Speaking in Ayutthaya this week as part of a World Heritage Site celebration, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra expressed confidence that this year’s flood prevention plan will guard against a repeat of the 2011 floods that shuttered hundreds of factories and damaged 158 historic monuments.

In 1979, seven historic monumental zones in the Kathmandu Valley were collectively designated Asia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.  For scholars and tourists alike, these Hindu and Buddhist monuments are what immediately come to mind when picturing Nepal’s rich cultural heritage.  But according to a German architect who has been working in Nepal for four decades, it is only a matter of time before modernization wipes out the majority of the country’s ancient architecture.

Santiago Giraldo, Project Director of GHF Ciudad Perdida, logged on to Global Heritage Network (GHN) this week to make an exciting announcement:  A brand new suspension bridge has been built over the Buritaca River, greatly improving the safety of indigenous community members, guides and visitors.

The brand new Asia Society Hong Kong Center opened with a bang this week, as more than 400 guests gathered to celebrate the completion of a project over a decade in the works.  Among the event’s attendees was Jeff Morgan, Executive Director of GHF, which will partner with Asia Society to host another event in May.

In 1931, after earning his master’s degree in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Liang Sicheng returned to China where he joined a newly formed Beijing organization called the Institute for Research in Chinese Architecture.  For seven years he and his wife Lin Huiyin, one of China’s first female architects, lived in the courtyard house located at 24 Beizongbu Hutong, where together they completed their groundbreaking book, History of Chinese Architecture.

For the millions of Egyptians whose incomes depend on tourist money, a bleak economic outlook grew even bleaker this week after a soccer riot in Port Said left as many as 74 dead.  Considered the worst outbreak of violence since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown a year ago, the clashes were followed a day later by protests that resulted in injuries to nearly 400 people.

Since last November’s controversial vote to introduce Palestine as its 195th member, UNESCO has been eager to recoup the funding it lost when the U.S. and Israel withdrew their support for the organization — about 22 percent of the group’s annual budget.

Dug into the side of Mount Erusheli in southern Georgia, the ancient cave monastery of Vardzia is not just spectacular physically, it is also one of the region’s most important historical and cultural sites.

Every day, thousands of tourists visit Angkor to stare in amazement at its awesome temples and sculptural decorations.  And every day, after the complex closes, many of the young people who staff the site head straight to university to seize opportunities the likes of which their parents could not have dreamed.

Nearly two decades after a brutal war that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, displaced two million from their homes, and destroyed museums and libraries, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s top cultural institutions are again in imminent danger — this time because of political conflict and neglect.

Since its discovery by construction workers in West Bengal more than a century ago, the 2,500-year-old site of Chandraketugarh has been partially excavated, occasionally celebrated, but never adequately preserved.

With the 13th Maya calendar set to complete its cycle in December, one common interpretation is that this signifies “the end of the world as we know it.”  Scholars worldwide, however, have stressed that the completion of this 144,000-day “b’ak’tun” does not mean apocalypse but rather the dawn of a new age.  And to commemorate the historic event, GHF has named 2012 the “Year of the Maya.”

As physical conservation and community development progress at Banteay Chhmar, the international community is finally beginning to see what unique and historic treasures have remained hidden for so long in the remote jungles of northwestern Cambodia.

The results are in from China’s most recent national heritage census — the first in more than 20 years — and they’re not good.

For months leading up to the overthrow of Muammar el-Gaddafi, Libya’s cultural heritage sites — which include some of Africa’s most spectacular ancient Greek and Roman ruins — faced the fire of NATO air strikes.  Thankfully, they survived.

As Heritage on the Wire reported last month, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage treaty, which was signed in Paris in 1972.  Over four decades, the list has expanded to include 936 of the world’s most important cultural and natural heritage landmarks.  But with new sites being added every year, there is confrontation brewing between developed and developing nations over the list’s exclusivity.

After a year that saw border tension boil over between Cambodia and Thailand, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of both countries met in Phnom Penh this week to discuss a range of issues stemming from the deadly clashes at Preah Vihear temple in February.  It was the first visit by Thailand’s Surapong Tovichakchaikul to Cambodia since the Thai change of government in August.

