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UNESCO World Heritage Site

IDF troops at Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, July 7, 2026. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
July 24, 2026, 6:35 pm
UNESCO lists Israeli-controlled heritage sites in Lebanon, West Bank as in danger
Cultural agency says Beaufort Castle has sustained damage and faced ongoing threats since IDF takeover amid fight against Hezbollah; Israel blasts Sebastia’s classification as Palestinian
By AFP and ToI Staff
People check Roman-era ruins after an Israeli airstrike hit an area nearby, in the southern port city of Tyre, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
July 22, 2026, 10:34 pm
UNESCO adds war-hit Lebanese city of Tyre to list of world heritage sites in danger
The ancient coastal city has been caught up in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and one of two protected sites suffered a direct hit from an Israeli strike in June
By AFP and Lazar Berman
Museum employees unpack a carved stone panel after Syrian authorities unveiled antiquities returned from France at the National Museum in Damascus, Syria, July 8, 2026.(AP/Ghaith Alsayed)
July 10, 2026, 11:48 am
France returns 23 Syrian treasures kept for 15 years due to severed ties
Artifacts flown to Damascus aboard Macron’s presidential aircraft include Roman bronze objects, Byzantine and Islamic-era pieces, mosaic panel that once adorned the Umayyad Mosque
By AP
Broken glass lies on the floor in a room damaged, according to Iranian authorities, by a nearby airstrike during US-Israeli strikes in early March at the Golestan Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in Tehran, Iran, April 5, 2026. (Francisco Seco/AP)
May 10, 2026, 7:56 am
Iran conservationists shore up heritage sites damaged during war
Iranian authorities say at least 140 culturally and historically significant locations, including 5 UNESCO-listed World Heritage sites, suffered damage from airstrikes and shockwaves
By AFP
Flames engulf trees in the forests of Chalus, Iran, amid days-long fires in the country's Hyrcanian forests, November 21, 2025. (MEHRAB FARSAD / ISNA / AFP)
November 22, 2025, 1:27 pm
Iran seeks ‘urgent assistance’ to put out fire in UNESCO-listed Hyrcanian forests
Aircraft and staff to arrive from Turkey, more assistance may be sought from Russia, after Tehran ‘faced with the impossibility’ of fighting flames alone, officials tell state media
By AFP
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay speaks during the opening ceremony of the UNESCO Extended 45th session of the World Heritage Committee at the al-Murabba Palace in Riyadh on September 10, 2023. (Fayez Nureldine / AFP)
September 10, 2023, 7:37 pm
In first, Israeli officials in Saudi Arabia for UNESCO conference
Bureaucrats and diplomats attend World Heritage meeting, after US asked Israel to withdraw efforts to secure visas for foreign and education ministers
By Lazar Berman
Tell es-Sultan in Jericho on September 29, 2011 (Diego Delso via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA)
September 5, 2023, 3:19 pm
UNESCO to vote on Ancient Jericho joining World Heritage list as site in Palestine
UN body, which Israel quit in 2019, to hold vote at Saudi Arabia conference; Likud MK accuses cultural organization of obscuring site’s biblical significance
By ToI Staff
This combination of pictures created on February 6, 2023, shows a picture taken on July 3, 2016, showing the minaret of the mosque inside of the UNESCO-listed citadel, in the regime-controlled northern Syrian city of Aleppo (L) and a picture taken on February 6, 2023, of the same tower following an earthquake (AFP)
February 7, 2023, 4:04 pm
UNESCO sounds alarm over earthquake damage to Turkey, Syria heritage sites
International cultural body says it will provide assistance amid worries over structural integrity of Aleppo’s old city and Diyarbakir fortress, as well as 3 other locations
By AFP
The West Bank village of Battir, one of the last farming villages to use irrigation systems from Roman times (photo credit: AP/Sebastian Scheiner)
March 16, 2022, 8:37 am
Settlers put up illegal outpost in UNESCO heritage area in West Bank — report
Residents of the village of Battir say the settlement has prevented them from accessing their lands
By ToI Staff
Tina (far right), an Arab resident of Acre, with some of her neighbors. She tried to protect the Jewish-owned gallery where she worked during the recent unrest in the mixed city, and is asking how and why this happened in her city (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
June 3, 2021, 7:45 pm
In Acre, known for Arab-Jewish coexistence, residents grapple with recent unrest
Following a week of chaos and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, locals regroup and try to move forward
By Jessica Steinberg
Tourists visiting Al-Khazneh 'the Treasury' in the ancient city of Petra, Jordan, November 11, 2016. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)
May 7, 2021, 7:05 am
Podcast: Proof that Nabateans’ trade empire collapsed due to ancient epidemic
In an in-depth interview with expert archaeologist Tali Erickson-Gini, we hear that he who controls the spice (or garum and wine) controls the ancient world
By ToI Staff
Chinese tourists from Hong Kong visiting the Gate of All Nations at the ancient Persian city of Persepolis near Shiraz in southern Iran, September 26, 2014 (AFP / BEHROUZ MEHRI)
January 5, 2020, 8:56 pm
Trump’s threats draw Iran’s cultural sites into tensions
Earliest traces of human presence in country reach back 100,000 years; its monuments preserve the legacy of a civilization that has kept identity through successive conquests
By Aya Batrawy
An emblem of a menorah carved in the stone, inside a structure at Beit She'arim National Park, an archaeological site in the Lower Galilee. (Doron Horowitz/Flash90)
December 15, 2019, 9:10 am
UNESCO World Heritage Site at Beit She’arim found vandalized with graffiti
National park, which includes a synagogue and a necropolis and was a major center of Jewish life in the 2nd century, daubed with slogans associated with Hasidic Jews
By ToI Staff
The recently renovated Beit Leibling in Tel Aviv, which offered an opportunity to reexamine imports of German goods into Israel in the 1930s. (Courtesy, Yael Shemi)
December 2, 2019, 10:23 am
The Nazi secret lurking inside some of Tel Aviv’s most beautiful buildings
Discoveries made in Leibling House, a recently renovated cultural center, reveal the German foundations of much of Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus-inflected 1930s construction
By Karen Chernick
Smoke and flames rise from burning Shuri Castle in Naha, Okinawa, southern Japan, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019. A fire broke out at the historic Shuri Castle on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, nearly destroying it. (Jun Hirata/Kyodo News via AP)
October 31, 2019, 4:24 am
Large blaze destroys structures at historic Japanese castle
Shuri Castle on southern island of Okinawa remains a UNESCO World Heritage site even though it was destroyed in World War II and then reconstructed
By AP
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