley of the Omo, near Lake Turkana in south-western Ethiopia, is a prehistoric site renowned worldwide. Its many fossils, especially of early Homo, have been fundamental to the study of human evolution.
- Asante Traditional Buildings The Asante Traditional Buildings, north-east of Kumasi in Ghana, are the last material remains of the great Asante civilisation, which reached its height in the 18th century. Built of earth, wood and straw, they are vulnerable to time and weather.
- Ichkeul National Park Ichkeul National Park, in northern Tunisia, centres on a lake and wetland that is a major stopover for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds such as ducks, geese, storks and flamingos. It is the last remaining lake in a chain that once stretched across North Africa.
- Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara The ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara lie on two small islands off the coast of southern Tanzania and belong to two great East African ports. From the 13th to the 16th century Kilwa's merchants traded in gold, silver, pearls, spices and porcelain.
- Niokolo-Koba National Park Niokolo-Koba National Park lies along the Gambia River in south-eastern Senegal, with gallery forests and savannahs. It has a rich fauna including the Derby eland, the largest of the antelopes, and chimpanzees.
- Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve lies on the border of Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire (the massif extends into Liberia); the mountain rises above surrounding savanna, with dense forest at its foot and grassy pastures above. It has rich flora and fauna, including the endemic viviparous toad and chimpanzees that use stones as tools.
- Serengeti National Park Serengeti National Park, in northern Tanzania, comprises 1.5 million ha of savannah. The annual migration of vast herds of wildebeest, gazelles and zebras, followed by their predators, is one of the largest land-animal movements in the world.
- Medina of Fez The medina of Fez, in northern Morocco, was founded in the 9th century and reached its height in the 13th and 14th centuries under the Marinids, when it replaced Marrakesh as capital. Its madrasas, fondouks, palaces and mosques preserve the character of a medieval Islamic city, and it is one of the world's largest car-free urban areas.
- Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary is a 16,000-hectare wetland in the Senegal River delta, with a large lake, streams and ponds. Some 1.5 million birds, including white pelicans, spend time here during migration and winter.
- Tassili n'Ajjer Tassili n'Ajjer, in the Algerian Sahara, has an unusual landscape of eroded sandstone forming 'forests of rock'. It holds one of the world's most important groups of prehistoric rock art, over 15,000 drawings and engravings from 6000 BC to the first centuries AD, recording climate change, animal migrations and the evolution of human life.
- Archaeological Site of Leptis Magna Leptis Magna is a Roman city on the coast of north-western Libya, greatly enlarged by Septimius Severus, who was born there and became emperor. Its public monuments, harbour, market and storehouses are well preserved, making it one of the finest Roman city sites.
- Archaeological Site of Sabratha Sabratha lies on the Mediterranean coast of north-western Libya. It began as a Phoenician trading post, was later Romanised and rebuilt in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Its Roman theatre and public buildings reflect the successive influence of Punic, Numidian and Roman cultures.
- Aldabra Atoll Aldabra Atoll, in Seychelles, consists of four large coral islands enclosing a shallow lagoon and surrounded by a reef. Its isolation has kept human impact low and preserved an intact island ecosystem, including a very large population of giant tortoises.
- M'Zab Valley The M'Zab Valley, on the northern edge of the Algerian Sahara, is a traditional habitat created from the 10th century by the Ibadites around five fortified towns (ksour), and preserved intact. Its architecture is simple, functional and adapted to the environment, designed for community living, and remains a source of inspiration for urban planners.
- Archaeological Site of Cyrene Cyrene, in the Green Mountain region of north-eastern Libya, was founded by Greek colonists from Thera and became one of the principal cities of the Hellenic world. It was later Romanised and remained a great city until the earthquake of 365. Its ruins span about a thousand years of history.
- Djémila Djémila, ancient Cuicul, lies at about 900 m above sea level in the mountains of north-eastern Algeria. Its forum, temples, basilicas, triumphal arches and houses make it an example of Roman town planning adapted to a mountain site.
- Tipasa Tipasa, on the Mediterranean coast of northern Algeria, was a Punic trading post conquered by Rome and made a strategic base for taking the kingdoms of Mauretania. Its Phoenician, Roman, early Christian and Byzantine ruins stand alongside indigenous monuments such as the royal mausoleum of Mauretania.
- Timgad Timgad lies on the northern slopes of the Aurès mountains in north-eastern Algeria. The Emperor Trajan founded it as a military colony in AD 100, on an entirely new site. Its square enclosure and orthogonal plan based on the cardo and decumanus make it an excellent example of Roman town planning.
- Taï National Park Taï National Park, in south-western Côte d'Ivoire, is one of the last large remnants of primary tropical forest in West Africa. Its rich flora and threatened mammals, including the pygmy hippopotamus and 11 species of monkey, are of great scientific interest.