In March, GHF launched Global Heritage Network (GHN), the first early warning and threat monitoring system devoted exclusively to saving endangered cultural heritage sites in developing countries.  Since then, GHN has attracted hundreds of conservation experts around the world, collected and publicized key information about an expanding number of endangered cultural sites, and been profiled by major media outlets such as National Geographic and USA Today.

In the 1920s, when commercial planes began flying across the Nazca Desert in southern Peru, passengers reported seeing “primitive landing strips” on the ground below. Closer studies by anthropologists revealed a series of ancient geoglyphs spanning some 50 miles of arid plateau, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized monkeys, spiders, hummingbirds, fish, sharks, orcas, llamas and lizards.

On October 20th, GHF hosted the Forum on Cultural Heritage in a Developing World at Spencer House in London, England.  The event, which was attended by a select group of powerful and influential decision-makers, is now available online with audio, photographs and speaker profiles.

For centuries, Qalhat was one of the most important ports on the Arabian coast, a key part of the Indian Ocean trade and the second city in the Kingdom of Ormus.

Mirador will be featured on tonight’s episode of The Ancient Life, a 3D show that explores the intrigue and uncovers the mysteries of once dynamic and thriving civilizations. The program airs at 9pm ET/PT on 3net, a new 3D television channel created by Discovery, Sony, and IMAX.

After two years of collaboration with PACUNAM (Fundación Patrimonio Cultural y Natural Maya), FARES (Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies) and the Guatemalan government, GHF is pleased to announce the completion of the Archaeological Development Plan for the Mirador Cultural and Natural System.  It will be unveiled on December 8th at Guatemala’s National Palace of Culture in the presence of current and past government officials, diplomats, international agencies and foundations, archaeology experts, project managers, partners and friends.

On November 9th, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova launched the 40th anniversary celebrations for the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, a unique international treaty that linked for the first time the concepts of nature conservation and preservation of cultural properties.

Last month in Beijing, the Communist Party of China (CPC) held a series of meetings to discuss cultural reforms and how they can impact social and economic development. At the end of the session, the committee adopted a guideline aimed at boosting China’s soft power and maintaining cultural security following the ongoing economic boom.

Marcahuamachuco, a monumental complex situated atop a highland plateau, was once the most important political, economic and religious center in northern Peru. Some 1,600 years old, archaeologists estimate that its last inhabitants left around the 13th century, two centuries before the arrival of the Incas.  The complex remains shrouded in mystery, with parts still buried under centuries of accumulated earth.

John Sanday FSA OBE, GHF’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, was profiled last week by The Financial Times in an article detailing his celebrated career as a conservationist and architect.

“In the wake of Muammar el-Gaddafi’s fall, Libya’s major cities are flooded with arms and the detritus of war, tribal divisions are on display, and the new Interim Transitional National Council is uncertain in authority, direction and voice. 

On November 4th in Huamachuco, Peru, representatives from GHF and the Unidad Ejecutora Marcahuamachuco (UEM) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to officially commence GHF conservation of Marcahuamachuco, a pre-Inca city regarded by many archaeologists as “Machu Picchu of the North.”

On October 20th, GHF hosted The Forum on Cultural Heritage in a Developing World at Spencer House in London, England.  The forum’s aims were to develop awareness among a select group of influential decision makers about the threats facing many cultural heritage sites across the developing world; identify innovative solutions to protect, preserve and manage these sites; and multiply funding for heritage preservation in these regions.

Palestine was granted full membership to UNESCO on Monday, a landmark event that allows Palestinians the right to nominate heritage sites of outstanding universal value for inclusion on the World Heritage list.  It becomes the organization’s 195th member.

Late last week, we reported on Libya’s cultural heritage surviving amidst civil war, as well as hopes for a tourism boom in the wake of the conflict. Two days later, following the capture and killing of head of state Muammar Gaddafi, the country began its transition into a new era of governance and opportunity.

Since civil war broke out in Libya at the beginning of 2011, the state of the country’s cultural heritage has been extremely precarious.  Security and visa issues have halted virtually all tourism, while conservation projects such as that funded by Global Heritage Fund (GHF) at Cyrene have been temporarily shut down.

