For the first time in their history, the Comoros have a site on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Busan, South Korea, since 19 July, inscribed six historic towns of the Indian Ocean island nation on Saturday – inhabited medinas of palaces, mosques, public squares and narrow lanes whose oldest parts, according to the nomination documents, date back to the 12th century.
Four of the old towns lie on the main island of Grande Comore, two on Anjouan. UNESCO traces their beginnings to at least the 11th century; in the 14th and 15th centuries they grew into city-states and later became the principal centres of the sultanates of the archipelago. The country, about 300 kilometres off the East African coast and home today to some 870,000 people, was for centuries a hub of maritime trade between East Africa, the Middle East and Madagascar. It is precisely that exchange – commerce as well as migration – that UNESCO sees written into the layout and architecture of the towns.
Among the best known is the 14th-century medina of the capital, Moroni, with its Friday Mosque and green minaret facing the dhow harbour. Nearby Itsandra is regarded as a cradle of Swahili culture; further south, Iconi holds the tomb of Prince Said Ibrahim, son of the last sultan of Grande Comore.
Recognition that comes with obligations
For the Comoros the decision is more than a title. Many of the old buildings are in poor condition, UNESCO rates the oldest structures as highly vulnerable, and criticism of unchecked urbanisation comes from within the country itself. "This listing is not a finish line but a starting point," culture minister Said Mohamed Ali Said told the news agency AFP in Busan, describing a moment of immense national pride. The inscription imposes duties, he said, but also opens doors – for conservation as much as for careful cultural tourism. The medinas are precisely not museum pieces: people still pray, trade and celebrate there.
The Comoros were not the only country to gain ground this weekend. Also newly listed are the Okefenokee swamp in the US state of Georgia – one of the world's largest freshwater ecosystems, whose peat beds preserve 5,000 years of environmental history, and the first US wildlife refuge to hold World Heritage status – the Aqaba Marine Reserve in Jordan, the cliffs along Denmark's Limfjord with fossils up to 56 million years old, and a 13th-century Buddhist temple in southern Thailand. Worldwide, the list now covers more than 1,250 sites in 171 countries.