- Selous Game Reserve Selous Game Reserve, in southern Tanzania, covers about 50,000 sq km and is relatively undisturbed by human activity. It supports large numbers of elephants, black rhinoceroses, cheetahs, giraffes, hippopotamuses and crocodiles, across varied vegetation and wetlands.
- Comoé National Park Comoé National Park, in north-eastern Côte d'Ivoire, is one of West Africa's largest protected areas and is known for its plant diversity. The Comoé River allows shrub savanna and patches of dense rainforest to occur here, vegetation normally found much farther south.
- Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve The Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve, on the island of Praslin in Seychelles, preserves a natural palm forest in almost its original state. It is known for the coco de mer, whose seed is the largest of any plant.
- Salonga National Park Salonga National Park, in the central basin of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve. It is remote and mostly reached by water, and shelters endangered species such as the bonobo, Congo peacock, forest elephant and slender-snouted crocodile.
- Lake Malawi National Park Lake Malawi National Park lies at the southern end of Lake Malawi, with deep clear water and a mountain backdrop. It is home to many hundreds of fish species, nearly all endemic, and its importance for the study of evolution is comparable to that of the finches of the Galápagos Islands.
- Mana Pools National Park, Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas Mana Pools National Park, Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas lie on the south bank of the Zambezi in northern Zimbabwe, where cliffs overhang the river and floodplains. The area has a remarkable concentration of wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, leopards and cheetahs, as well as many crocodiles and birds.
- Rock-Art Sites of Tadrart Acacus The Tadrart Acacus massif lies in the Sahara of south-western Libya, next to Tassili N'Ajjer in Algeria. Its rock faces carry thousands of cave paintings in varied styles, dating from 12,000 BC to AD 100, which record changes in fauna and flora and in the way of life of the people who lived there.
- Royal Palaces of Abomey The Royal Palaces of Abomey in Benin were the seat of 12 successive kings of the powerful Kingdom of Abomey between 1625 and 1900. Apart from King Akaba, who had a separate enclosure, all built their palaces within one cob-walled area, following earlier palaces in use of space and materials. They are a unique reminder of the vanished kingdom.
- Medina of Marrakesh The medina of Marrakesh in central Morocco was founded in 1070–72 by the Almoravids and long remained a political, economic and cultural centre, with influence from North Africa to Andalusia. It keeps important monuments including the Koutoubia Mosque, the ramparts and gates, and historic palaces.
- Punic Town of Kerkuane and its Necropolis Kerkuane, on the Cap Bon peninsula in Tunisia, is a Phoenician-Punic city probably abandoned during the First Punic War around 250 BC and not rebuilt by the Romans. It is the only surviving example of a Phoenicio-Punic city, with its streets, houses and necropolis.
- Old Town of Ghadamès Ghadamès is an old oasis town on the edge of the Sahara in western Libya, known as the pearl of the desert and one of the oldest pre-Saharan cities. Its traditional houses are divided vertically by function, from storage on the ground floor to living rooms and a roof terrace, an arrangement suited to the desert climate.
- Great Zimbabwe National Monument The ruins of Great Zimbabwe, in southern Zimbabwe, are a unique testimony to the Bantu civilization of the Shona between the 11th and 15th centuries. The extensive stone city includes massive walls, and the country takes its name from the site.
- Khami Ruins National Monument Khami, in south-western Zimbabwe, developed after the capital of Great Zimbabwe was abandoned in the mid-16th century. Objects from Europe and China found there show it was a major trading centre, and its stone-walled platforms are distinctive.
- Kilimanjaro National Park Kilimanjaro, in north-eastern Tanzania, rises to 5,895 m and is the highest point in Africa. This volcanic massif stands alone above the surrounding plains with a snow-capped summit, and its slopes pass through forest, moorland and alpine zones.
- Dja Faunal Reserve The Dja Faunal Reserve, in southern Cameroon, is one of Africa's largest and best-protected rainforests, with about 90% of its area undisturbed. The Dja River almost completely encircles it as a natural boundary. It is noted for biodiversity and especially for its primates, among 107 mammal species.
- Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou Ait-Ben-Haddou, in Ouarzazate province in southern Morocco, is a ksar, a group of earthen buildings crowded together within high walls reinforced by corner towers. It is a striking example of the traditional pre-Saharan settlement.
- Old Towns of Djenné The Old Towns of Djenné lie in the inner Niger delta of central Mali, inhabited since 250 BC. Djenné became a market centre and a link in the trans-Saharan gold trade, and a centre for the spread of Islam. Nearly 2,000 traditional earthen houses survive.
- Timbuktu Timbuktu, in northern Mali on the southern edge of the Sahara, was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a centre for the spread of Islam across Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, home to Sankore University and other madrasas. Its three great mosques, Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia, recall that golden age.
