Posing a question recently to a group of well-traveled friends, I asked, "What do the Statue of Liberty, the Everglades, Taos Pueblo and Illinois' Cahokia Mounds have in common?"

This was not meant as a trick question, but it seemed to stump my friends. Following a bit of debate, national parks or monuments emerged as the consensus response. That's only partly correct as Cahokia and Taos are neither. What these outwardly dissimilar landmarks do share is a unique bond as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

While not a trick question, I'll admit it was a bit devious, aimed at exposing the fact that most Americans aren't all that aware of the UNESCO designation that pertains to some of our nation's most treasured natural and cultural sites. There are 22 of them scattered across the country — located in 19 states and Puerto Rico and most are, in fact, national parks or monuments.

UNESCO is an acronym for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, a specialized agency of the UN that was established in 1972 to recognize and conserve sites around the world deemed to be of outstanding natural or cultural importance to the common heritage of humanity.

As of 2014, 1,007 sites are listed 779 cultural, 197 natural and 31 mixed properties in 161 countries. Italy is home to the most World Heritage sites (50), followed by China (47) and Spain (44). Neighboring Mexico, with its rich pre-Columbian history, boasts the most sites in the Americas with 32.

The site-selection process is rigorous, with a list of criteria reviewed by a revolving committee of representatives from 21 member states. It's a lengthy and bureaucratic process, but it does ultimately ensure selection of only the most worthy of candidates. While politics obviously enter into any decision rendered within the UN, sites have nonetheless been inscribed on the World Heritage list from Cuba, Iraq, Syria, Iran and even the pariah state of North Korea.

America's roster of World Heritage Sites includes many of the country's best known national parks Grand Canyon, Everglades, Mammoth Cave, Olympic, Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite and Yellowstone but also a couple of remote, less-visited sites in Alaska and Hawaii with names so long you'll probably never remember them.

Kluane/Wrangell-St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tashenshinie-Alsek is a site that overlaps the border between Alaska and Canada. The area contains the world's largest nonpolar ice field and some of the planet's longest glaciers.

This glacier at St. Elias Range was declared part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.


Tongue-twisting Papahānaumokuākea is a huge marine reserve encompassing 140,000 square miles of ocean waters, including 10 islands and atolls among the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The area supports 7,000 species, one-quarter of which are endemic, and also has deep cosmological and traditional significance for living Hawaiian culture. Selected for both its natural and cultural importance, it is the only mixed site in the U.S.

While the criteria (largely aesthetic) for the designation of a natural site are pretty clear, they're a bit more complex for cultural or manmade sites. Gauging a potential site for its evidence of human creativity and genius or its significance on the stage of human history is a more subjective process than simply observing the splendor of Yosemite Falls or Yellowstone's Old Faithful Geyser.


Yosemite Falls is the highest measured waterfall in North America. Located in Yosemite National Park in California, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.


The Statue of Liberty is an obvious designee, standing tall as the iconic, universally recognized symbol of American liberty. But the inclusion of Cahokia Mounds on the list needs explaining. It takes some imagination to reconstruct in your mind the remnants of what once was the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico, scattered across six square miles just across the Mississippi River from modern day St. Louis.

Studying the site's nearly 100 mounds, thought to be of ceremonial purpose, and left behind by peoples of the Amerindian Mississippian culture in the 13th century, archaeologists conclude the settlement reached a peak population of 40,000 more than London at the time.

So who's to say that this ancient city constructed by primitives from earth and timber was of any less importance on the continuum of human history than the Statue of Liberty? Probably not the Cahokians rest their souls.

For reference when planning future travel, here's a complete list of the 22 U.S. World Heritage Sites:

CULTURAL

  • Cahokia Mounds, Illinois
  • Chaco Culture, New Mexico
  • Independence Hall, Pennsylvania
  • La Fortaleza/San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
  • Monticello/University of Virginia, Virginia
  • Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point, Mississippi
  • Statue of Liberty, New York
  • Taos Pueblo, New Mexico

NATURAL

  • Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
  • Everglades National Park, Florida
  • Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Virginia and North Carolina
  • Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii
  • Kluane/Wrangell-St. Elias/GlacierBay/Tatshenshini-Alsek, Alaska and Canada
  • Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
  • Olympic National Park, Washington
  • Redwood National and State Parks, California
  • Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, Montana and Canada
  • Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho
  • Yosemite National Park, California

MIXED

  • Papahānaumokuākea, Hawaii