The united national body UNESCO born in 1945 stamps the monuments and national wonders as the world heritage sites. The acronym UNESCO stands the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. These worlds’ heritage sites have unique historical, cultural or natural significance. Thus more weight age is given for their preservation for the posteriors.

There are nearly 1150 world heritage sites spread round the world on 167 countries. Out of this number 900 are cultural and 218 are natural. So far as india is concerned there ate 40world heritage sites enlisted by UNESCO. India comes on the sixth and china on the second position with 56 world heritage sites. The stupa of Sanchi is the oldest world heritage site. This is located close to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and was erected on 3rd century BC by Maurayan ruler Ashoka. It is declared as a world heritage site in 1989. Agra fort is the first world heritage sites of India. It was given this tag in 1983.

The first record of conservation by UNESCO can be traced back in 1954 when Aswan Dam was started to be built. The governments of Sudan and Egypt requested UNESCO to help then in saving the old licensures of the region. The UN body commenced a massive program and scores of sites were excavated, the artifact was discovered and the old temples of Abu Simbel and Philae were relocated to higher levels.

India joined world heritage convention on1977 and the sites Agra fort, Taj Mahal, Ajanta caves and Ellora caves were the first to be enlisted as world heritage sites, later in 1984 Sun Temple of Puri and the Mahabalipuram were included on the list in Assam became the world heritage sites in 1985.

Manas Wildlife Sanctuary and Kaziranga National park. In the same year Keoladeo national park Bharatpur in Rajasthan became the world heritage site. Khajuraho group of monuments in Madhya Pradesh and the churches and convents of Goa became the world heritage sites in1986. In the same year Hampi in Karnataka and Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh were enlisted as world heritage sites.

In the next year 1989 group of monuments at Paltadkal in Karnataka came in to the list with Elaphanta caves in Maharashtra. Chola temple in Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu and Sunderbans in west Bengal were also included in the privileged list. Nanda Devi and the valley of flower in Uttarakhand were Enlisted in 2005. Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh become world heritage site in 1989.Qutub minar and humayun’s tomb were declared the world heritage monument in 1993. Mahabodhi temple Bodhgaya was enlisted in 2002 and rock shelter of Bhimbetaka in 2003.Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai became the heritage site in 2004 with Pavagarh in Gujarat. Red fort in Delhi was listed in 2007 and Jantar mantar jaipur on 2010 as a world heritage site. The great step well Rani ki bab in Patan was categorized as a heritage site in 2014. The historic old city of Ahmedabad and Jaipur were declared UNESCO Heritage places in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Rudreshwar temple in Telangana and Dholavira in Gujarat were enlisted as world heritage sites this year in 2021.