- Manovo-Gounda St Floris National Park Manovo-Gounda St Floris National Park is in northern Central African Republic and is made up of vast savannas and northern floodplains. It supports black rhinoceros, elephants, cheetahs, leopards, wild dogs and buffalo, along with many waterfowl.
- Medina of Sousse The Medina of Sousse, on Tunisia's east coast, was an important commercial and military port in the Aghlabid period (800 to 909) and is a typical early Islamic town. It retains its kasbah, ramparts, Great Mosque and ribat.
- Kairouan Kairouan, in central Tunisia, was founded in 670 and flourished under the Aghlabids in the 9th century. After the political capital moved to Tunis in the 12th century it remained the principal holy city of the Maghreb, with its Great Mosque and other religious buildings.
- Banc d'Arguin National Park Banc d'Arguin National Park lies on the Atlantic coast of Mauritania and consists of sand dunes, coastal swamps, small islands and shallow waters. The contrast between desert and sea supports rich biodiversity, and the park is a wintering and breeding area for large numbers of migratory waterbirds.
- Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls lies on the Zambezi River on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. There the river, more than 2 km wide, plunges into a series of basalt gorges, raising a mist visible from far away; it is among the largest waterfalls in the world.
- Cliff of Bandiagara (Land of the Dogons) The Cliff of Bandiagara in central Mali is a landscape of cliffs and sandy plateaux, the homeland of the Dogon people. It contains houses, granaries, altars, sanctuaries and communal meeting places, and living traditions such as masks and festivals.
- Andrefana Dry Forests The Andrefana Dry Forests are a group of protected areas in western Madagascar, with karst landscapes, limestone 'tsingy' pinnacles, the Manambolo river canyon, rolling hills and high peaks. Their forests and wetlands shelter many endemic plants and animals.
- Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves The Aïr and Ténéré Natural Reserves, in northern Niger, cover some 7.7 million ha and form the largest protected area in Africa. They include the volcanic Aïr massif and the surrounding desert, with a range of Saharan wildlife including rare antelopes and a small cheetah population.
- Island of Mozambique Mozambique Island, off the north-eastern coast of Mozambique, holds a fortified city that was a Portuguese trading post on the route to India. Since the 16th century the same building techniques and materials have been used consistently, giving the town a remarkable architectural unity.
- Kasbah of Algiers The Kasbah of Algiers is a distinctive kind of medina, on a fine coastal site overlooking islands where a Carthaginian trading post was set up in the 4th century BC. It has the remains of a citadel, old mosques and Ottoman-style palaces, and a traditional urban structure tied to a strong sense of community.
- Bwindi Impenetrable National Park Bwindi Impenetrable National Park lies in south-western Uganda where lowland and montane forest meet, covering 32,000 ha. It has more than 160 tree species and exceptional biodiversity, and is a key refuge of the mountain gorilla.
- Rwenzori Mountains National Park Rwenzori Mountains National Park covers nearly 100,000 ha in western Uganda and includes most of the Rwenzori range, whose Mount Margherita, at 5,109 m, is Africa's third highest peak. It has glaciers, lakes and distinctive vegetation zones.
- Okapi Wildlife Reserve The Okapi Wildlife Reserve covers about one-fifth of the Ituri forest in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, within the Congo River basin. It holds threatened primates and birds and a large share of the world's wild okapi, and is home to the Mbuti and Efe, traditional forest hunters.
- W-Arly-Pendjari Complex The W-Arly-Pendjari Complex spans Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger and extends Niger's W National Park into the other two countries. It covers a large intact area of Sudano-Sahelian savannah, from grassland and shrubland to woodland and gallery forest, and is the largest continuum of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the West African savannah belt. It is a refuge for wildlife that has disappeared or is threatened elsewhere in West Africa.
- Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata are four ancient towns in Mauritania, founded in the 11th and 12th centuries as trading and religious centres serving the Saharan caravans. They preserve an urban fabric that developed between the 12th and 16th centuries and were focal points of Islamic culture.
- Historic City of Meknes Meknes, in northern Morocco, was founded in the 11th century by the Almoravids as a military settlement and became the capital under Sultan Moulay Ismaïl (1672–1727). He turned it into a city in Spanish-Moorish style surrounded by high walls, with palaces, monumental gates and storehouses.
- Dougga / Thugga Dougga, in northern Tunisia, stands on high ground above a fertile plain. Before the Roman annexation of Numidia, Thugga was the capital of an important Libyco-Punic state; it flourished under Roman and Byzantine rule and keeps temples, a theatre and baths among the best-preserved Roman small-town remains in North Africa.
- Mount Kenya National Park/Natural Forest Mount Kenya, in central Kenya, is Africa's second highest peak at 5,199 m. It is an extinct volcano with glaciers on its summits and forest on its slopes. It is inscribed for its glacial landforms, its altitudinal zonation of vegetation and its distinctive Afro-alpine ecosystems.
