List of Places Removed from UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Check Name, Location and Factors

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designates a location as a World Heritage Site if it has exceptional cultural or physical importance.

Only four sites—the Bagrati Cathedral in Georgia, the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany, the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in Oman, and Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City in the United Kingdom—have ever been removed from the UNESCO World Heritage List. Check what factors led these sites to be delisted from the list.

First UNESCO Site to be Delisted

Following worries about poaching and habitat degradation, the UNESCO council delisted the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in Oman as the first location in 2007.

In 1994, the sanctuary was recognized as a World Heritage Site. The oryx population had all but disappeared due to habitat deterioration and poaching. Following the discovery of oil at the location, the government decided to cut the sanctuary's size by 90%, which prompted the delisting. At the time the label was removed, there were just four breeding pairs of oryx.

Elbe Valley in Dresden, Germany

Elbe Valley in Dresden, Germany, was the second place to be taken off the World Heritage list in 2009, following the building of the Waldschlosschen road bridge over the Elbe River.

The UNESCO committee decided on June 25, 2009, to deprive the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany of its World Heritage Site designation because the Waldschlösschen Bridge, which had been in development since 2007, would split the valley in two. The 20-kilometer (12-mile) location was chosen as a World Heritage Site in 2004. Before the delisting, local Dresden authorities who supported the bridge and those who opposed it engaged in a drawn-out battle. The bridge was intended to alleviate traffic congestion within the city.

Maritime Mercantile City in Liverpool, UK

The third location to be taken off UNESCO's World Heritage List was Liverpool, UK's Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City, on July 21, 2021. As "the supreme example of a commercial port at a time of Britain's greatest global influence," it was designated a World Heritage Site in 2004 and included six locations in the city center.

The action comes after a UNESCO commission determined in 2012 that the planned development of abandoned dockland close to the city center was "detrimental to the site's authenticity and integrity."

The proposed stadium for Everton Football Club, which is scheduled to open for the 2024–25 season, is one of the new developments along the city's waterfront.

Bagrati Cathedral, Georgia

In 2017, UNESCO delisted Georgia's Bagrati Cathedral from its list of World Heritage Sites because it believed that the extensive restoration would compromise its originality and integrity. In 1994, it was listed alongside Gelati Monastery as a combined World Heritage Site; in 2010, it was placed on the endangered list. In 2017, the World Heritage Committee decided to leave Bagrati Cathedral off the list while keeping Gelati Monastery on it.

Former UNESCO Heritage Sites

Here are the UNESCO World Heritage Sites that have been removed from the list:

Criteria for Removing a Site from the World Heritage List

If the UNESCO World Heritage Committee finds that a World Heritage Site is not properly maintained or safeguarded, it may lose its designation. If the committee has concerns about a site, it may put it on its list of World Heritage sites in danger of losing its classification and work with the local government to make things right. The committee subsequently withdraws its designation if restoration of the concerned site is unsuccessful.

A nation may also ask to have the borders of one of its current sites reduced, which would effectively delist those properties whole or in part from the heritage list. A nation is required by World Heritage guidelines to notify the committee if any of its sites "inscribed on the World Heritage List have seriously deteriorated, or when the necessary corrective measures have not been taken."