The Diplomat
The Menorca Talayotic. An insular cyclopean odyssey candidacy has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which means that Spain now has 50 sites on this list, as reported yesterday by the Ministry of Culture and Sport.
The election of the Spanish candidacy was announced yesterday by the World Heritage Committee, meeting in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). The Committee, formed by 21 countries elected by the 194 States Parties to the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), is the executive body of this international convention and, as such, is responsible for deciding which new sites meet the characteristics to be inscribed on the World Heritage List, at the proposal of the States Parties.
“With this new inscription, Spain already treasures 50 World Heritage sites in its territory, a number that makes it one of the countries with the most properties registered on this list and one of the most internationally recognized for the variety, richness and quality of its heritage,” the Ministry stressed in a press release. Only the first five States on the list (made up of 166 countries and 1,180 sites) have at least fifty properties declared World Heritage (Italy, China, Germany, Spain and France).
The candidacy, promoted by the Consell Insular de Menorca, “has been an example of collaboration between administrations: the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the autonomous government of the Balearic Islands and the Consell de Menorca itself,” continued the Ministry headed, in office, by Miquel Iceta. The institutional support and the excellent technical work “have been key to successfully achieve its inscription on the World Heritage List, after the maturation of the nomination over more than a decade,” it added.
According to the speakers of the nomination, Menorca has one of the highest densities of prehistoric archaeological sites in inhabited territory in the world. Talayotic Menorca. An island cyclopean odyssey brings together the nine components that best represent the constructions of an island culture that evolved in conditions of relative isolation. From the mid Bronze Age to the Roman occupation, a rich sample of prehistoric monuments and sites has been selected, including settlements, funerary spaces, sanctuaries and sacred places that have survived in an excellent state of preservation. Among them, certain exceptional manifestations that are unique and exclusive to Menorca stand out, such as the burial navetas, the taula enclosures, the monumental circular houses and the talayots.
In addition, Menorca Talayotic provides the exceptional testimony of a prehistoric culture associated with the sky, as evidenced by the orientations of certain monuments. Besides, these monuments are inserted in a little altered Mediterranean landscape with features very similar to those of prehistoric times. “The successive stone traditions, the original settlement patterns and the spiritual functionality of the monuments are the reflection of an identity of their own” and constitute “a source of pride for the island and, therefore, are kept alive in the landscape of present-day Menorca,” the Ministry stressed. “Menorca Talayotic testifies today an exceptional case of living archaeological and monumental landscape,” it added.
At the same meeting, the Committee declared as World Heritage the ancient Jericho, also called Tell es-Sultan, presented by Palestine; or the natural site of Odzala-Kokoua forest massif, in the Republic of Congo-Brazzaville, among others.
