Bestselling guide to all 981 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Fully updated to include the latest sites added to the World Heritage List in June 2013. The List is managed by the World Heritage Committee and each site is judged under strict criteria - only the world's most spectacular and extraordinary sites make it on to the List.

UNESCO World Heritage sites includes some of the most famous places in the world, such as the ancient Nabatean city of Petra in Jordan, the legendary Acropolis in Athens, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and Machu Picchu, the 'Lost City of the Incas', in Peru.

The volume includes the 19 sites added to the List by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in June 2013, including Bergpark Wilhelmshoehe (Germany), Red Bay Basque Whaling Station (Canada) and Golestan Palace (Iran).

• Descriptions of all 981 UNESCO World Heritage sites
• Location map for every site
• Over 650 colour photographs

Background
The World Heritage List includes properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value. In 1972 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Convention concerning the Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage. Since then, 981 sites in 160 countries have been inscribed onto the list, 759 of which are cultural, 193 natural and 29 mixed properties.