- Lake Turkana National Parks Lake Turkana, in northern Kenya, is the most saline of Africa's large lakes, and its three national parks cover parts of the shore and islands. The lakes serve as a stopover for migratory waterfowl and a breeding ground for Nile crocodiles and hippopotamuses, while the Koobi Fora deposits have yielded many fossils of mammals and human ancestors.
- Archaeological Site of Volubilis Volubilis, in a fertile farming area of northern Morocco, was a Mauritanian capital founded in the 3rd century BC and later an important outpost of the Roman Empire. Extensive remains survive, including a triumphal arch, temples and mosaics.
- Medina of Tétouan (formerly known as Titawin) Tétouan, in northern Morocco, was from the 8th century the main point of contact between Morocco and Andalusia. After the Reconquest the town was rebuilt by Andalusian refugees, and its medina preserves Andalusian-style quarters and architecture.
- iSimangaliso Wetland Park – Maputo National Park The iSimangaliso Wetland Park – Maputo National Park is a transboundary property along the border of South Africa and Mozambique, with a wide variety of ecosystems including coral reefs, sandy beaches, coastal dunes, freshwater lakes, swamps, mangroves and seagrass beds. It supports a rich range of marine and terrestrial wildlife.
- Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa The Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa, in the north and north-west of the country, include Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, Makapan Valley and Taung. The Taung Skull, a specimen of Australopithecus africanus, was found at Taung in 1924, and the sites yield abundant evidence of human evolution.
- Robben Island Robben Island lies off Cape Town in Table Bay and was used between the 17th and 20th centuries as a prison, a hospital for socially unacceptable groups and a military base. Its prison held political prisoners of the apartheid era, including Nelson Mandela, and symbolises the triumph of democracy and freedom over oppression.
- Sukur Cultural Landscape The Sukur Cultural Landscape in north-eastern Nigeria has the Palace of the Hidi, the chief, on a hill above the villages, terraced fields with sacred symbols and the remains of a former iron industry. It is a remarkably intact expression of a traditional society and its landscape.
- Stone Town of Zanzibar The Stone Town of Zanzibar, in Tanzania, is a fine example of a Swahili coastal trading town of East Africa. Its urban fabric and townscape remain largely intact, and its buildings reflect African, Arab, Indian and European influences.
- Island of Saint-Louis The island of Saint-Louis lies at the mouth of the Senegal River. Founded as a French settlement in the 17th century, it was Senegal's capital from 1872 to 1957. Its regular street plan, quays and colonial architecture reflect its cultural and economic role in West Africa.
- Maloti-Drakensberg Park Maloti-Drakensberg Park straddles the border of South Africa and Lesotho and combines uKhahlamba Drakensberg National Park and Sehlathebe National Park. It is recognised for its steep basalt cliffs, rich biodiversity and the many rock paintings left by the San people.
- Tsodilo Tsodilo, in the Kalahari Desert of north-western Botswana, has one of the highest concentrations of rock art in the world, with over 4,500 paintings in an area of only 10 km², and has been called the Louvre of the Desert. Its archaeological record spans at least 100,000 years of human activity and environmental change, and local communities treat it as a place of worship frequented by ancestral spirits.
- Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi The Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi cover about 30 ha of hillside in Kampala, Uganda. At the hilltop core stands a former royal palace converted into a tomb, and the site remains a spiritual and cultural centre of the Buganda kingdom, showing traditional architecture and belief.
- Lamu Old Town Lamu Old Town, on Lamu island off Kenya's north-east coast, is the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa and keeps its traditional functions. Built of coral stone and mangrove timber, it has simple forms enriched by inner courtyards, verandas and elaborately carved wooden doors, and has hosted major Muslim religious festivals since the 19th century.
- Medina of Essaouira (formerly Mogador) The medina of Essaouira (formerly Mogador) on Morocco's Atlantic coast is a late 18th-century fortified town laid out on contemporary European military principles. Since its foundation it has been a major international trading port, linking the Saharan caravan routes with Europe and the wider world.
- Royal Hill of Ambohimanga The Royal Hill of Ambohimanga, north-east of Antananarivo in Madagascar, comprises a royal city, a burial site and a group of sacred places. It has kept its spiritual role in ritual practice and is a symbol of Malagasy national identity.
- Saint Catherine Area The Saint Catherine Area is in the south of the Sinai Peninsula. The Orthodox Monastery of St Catherine stands at the foot of Mount Horeb, where the Old Testament records that Moses received the Tablets of the Law, and which Muslims call Jebel Musa. Founded in the 6th century, it is the oldest Christian monastery still used for its original function and holds outstanding early manuscripts and icons.
- Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region are five archaeological sites stretching over more than 60 km of the Nile valley in northern Sudan. They bear witness to the Napatan (900 to 270 BC) and Meroitic cultures of the second kingdom of Kush, with temples, palaces and tombs.
- Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape Mapungubwe is set against South Africa's northern border at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers, adjoining Zimbabwe and Botswana, in an open savannah landscape. Between about 900 and 1300 it developed into the centre of an important kingdom in southern Africa before being abandoned.
- Matobo Hills Matobo Hills, in south-western Zimbabwe, are distinctive rock landforms and boulders rising above the granite shield. Their natural shelters have been occupied since prehistoric times and hold many rock paintings, and the hills remain a place of religious practice.
- Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites Kunta Kinteh Island, formerly James Island, and related sites on the River Gambia testify to the main periods of the encounter between Africa and Europe, from pre-colonial and pre-slavery times to independence. They are particularly significant for their link to the beginning of the slave trade and its abolition, and document early European access to the interior of Africa.
- Cape Floral Region Protected Areas The Cape Floral Region Protected Areas lie at the south-western tip of South Africa and are among the world's great centres of terrestrial biodiversity. The property is made up of several protected areas dominated by fynbos shrubland, with an exceptionally rich and largely endemic flora.
- Portuguese City of Mazagan (El Jadida) Mazagan, now part of El Jadida on Morocco's Atlantic coast about 90 km south-west of Casablanca, was built by the Portuguese in the early 16th century as a fortified colony and passed to Morocco in 1769. Its ramparts, bastions and cistern are well preserved and show the exchange between Portuguese and Moroccan cultures.
- Tomb of Askia The Tomb of Askia, in Gao in eastern Mali, is a 17 m pyramidal structure built in 1495 by Askia Mohamed, emperor of Songhai. It testifies to the power and wealth of the empire that flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries through its control of trans-Saharan trade.
- Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba Koutammakou, in north-eastern Togo and neighbouring Benin, is the homeland of the Batammariba, known for their mud tower-houses called takienta. The buildings reflect the social structure, and villages also include ceremonial spaces, springs, sacred rocks and initiation sites, linking nature closely to ritual and belief.
- Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, on the outskirts of Osogbo in south-western Nigeria, is one of the last remnants of primary high forest in southern Nigeria. Regarded as the abode of the Yoruba fertility goddess Osun, it contains shrines, sculptures and artworks and remains a living sacred place.
- Vredefort Dome Vredefort Dome, about 120 km south-west of Johannesburg, is a representative part of a much larger meteorite impact structure. Dating back 2,023 million years, it is among the oldest known impact structures on Earth and one of the largest.
- Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley) Wadi Al-Hitan, Whale Valley, in Egypt's Western Desert, holds abundant fossils of the Archaeoceti, the earliest and now extinct suborder of whales. They document a major evolutionary story, the whale's transition from a land animal to an ocean-going mammal, with fossils of exceptional number, concentration and quality.
- Kondoa Rock-Art Sites The Kondoa Rock-Art Sites lie on the eastern slopes of the Masai escarpment beside the Great Rift Valley in central Tanzania, where natural rock shelters and rock faces were painted over some two thousand years. They reflect the lives and beliefs of hunter-gatherers and later peoples.
- Harar Jugol, the Fortified Historic Town The fortified historic town of Harar stands on a plateau in eastern Ethiopia, surrounded by desert and savanna. Its walls were built between the 13th and 16th centuries, and the town has 82 mosques, three dating from the 10th century, and 102 shrines. Its townhouses, with exceptional interior design, show the impact of African and Islamic traditions.
- Stone Circles of Senegambia The Stone Circles of Senegambia are four large groups, Sine Ngayène, Wanar, Wassu and Kerbatch, in a band 100 km wide along some 350 km of the River Gambia, in Gambia and Senegal. They include 93 stone circles and numerous burial mounds, part of a concentration of over 1,000 monuments dating from roughly the 3rd century BC to the 16th century AD.
- Aapravasi Ghat Aapravasi Ghat is a 1,640 m² site in Port Louis, Mauritius. In 1834 the British government chose Mauritius for its 'great experiment' in the use of indentured labour, and this site marks the beginning of the modern indentured labour diaspora.
- Chongoni Rock-Art Area The Chongoni Rock-Art Area covers 126.4 km² of forested granite hills on the central plateau of Malawi. Its 127 sites form the richest concentration of rock art in Central Africa, painted by hunter-gatherers and later farming communities, and some remain linked to local ritual traditions.
- Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda The Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda, in central Gabon, is an unusual interface between dense, well-conserved tropical rainforest and relict savanna, with great species diversity including endangered large mammals. It illustrates how species and habitats adapted to post-glacial climate change, and it also holds traces of early human settlement.
- Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes Twyfelfontein, or /Ui-//aes, in north-western Namibia, has one of the largest concentrations of rock engravings in Africa, most depicting rhinoceros, elephant, ostrich and giraffe, and is well preserved. The site also includes rock paintings, and reflects the rituals and life of hunter-gatherer communities over thousands of years.
