Gaza monastery and other Middle East sites added to Unesco World Heritage List

Other sites selected include Al Faw archaeological area in Saudi Arabia and Jordan's Umm Al Jimal

The ruins of the monastery of Saint Hilarion are at Tell Umm Amer, a site that dates back to the fourth century. AFP

The Unesco World Heritage Committee, currently in its 46th session in New Delhi, India, has been announcing new additions to its World Heritage List.

Running until Wednesday, the committee has already announced four new sites from the Mena region, adding to the list of roughly 1,200 sites from more than 160 countries.

The new additions are Umm Al Jimal in Jordan, the Cultural Landscape of Al-Faw in Saudi Arabia, Hegmataneh in Iran and Saint Hilarion, part of Tell Umm Amer archaeological site, in Gaza, Palestine.

As part of the latest session, the committee has examined proposals from 28 sites for inclusion on the heritage list, with entries ranging from China to Burkina Faso.

Here are more details on the four sites from the Middle East.

Saint Hilarion Monastery, part of Tell Umm Amer archaeological site, Palestine

The inclusion of the Palestinian archaeological site Tell Umm Amer, featuring the monastery of Saint Hilarion, follows an emergency nomination due to the Israel-Gaza war. Located south of Gaza City, the 4th century site comprises ruins that include two churches, a burial site, a baptism hall, a public cemetery, an audience hall and dining rooms.

Discovered by local archaeologists in 1999, the site was active from the 4th to 8th century, spanning the late Roman Empire to the Umayyad period. It contains many Christian artefacts where the monastery was one of the largest in the Middle East and its name is attributed to Saint Hilarion, a native of the Gaza region and the father of Palestinian monasticism.

More than 200 of Palestine's historical and archaeological sites have been damaged or destroyed since the start of the war, according to a statement from the Palestinian Ministry of Culture on January 1.

Palestine currently has four sites on the World Heritage List – the Church of Nativity of Bethlehem, first completed in 339; the village of Battir in southern Jerusalem famed for its olive groves and vine fields; and the Tell es Sultan site (also known as Ancient Jericho) that contains archaeological deposits dating back to 10,500 BC.

Umm Al Jimal, Jordan

An ancient town in northern Jordan, Umm Al Jimal's history dates back to the Nabataean period between the 1st century BCE and 2nd century CE. It was a key trading hub for the Nabataeans, an ancient Arab people, and the town linked the nearby city of Petra to the greater Mediterranean.

Umm Al Jimal is also recognised for its preservation of buildings dating back to the 5th century, with houses, churches and barracks made from black basalt stone. It's innovative water management system, crucial to supporting native agriculture and livestock at the time, is now studied by historians and environmentalists.

In its submission to the Unesco World Heritage Tentative List, an inventory of cultural and heritages sites preceding the World Heritage List, Jordan's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities described Umm Al Jimal as an “outstanding instance of the resilience of a local culture under the influence of dominant outside cultural influences”.

The cultural landscape of Al Faw archaeological area, Saudi Arabia

Some of the statues, reliefs and frescoes found at this archaeological site, south-west of Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, tell a story of a once-bustling city in the Arabian peninsula, which flourished between the 4th century BCE and the 4th century CE.

Beginning as a small town, it developed to a capital city thanks to its position as a crossroads of ancient trade routes connecting the peninsula with the Levant, Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) and the Indian Ocean.

Incense, spices, textiles and precious metals were obtained from that steady trading route and can today be found in the archaeological remnants at Al Faw, including residential quarters, temples, markets and terraces. Also discovered was an extensive necropolis with majestic tombs and other elaborate burial sites.

As part of its 2022 submission to Unesco's Tentative List, the permanent delegation of Saudi Arabia to Unesco highlighted the ingenuity and resilience of Al Faw's ancient inhabitants.

“Al Faw sits in a unique desert landscape, far from other contemporaneous civilisations, in one of the most hostile environments in the world. Its inhabitants developed a sophisticated and international trading city where multiple cultural influences from afar met,” it said.

“Even before the city was established, people living in the area lastingly marked their occupation, and infused clues of their relationship with the environment, reflecting diverse practices, such as ritual stone structure construction, illustrating a nascent attachment to ancestral pastures paving the way to a sedentary life based on farming.”

Hegmataneh and Historical Centre of Hamedan, Iran

Hegmataneh, also known as Ecbatana, was the capital of the ancient Median Empire around the 7th century BCE and, as a result, became a powerful administrative city.

Archaeological discoveries over the years revealed remains of fortifications, palatial structures and residential buildings. As for the Historical Centre of Hamedan, it is considered one of Iran's oldest inhabited cities with a history dating back to the first millennium BCE.

The city still retains important monuments and mausoleums, including the tomb of renowned Muslim polymath Ibn Sina.