YOUR HISTORY
The latest batch of UNESCO World Heritage Sites doubles as a great source of inspiration for future travel plans. Here are our favourites
Next year marks 80 years since the founding of UNESCO, the organisation responsible for designating World Heritage Sites. In late 2023, UNESCO added 42 new sites spanning five continents, and several of these look set to shine the spotlight on lesser-known regions of popular destinations.
Take Koh Ker, the capital of Cambodia’s Khmer Empire between 928 and 944 CE. This newly designated World Heritage Site has one of Southeast Asia’s few seventiered pyramids and it’s an easy day trip from Siem Reap. We recommend staying at the historic Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor (above); founded in 1932, it’s packed with original features, including the restored timber elevator.
Other sites to receive World Heritage Site status include the volcanoes and forests of Mount Pelée and the pitons of northern Martinique. When Mount Pelée erupted in 1902, St Pierre – then regarded as Martinique’s economic and cultural capital – was obliterated, and 28,000 people died. Now it’s been entirely rebuilt, although the carefully preserved ruins of several buildings provide an eerie insight into the devastation wreaked by the eruption. We recommend a hike through the wildlife-filled forests surrounding St Pierre, or a hike to the summit of Mount Pelée, 1,397 metres above sea level.
Another newly accredited World Heritage Site is Anticosti, the largest island in Q