- Rainforests of the Atsinanana The Rainforests of the Atsinanana comprise six national parks along the eastern side of Madagascar. These relict forests are essential for the ecological processes that sustain the island's unique biodiversity, including many endemic species, notably lemurs.
- Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape The Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape is a 160,000-hectare mountainous desert in north-western South Africa, communally owned and managed. It sustains the semi-nomadic pastoral lifestyle of the Nama people and has a remarkable succulent flora.
- Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests The Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests are 10 separate forest sites spread over some 200 km along the Kenyan coast, containing the remains of fortified villages, called kayas, of the Mijikenda people. Created from the 16th century and abandoned by the 1940s, the kayas are now regarded as abodes of ancestors, revered as sacred, and maintained by councils of elders.
- Le Morne Cultural Landscape Le Morne is a rugged mountain jutting into the Indian Ocean in south-western Mauritius. Through the 18th and early 19th centuries it sheltered runaway slaves, the maroons, and has become a symbol of slaves' resistance and quest for freedom, closely tied to their memory and oral traditions.
- Ruins of Loropéni The Ruins of Loropéni, in south-western Burkina Faso near the borders of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo, are the best preserved of ten fortresses in the Lobi area, with imposing stone walls at least 1,000 years old. The settlement was occupied by the Lohron or Koulango peoples, who controlled gold extraction there from the 14th to the 17th century, and bears witness to the trans-Saharan gold trade.
- Cidade Velha, Historic Centre of Ribeira Grande Cidade Velha, formerly Ribeira Grande, in the south of Santiago island in Cabo Verde, was the first European colonial outpost in the tropics. It keeps part of its original street layout, two churches, a royal fortress and Pillory Square with its ornate 16th-century marble pillar.
- Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley The Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley, in Kenya's Rift Valley Province, comprises three inter-linked shallow lakes, Bogoria, Nakuru and Elementaita, covering 32,034 ha. It is home to 13 globally threatened bird species and has some of the highest bird diversity in the world.
- Fort Jesus, Mombasa Fort Jesus stands at Mombasa on Kenya's south-east coast. The Portuguese built it in 1593-1596 to a design by Giovanni Battista Cairati to protect the port, and it is one of the most outstanding and well-preserved examples of 16th-century Portuguese military fortification. Its layout and form reflect the Renaissance ideal of perfect proportions and geometric harmony.
- Konso Cultural Landscape The Konso Cultural Landscape is an arid area of stone-walled terraces and fortified settlements in the Konso highlands of southern Ethiopia. It represents a living tradition stretching back 21 generations, over 400 years, adapted to a dry environment; groups of anthropomorphic wooden statues commemorate respected community members and heroic events.
- Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe The Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe lie in semi-desert between the Nile and Atbara rivers in Sudan, the heartland of the Kingdom of Kush from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. They include a royal city, temples, pyramid cemeteries and traces of industry.
- Saloum Delta The Saloum Delta, in west-central Senegal, covers 5,000 sq km and is formed by the arms of three rivers, with brackish channels, over 200 islands and islets, and mangroves. Fishing and shellfish gathering have long sustained people here, leaving many shell mounds.
- Historic Town of Grand-Bassam Grand-Bassam, on the south-east coast, was the first capital of Côte d'Ivoire. Its late 19th- and early 20th-century plan separates commercial, administrative and residential quarters, with colonial houses with galleries and verandas beside the N'zima fishing village. It reflects the complex relations between Europeans and Africans and the later independence movement.
- Sangha Trinational Sangha Trinational lies in the north-western Congo Basin where Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo meet. Three contiguous national parks totalling about 750,000 ha protect largely undisturbed humid tropical forest, with forest elephants, western lowland gorillas and chimpanzees.
- Lakes of Ounianga The Lakes of Ounianga are eighteen interconnected lakes in the hyper-arid Ennedi region of the Sahara in north-eastern Chad, covering 62,808 ha. Their varied colours and the presence of fresh and saline water in a desert make an exceptional landscape.
- Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage Rabat, the capital of Morocco on the Atlantic coast in the north-west, is inscribed for the new town planned and built in the 20th century together with its historic city and monuments. The site reflects an exchange between Arab-Muslim heritage and Western modernism.
- Bassari Country: Bassari, Fula and Bedik Cultural Landscapes Bassari Country, in south-eastern Senegal, covers the cultural landscapes of the Bassari, Bedik and Fula peoples in three distinct areas. It reflects their farming, ritual and settlement traditions and their long relationship with the upland environment.
- Historic Centre of Agadez Agadez, on the southern edge of the Sahara in northern Niger, is known as the gateway to the desert. It developed in the 15th and 16th centuries when the Sultanate of Aïr was established and Tuareg groups settled in the town. Its historic centre keeps its earthen buildings and the Grand Mosque with its minaret.
