15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Danxia Landform: Zhangye, China

Danxia landscapes are steep cliffs of red rock and they can be found in six areas around the country. Zhangye Danxia is known as the nation's most beautiful, though, with its uniquely shaped, multicolored rock face.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Wadi El-Hitan: Western Desert of Egypt

Wadi El-Hitan, or Whale Valley, is located in the Western Desert of Egypt and was designated a World Heritage Site because it features impressive numbers of fossils of an early whale species called Archaeoceti. These fossils are considered evidence that whales evolved from a land species to the ocean mammal we know today.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Ellora Caves: Maharashtra, India

Ellora features more than 100 rock-cut caves, 34 of which you can visit today, that date back to 600 to 1000 A.D. and served as Buddhist, Hindu and Jainist temples and monasteries.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Cocos Island: Costa Rica

As the only island in the eastern Pacific with a dense tropical rainforest, the climate and ecology of Cocos Island is particularly unique. Plus, with plenty of sharks, rays, tuna and dolphins swimming around, Cocos Island is a diver's paradise.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Studenica Monastery: Kraljevo, Serbia

This 12th-century monastery features two white marble monuments called the "Church of the Virgin" and the "Church of the King," and holds 13th- and 14th-century Byzantine-style fresco paintings.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral: Mtskheta, Georgia

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral is the second largest church in the nation and one of its most honored. It features impressive 11th-century architecture and is also believed to be where Christ's robe is buried.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Butrint: Vlorë, Albania

Butrint is an impressive archeological site located on the southwest coast of Albania, where an ancient city dating back to 800 B.C. once stood. The city was eventually abandoned during the Middle Ages after it flooded, but excavations began in 1994, so you can visit the ruins of the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Venetian civilizations that lived there over hundreds of years.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

St Kilda: Outer Hebrides, Scotland

Scotland's first UNESCO World Heritage Site is located off-shore from the Outer Hebrides (a chain of islands off the nation's west coast) and features unbelievable underwater caves and arches, making it a favorite spot for UK divers. The site is a natural wonder, with some of Europe's most dramatic cliffs and large numbers of rare birds like puffins.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Maya Devi Temple: Lumbini, Nepal

Lumbini was designated a world heritage site in 1997 because it is believed to be where Buddha was born in 623 B.C. Due to its religious significance, it's an important pilgrimage site for Buddhists, and features many monuments, monasteries and temples like the Maya Devi.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Portuguese City Of Mazagan: El Jadida, Morocco

Mazagan was built and settled by the Portuguese in the 16th century and then taken over by the Moroccans in the 18th century. The influences of both of the two dissimilar cultures are evident in the design of the structures you'll see in the city today.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Tabbataha Reef Marine Park: Philippines

Tabbataha Reef spans 502 miles and features an incomparable 328-foot tall wall of coral. It also contains vast varieties of marine animals, including fish, dolphins, sea turtles and more. The reef is part of the Coral Triangle (an area that encompasses the waters surrounding Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste), which is currently threatened by overfishing and climate change, meaning its diverse marine population is at risk.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Preach Vihear Temple: Preach Vihear, Cambodia

This 9th-century Hindu temple features awe-inspiring ancient architecture atop a cliff in the Dângrêk Mountains. The site just became safer for tourists in 2015, after a seven-year dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over who owned the land came to an end.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region: Meroe, Sudan

The Gebel Barkal is a 324-foot flat-topped mountain that has been sacred since it was deemed holy by Egyptians in 1500 B.C., and its still holy to Muslims who continue to visit it today. Here you'll also find sacred tombs, pyramids, temples and palaces that date as far back as 900 B.C., and span over a 37-mile stretch on the bank of the Nile.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Białowieża Forest: Belarus and Poland

Białowieża Forest contains nearly 548 miles of centuries-old wilderness that's been completely undisturbed by humans. The forest also holds a mystical landscape of meadows and river valleys, and is home to large populations of wolves, lynxes and otters.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List

Shibam: Central Yemen

Shibam was built in the 16th century and is surrounded by a massive protective wall. It's known as "the Manhattan of the desert" because of its tall high-rise mud brick buildings and grid layout.

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15 Stunning World Heritage Sites To Check Off Your Travel Bucket List