"No school, public, or academic library could go wrong including the very affordable World Heritage Sites in both reference and circulating collections."
--Booklist (for a previous edition)
More than 52,000 copies of the previous editions of World Heritage Sites have been sold. This sixth edition fully updates the UNESCO World Heritage List as of 2014. Sites are judged under strict criteria with a view to the aim that they reflect the world's cultural and natural diversity and are of outstanding universal value.
In June 2014, the World Heritage Committee added 26 sites to the list. These inscriptions include the 1,000th site, Okavango Delta in Botswana and Myanmar's very first inscription, Pyu Ancient Cities.
Sites added to this new edition include:
- Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah (Saudi Arabia)
- Grand Canal (China)
- Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point (Mississippi, USA)
- The Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont (Italy)
- Decorated Cave of Pont d'Arc (France)
- Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements of the Diquis (Costa Rica)
- Van Nellefabriek "Ideal Factory" (Netherlands)
- Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary (Philippines)
- Silk Roads: the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan).
This sixth edition of World Heritage Sites will attract a general readership as well as travelers and those with an interest in natural or human history, the Earth sciences, geography, conservation of the environment, wildlife and habitats; and planning and preservation.