- Namib Sand Sea The Namib Sand Sea, on the coast of Namibia, is the only coastal desert in the world with extensive dune fields influenced by fog, covering over three million hectares. It comprises two dune systems, an ancient semi-consolidated one and a younger active one, with distinctive dune forms and ecology.
- Okavango Delta The Okavango Delta in north-west Botswana consists of permanent marshes and seasonally flooded plains. It is one of very few major interior deltas that do not flow into a sea or ocean, and its wetland system is almost intact. The annual flood of the Okavango River comes in the dry season, and native plants and animals have synchronised their cycles with it, an exceptional example of the interaction of climatic, hydrological and biological processes.
- Ennedi Massif: Natural and Cultural Landscape The Ennedi Massif in north-eastern Chad is a sandstone plateau sculpted by wind and water into canyons, cliffs, natural arches and valleys. It holds many rock art sites, important water sources and a continuing pastoral tradition.
- Sanganeb Marine National Park and Dungonab Bay – Mukkawar Island Marine National Park This property in Sudan's Red Sea consists of two areas: Sanganeb, an isolated atoll about 25 km offshore, and Dungonab Bay with Mukkawar Island further north. Coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves make it an important area for marine biodiversity.
- Mbanza Kongo, Vestiges of the Capital of the former Kingdom of Kongo Mbanza Kongo stands on a plateau about 570 m above sea level in northern Angola and was the political and spiritual capital of the Kingdom of Kongo from the 14th to the 19th century. The town grew around the royal residence, customary court, holy tree and royal burial places, and later gained European-style stone buildings after the Portuguese arrived.
- ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape The ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape lies in northern South Africa on the borders with Botswana and Namibia, coinciding with the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. Its expanse of sand holds evidence of the ǂKhomani people and their ancestors and of a long relationship with the desert environment.
- Asmara: A Modernist African City Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, stands above 2,000 m and developed from the 1890s as an Italian military outpost. After 1935 a large construction programme applied the Italian rationalist idiom to government buildings, housing, shops, churches, mosques, cinemas and hotels. The property covers the area planned between 1893 and 1941 and the indigenous neighbourhoods.
- Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site Thimlich Ohinga lies north-west of Migori in the Lake Victoria region of western Kenya. It is a dry-stone walled settlement, probably built in the 16th century, that sheltered people and livestock and reflected lineage-based social organisation. It is the largest and best-preserved of the region's traditional stone enclosures.
- Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains, in north-eastern South Africa, comprise 40% of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, one of the oldest geological structures on Earth. They hold one of the best-preserved successions of volcanic and sedimentary rocks of more than 3 billion years ago, important for studying the early Earth.
- Ancient Ferrous Metallurgy Sites of Burkina Faso This property has five elements in different provinces of Burkina Faso, including about fifteen standing natural-draught furnaces, other furnace structures, mines and traces of dwellings. Douroula, dating to the 8th century BCE, is the oldest evidence of iron production in the country, and the other components show how production intensified during the second millennium CE.
- Sudanese style mosques in northern Côte d’Ivoire Eight mosques in northern Côte d'Ivoire, including those at Tengréla, Kouto and Kong, are built of earth with projecting timber frames, buttresses topped with pottery or ostrich eggs, and truncated pyramidal minarets. They are a regional interpretation of the Sudanese style that developed in Djenné, in present-day Mali.
- Ivindo National Park Ivindo National Park lies on the equator in northern Gabon and covers almost 300,000 ha, largely pristine and crossed by a network of blackwater rivers. Rapids and waterfalls bordered by intact rainforest give it great scenic value, and its aquatic habitats hold endemic freshwater fish, 13 of them threatened.
- Bale Mountains National Park Bale Mountains National Park, in southern Ethiopia, is a landscape shaped by ancient lava flows, glaciation and the dissection of the Great Rift Valley, with volcanic peaks, escarpments, glacial lakes, forests, gorges and waterfalls. It has outstanding biodiversity, and five major rivers rise there, supplying water to millions of people.
- Memorial sites of the Genocide: Nyamata, Murambi, Gisozi and Bisesero These four memorial sites in Rwanda, at Nyamata, Murambi, Gisozi and Bisesero, commemorate the genocide of April to July 1994, in which an estimated one million people were killed, most of them Tutsi. They hold remains and records and serve for remembrance, testimony and education.
- Djerba: Testimony to a settlement pattern in an island territory Djerba, an island in southern Tunisia, is recognised through several settlement and farming areas that show the low-density pattern of living developed from about the 9th century in a semi-dry, water-scarce environment, with villages, mosques, markets and water systems.
