Will add to the current list of 30 sites India has.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW DELHI: Two national landmarks in India – the Rani-ki-Vav stepwell and the Great Himalayan National Park – are expected to be marked as World Heritage sites by the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), on Friday.
The 38th annual session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee is currently transpiring in Doha, Qatar, having started on June 15 and expected to last until June 25. Part of the committee’s responsibilities is to create a list of sites that should be tagged as World Heritage sites, which the stepwell and park in India are apparently set to be named as.
An official announcement from UNESCO is currently pending, but reports indicate that UNESCO will likely make the announcement today, adding two Indian sites to the venerable list of culturally important historical sites around the world.
The Rani-ki-Vav stepwell is located in the Gujarat province of Patan, and was built in 1063 AD. The stepwell was commissioned by Rani Udayamati, who had it built in the memory of her late husband, King Bhimsen I of the Solanki dynasty in Gujarat. The stepwell has an intricate architectural design, and is considered one of the most beautiful examples of subterranean construction. Despite having been flooded and buried underneath rock and earth for hundreds of years, the structure is still standing and is in relatively good shape.
The Great Himalayan National Park, located in Himachal Pradesh, was named as an Indian national park 15 years ago. It is home to some of the most exotic indigenous wildlife found on the subcontinent, while several of the plant species found there are said to hold very potent medicinal powers.
If these two sites are added to the World Heritage list, they will join another 30 sites that India already has in the UNESCO database. Of those, 24 have been deemed culturally significant, while the remaining six are naturally significant; in these two cases, Rani-ki-Vav would fall into the former category, and the Great Himalayan National Park would fall into the latter.
Being a UNESCO World Heritage site affords these places funding for better care, and raises their profile as tourism destinations for those coming to India – something that has increased significantly over the last decade.