Old City of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Historical Center of Macao, and Biblical vestiges in Israel are among the 17 new cultural sites inscribed Friday on the World Heritage List.

With the inscriptions, Bahrain, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina enter the List for the first time, during the 29th session of the World Heritage Committee currently meeting in Durban, South Africa.

The sites inscribed this year include three trans-boundary sites and extensions to six sites that were already on the list. One of the sites listed Friday, Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works in Chile, was also inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The historic town of Mostar, spanning a deep valley of the Neretva River, developed in the 15th and 16th century as an Ottoman frontier town and during the Austro-Hungarian period in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Mostar has long been known for its old Turkish houses and old Bridge, Stari Most, after which it is named. The old Bridge area, with its pre-Ottoman, eastern Ottoman, Mediterranean and western European architectural features is an outstanding example of a multi-cultural urban settlement.

Old Bridge and Old City of Mostar is a symbol of reconciliation, international cooperation and of the coexistence of diverse, cultural, ethnic and religious communities, said the United Nation 's cultural arm, UNESCO.

Macao, a lucrative port of strategic importance in the development of international trade, was under Portuguese administration from the mid 16th century until 1999, when it came under Chinese sovereignty.

With its Historic street, residential, religious and public Portuguese and Chinese buildings, the historic center of Macao provides a unique testimony to the meeting of aesthetic, cultural, architectural and technological influences from East and West, according to UNESCO.

Tells, or pre-historic settlement mounds, are characteristic of the flatter lands of the eastern Mediterranean, particularly Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Eastern Turkey. Of more than 200 tells in Israel, Megiddo, Hazor and Beer Sheba are representative of tells that contain substantial remains of cities with biblical connections.

The three tells also present some of the best examples in the Levant of elaborate Iron Age, underground water collecting systems, created to serve dense urban communities.

The World Heritage List now numbers 812 sites in total, which includes 628 cultural sites, 160 natural sites and 24 mixed sites in 137 state parties.

However, Francesco Bandarin, director of the World Heritage Center, in a press briefing late Friday expressed his worries that a number of world heritage sites are still facing threats of wars, human activities and pollution.

"Heritage sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was in very difficult situation, and those in Afghanistan and Iraq also face threats of potential wars," said Bandarin.

Five natural heritage sites in the DRC are currently on the list of world heritage sites in danger due to long-time conflicts.

The 21-member World Heritage Committee has been meeting in Durban since July 10. On Thursday, it added seven new natural sites to UNESCO's World Heritage List, and earlier in the session, the Committee removed three sites from the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Source: Xinhua