Kew Gardens wins World Heritage Site status

London's Kew Gardens has been elevated to join an elite group of world culture sites which includes the Great Wall of China, following Unesco's publication of its World Heritage list.

The historic landscape garden was recognised for its features which illustrate significant periods of the art of gardens from the 18th to the 20th centuries.

The gardens house botanic collections (conserved plants, living plants and documents) which have been "considerably enriched" through the centuries.

Since their creation in 1759, the gardens have made a "significant and uninterrupted contribution to the study of plant diversity and botanic economics", Unesco said.

Twenty-four sites were inscribed on the list, including, for the first time, sites in Gambia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Sudan.

Also included on the list are the ancient Assyrian city of Ashur in Iraq, Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy in Italy, the Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, and archaeological remains of the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan.

The Bamiyan Valley made the headlines in March 2001 after the Taleban blew up two huge Buddha statues in the area.

The inscriptions were carried out by the World Heritage Committee, which now numbers 754 sites – including 149 natural, and 582 cultural and 23 mixed sites “of outstanding universal value”.

(GMcG)