The World Heritage Committee this afternoon approved the inscription of Ephesus in Turkey and three other sites on the World Heritage List. Besides Ephesus, sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining in Japan, Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic System in Mexico, and Fray Bentos Cultural-Industrial Landscape in Uruguay are approved.
The Committee also approved the extension of Spain’s Routes of Santiago de Compostela with the addition of the “Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain”.
The new sites are:
Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining (Japan)—The site encompasses a series of eleven properties, mainly located in the southwest of Japan. It bears testimony to the rapid industrialization of the country from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century, through the development of the steel industry, shipbuilding and coal mining. The site illustrates the process by which feudal Japan sought technology transfer from Europe and America from the middle of the 19th century and how this technology was adapted to the country’s needs and social traditions. The site testifies to what is considered to be the first successful transfer of Western industrialization to a non-Western nation.
Ephesus (Turkey)—Located within what was once the estuary of the River Kaystros, Ephesus comprises successive Hellenistic and Roman settlements founded on new locations, which followed the coastline as it retreated westward. Excavations have revealed grand monuments of the Roman Imperial period including the Library of Celsus and the Great Theatre. Little remains of the famous Temple of Artemis, one of the “Seven Wonders of the World,” which drew pilgrims from all around the Mediterranean. Since the 5th century, the House of the Virgin Mary, a domed cruciform chapel seven kilometres from Ephesus, became a major place of Christian pilgrimage. The Ancient City of Ephesus is an outstanding example of a Roman port city, with sea channel and harbour basin. . . .
Who: ME.NA.SA
When: Sept. 17, 2015 – Sept. 20, 2015 (View Hours Here)
Where:
Beirut International Exhibition & Leisure Center
Downtown
Beirut, Lebanon
How Much: (View Pricing Here)
More Information: Here
“Since its inception in 2010, BEIRUT ART FAIR established itself on the international artistic scene with the vision of a ME.NA.SA. labeled art which shaped its identity and power of attraction. In tune with the centers of interest of international collectors, the fair displays the creation of this region which stretches from Morocco to Indonesia, in its wide diversity.
From 17 to 20 September 2015, organizers will receive at BIEL around fifty international modern and contemporary art and design galleries. Exhibiting artists represent all of the trends of current art and express themselves through painting, drawing, sculpture, video, design or performance… Confirmed and developing artists mingle and invite the viewer to share their visions of the world, their dreams or their positions.
BEIRUT ART FAIR confirms the position of Beirut as the cultural and intellectual capital of the Arab world, at the junction between the East and the West. It is part of the international fairs dedicated to art and serves as a window for the ME.NA.SA. creation which is open to the world.”
We walked beside the now dusty wash that once contained the mighty but ever shifting Indus River, puzzling out the names of long-deceased members of royal dynasties now barely remembered. I was visiting the necropolis of Makli Hills with Yasmeen Lari, a conservation architect and herself a national treasure of Pakistan. The monuments at Makli chart the history of Islam in Sindh province, one of the cradles of civilization, dominated by the alluvial plain of the Indus, from which Sindh gets its name. I was there to announce that the U.S. Government is helping to conserve two of its most magnificent monuments.
As the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, I live in a country facing political, military, and humanitarian challenges on many fronts. One front that has not received sufficient attention in Western media is the war on cultural heritage and how this matters to the people of Pakistan.
One of the ways in which ISIL has consolidated a reign of terror in Iraq and Syria is by erasing any heritage of religious diversity. Their atrocities are not confined to military battlefields. Groups like ISIS have another important ideological objective: they are threatened by the existence of a rich cultural heritage and a history of pluralism and tolerance. They seek to destroy it.
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Islam came to Sindh in 711 c.e. via the invasion led by Muhammad bin Qasim. And its dominance on the culture was fixed by the Sufi scholars who accompanied the central Asian invaders of the 16th century. The history of this long conversion is etched in the stone of tombs at Makli Hills. The oldest ones, at the north, show a robust Hindu influence, including elaborate rosettes, with the inscriptions written in the austere Kufic script of early Islam. The later tombs, to the south, become more Persianate, with the slanting script replacing the more linear Arabic and more delicate floral and venial depictions. These ancient monuments enrich and inform today’s Pakistan and connect us to our cultural origins.
Wind and sun have taken a severe toll on the monuments, as has vandalism and looting, all perhaps part of the toll that more than a decade of fighting terrorism has inflicted on Pakistan. Treasures of Moghul artistry lie scattered and broken on the ground. Some of the elaborate sepulchers have lost their foundations and are visibly splitting apart. Even the large tombs that are structurally intact have lost their turquoise tiled roofs and cladding and now reveal their baked brick skeletons. . . . .
General Supervisor of King Abdullah Cultural Heritage Project and vice president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) Ali Al Ghabban said Saudi Arabia is one of the first Arab countries to set up a monuments system with the aim to protect the heritage sites in the Kingdom for their cultural significance and their value as an economic resource.
“Saudi Arabia is one of the first Arab countries to set up a system for monuments,” Al Ghabban said in a press statement issued yesterday.
Applauding the issuance of the new system of monuments, museums and architectural heritage which was issued by the Council of Ministers recently, Al Ghabban asserted that the new system of monuments enhances the protection of national heritage sites as resources for economic benefit.
He added that the former system was issued 40 years ago but it was necessary to effect some changes in light of an evolution in the government’s interest in preserving architectural and urban heritage including museums to develop a system for the protection of monuments.
He revealed that the new system had been under study for a long time with concerned partners prior to being released with requirements which would enhance the process of preservation, protection and investment.
“The new system focuses on the importance of monuments, their preservation and as an important area of investment to benefit the country’s economy,” Al Ghabban underlined.
He further said the new system devotes a special chapter to urban heritage and museums and takes care of investment in national heritage. It also ensures economical benefits with regard to the sunken monuments and seeks cooperation from scientific missions, exploration operations and archaeological surveys to cope with new developments.
It further classified the architectural heritage, which is recorded as a national heritage with various categories and also supports the creation of a fund to support urban and general heritage, the SCTA deputy said.
“All of these combine to make the new system an important step toward the protection and development of the national heritage and culture,” Al Ghabban asserted.
According to him, the important additions of the new system are in the area of protection where government agencies including the ministries of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Agriculture, Transport, Petroleum and Mineral Resources and other agencies are obliged to operate in locations that are earmarked for developmental projects to ensure there are no sunken or visible monuments there.
The Cultured Muse 