Desert castles of ancient Khorezm, a temple in Barcelona, a monastery in Bhutan and a cemetery in New Orleans all feature on the 2010 World Monuments Watch List.
The roll calls international attention to cultural heritage sites around the world threatened by neglect, vandalism, conflict or disaster.
This year's list comprises 93 sites now at risk across 47 countries and includes schools, libraries, places of worship, roadways, bridges, parks, cultural landscapes, cave art, tombs and castles.
Traditional townhouses in Kyoto, Japan, known as machiya, (pictured here) are also under threat. In these houses, dating back as far as the 1600s, merchants and craftspeople combined their homes and livelihoods under one roof, and the machiya are considered the model of their type in Japan. However, they are now being torn down and replaced with new, denser properties, diminishing the architectural and cultural history of the Kyoto cityscape.
Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund, said “The sites on the 2010 Watch list make a dramatic case for the need to bring together a variety of sectors — economic, environmental, heritage preservation and social — when we are making plans as stewards of the Earth for the next generation.”
