A look at some of 2025’s new additions to UNESCO World Heritage List

John Yang:

And finally tonight, a look at some of the places that UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has added to its list of world Heritage sites.

John Yang (voice-over):

The Pyramids of Giza, Yellowstone national park, the Taj Mahal some of the more than 1,200 cultural sites around the world that UNESCO has deemed to be of outstanding value to humanity.

Nikolay Nenov:

I am delighted to welcome you to the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee.

John Yang (voice-over):

In Paris this month, a committee met to add to that list something that's been done nearly every year since 1978. The 26 new sites reflect the wide range encompassed by UNESCO's criteria. In Cambodia, two prisons and a site where in the 1970s the Khmer Rouge regime carried out mass torture and executions. Atrocities depicted in the 1984 award winning film "The Killing Fields."

Now a memorial, UNESCO says the buildings went from being centers of repression to places of peace and reflection. At a ceremony in Phnom Penh earlier this week, the nation's Culture Minister hailed the UNESCO designation.

Hab Touch, Interim Minister of Culture, Cambodia (through interpreter): It is the new great national honor for Cambodian people and the nation on the world stage. And this is a model for the world.

John Yang (voice-over):

In Malaysia, a new UNESCO site teamed, a manmade tropical forest about 10 miles northwest of Kuala Lumpur.

It was once barren land, scarred and degraded in the 1920s by tin mining. UNESCO says it represents a pioneering reforestation effort. In Germany, a castle fit for a fairy tale. Neuschwanstein in Bavaria was Walt Disney's inspiration when he created his company's logo.

It's one of four 19th century grand palaces built for King Ludwig II and now honored by UNESCO.