- The Gedeo Cultural Landscape The Gedeo Cultural Landscape lies on steep escarpments along the eastern edge of the Main Ethiopian Rift in the south. It is an agroforestry area where large trees shelter enset, the main food crop, with coffee and other shrubs below. The Gedeo people manage the forest by traditional knowledge, with sacred forests used for rituals among the cultivated slopes and clusters of megalithic stelae along the ridges.
- Nyungwe National Park Nyungwe National Park, in south-western Rwanda, is an important rainforest conservation area in Central Africa. Besides intact forest it includes peat bogs, thickets and grasslands, and supports a diverse fauna with many primates and regionally endemic species.
- Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua The Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua, in northern Republic of the Congo, is a very large-scale example of post-glacial forest recolonisation of savanna, where several ecosystem types converge. It is one of the most important strongholds of forest elephants in Central Africa.
- Melka Kunture and Balchit: Archaeological and Palaeontological Sites in the Highland Area of Ethiopia Melka Kunture and Balchit are a cluster of prehistoric sites in the Upper Awash Valley of the Ethiopian highlands, at about 2,000 to 2,200 m. They preserve archaeological and palaeontological records, including footprints, of hominin occupation from two million years ago, with fossils of Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis and archaic Homo sapiens and many stone tools.
- Human Rights, Liberation and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites This serial property consists of fourteen components around South Africa, related to the country's struggle for human rights, liberation and reconciliation, in which the life of Nelson Mandela is central. The sites include places linked to his birth, upbringing, education, work and imprisonment.
- Royal Court of Tiébélé The Royal Court of Tiébélé is an earthen architectural complex of the Kasena people in southern Burkina Faso, established from the 16th century. Within a protective wall, buildings are arranged in separate concessions linked by walls and passageways to ceremonial spaces outside. The huts are built by men and decorated with symbolic motifs by women, who keep the tradition alive.
- The Historic Town and Archaeological Site of Gedi Gedi is an abandoned Swahili town set in coastal forest on the south-eastern coast of Kenya. From the 10th to the 17th century it was among the important cities of the East African coast, and its walled remains show its place in the Indian Ocean network of trade and cultural exchange linking Africa with Persia and beyond.
- The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa This serial property comprises three dispersed Pleistocene occupation sites in South Africa, including coastal caves and rock shelters. It contributes to understanding the origins of behaviourally modern humans, their cognitive abilities and cultures, and the climatic changes they survived.
- Mount Mulanje Cultural Landscape Mount Mulanje in southern Malawi is one of the world's largest inselbergs. Revered as a sacred place inhabited by gods, spirits and ancestors, the mountain and its surroundings form a cultural landscape tied to belief, tradition and the use of local resources.
- Coastal and Marine Ecosystems of the Bijagós Archipelago – Omatí Minhô The property comprises coastal and marine ecosystems in the best-preserved areas of the Bijagós Archipelago in Guinea-Bissau. The archipelago is the only active deltaic archipelago on the African Atlantic coast and one of few in the world, with rich biodiversity including endangered green and leatherback turtles.
- Diy-Gid-Biy Cultural Landscape of the Mandara Mountains The Diy-Gid-Biy Cultural Landscape is in the Mandara Mountains of Cameroon's Far North Region and comprises sixteen archaeological sites across seven villages. The dry-stone structures were probably built between the 12th and 17th centuries by unknown builders, and the terraces, homes, tombs and worship places around them reflect the long cultural and spiritual ties of the Mafa people.
- Gola-Tiwai Complex The Gola-Tiwai Complex in south-eastern Sierra Leone includes Gola Rainforest National Park and the Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary. It lies within the Upper Guinean Forest, a biodiversity hotspot, and shelters many threatened species.
- The Roças of Sao Tome and Principe: Colonial Agricultural System and Forced Migration This property consists of six roças, or Portuguese colonial plantations, on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe: Monte Café, Agua Izé, Diogo Vaz, São João, Sundy and Belo Monte. They illustrate the colonial agricultural system and the forced migration of labour that sustained it.
- The Medinas of the Historic Sultanates of the Comoros The property consists of six historic towns on the Comoros islands, which grew from urban nuclei dating from about the 11th century and became city-states by the 14th and 15th centuries, later serving as the main centres of the sultanates. Their mosques, palaces and narrow streets illustrate the Swahili and Islamic urban tradition of the Indian Ocean.
- Village of Sidi Bou Saïd The village of Sidi Bou Saïd stands on a promontory overlooking the Mediterranean north-east of Tunis, grown up around the tomb of the Sufi saint Sidi Bou Saïd. Its buildings fit the cliff topography, and white walls with blue doors and shutters are characteristic.
- Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape The Boma–Badingilo Migratory Landscape in South Sudan includes Boma and Badingilo National Parks and the surrounding floodplains and savannah, at the meeting point of the Sudd wetlands and the East Sudanian Savannah. It is the setting for one of Africa's large annual migrations of ungulates.