We’re excited to announce that the most recent issue of Archaeologies, the official journal of the World Archaeological Congress (WAC), prominently features GHF as part of a forum demonstrating the diversity of heritage work being done today.

Rediscovered by looters in the 1970s, Ciudad Perida (meaning “Lost City”) was built on a mountainside and today contains the ruins of an ancient city founded around 800 AD. Though it has been studied by the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH—GHF’s local partner), relatively little is understood about the vast site, which is comprised of circular platforms connected by steep stone staircases hundreds of meters above the valley.

For the past year, we have been covering a site called Mes Aynak, where archaeologists are racing against the clock to excavate an ancient Buddhist monastery. The reason for the rush: a Chinese mining company that is scheduled to develop the overlapping copper mine (the second-largest unexploited copper mine in the world) in less than three years. The deal is expected to secure more than $3 billion for Afghanistan’s struggling economy, but the payoff is bittersweet for those troubled by the loss of such magnificent cultural heritage.

In 1997, Pingyao was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status for its exceptional preservation of an intact, classic Han Chinese city from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Fourteen years after its inscription, and some 750 years after being founded, Pingyao has again been honored as one of China’s top cultural cities.

In the year of Machu Picchu’s 100th anniversary of rediscovery, another lesser-known — but no less important — archaeological site in Peru is getting some much-deserved publicity: Marcahuamachuco, GHF’s newest project site.

GHF is pleased to announce that Global Heritage Network (GHN), an early warning and collaborative solutions platform for cultural heritage sites in developing countries, was the recent subject of a National Geographic online report.

GHF has been investigating a multi-year project of historic monument conservation, community development, training and cultural heritage revitalization for the National History Park of Haiti, inscribed in 1982 as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

On the Konya Plain in southern Anatolia lies one of the world’s most fascinating places: Çatalhöyük, the largest and best preserved Neolithic site found to date. So far, it has revealed the world’s earliest extensive mural art—remarkable narratives that show bulls and other animals being hunted by people wearing leopard skins, vultures taking the flesh from headless corpses—and many experts see it as crucial to understanding the origin of civilization in Turkey and the Middle East.

Dr. Dan Thompson is GHF’s Director of Global Projects and Global Heritage Network (GHN). He joined GHF full time in January 2008, having previously conducted fieldwork at GHF-supported projects in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala, and at Ani and Çatalhöyük, both in Turkey.

In southern Laos, tucked between the base of mount Phu Kao and the banks of the Mekong River, sits a stunning complex of 1,000-year-old monuments known as Wat Phu (temple-mountain). Dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, it is part of the Champasak cultural landscape, a remarkably well-preserved planned landscape designed to express the Hindu vision of the relationship between nature and humanity, using an axis from mountaintop to riverbank to lay out a geometric pattern of temples, shrines and waterworks spanning some 10 kilometers.

With a history of civilization that dates back as far as virtually any place on earth, Syria is one of the world’s richest countries in terms of cultural heritage. Sadly, many of its most historic and celebrated sites are at risk due to both natural and man-made factors, leaving the future of Syria’s cultural heritage in a constant—and increasing—state of jeopardy.

Dr. Vincent Michael, a member of GHF’s Senior Advisory Board (SAB), recently visited Pingyao, where GHF has been working since 2007 to preserve the vernacular architecture, revitalize and stimulate traditional arts, and establish special historic areas. Dr. Michael summarized the trip in an article on his excellent blog, detailing the progress of GHF’s conservation work at Pingyao Ancient City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is considered the first banking capital of China.

National Geographic recently featured Göbekli Tepe on the cover its June 2011 issue, in an eight-page story titled “The Birth of Religion.” The article, which discussed how Göbekli Tepe is reshaping ideas about the Neolithic Revolution and the dawn of civilization, brought more attention than ever before to the ancient site, which had never had a conservation program prior to becoming a GHF project site.

For the past 15 years, Nhok Lo has been steadily gathering experience as a restoration worker at various projects around his native Cambodia. With no formal education in conservation, his skills and knowledge have grown with each new responsibility, and in 2008, he was hired by project director John Sanday to move from Siem Reap to join the GHF Banteay Chhmar team.

On March 11th, when a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the eastern shores of Japan, a coastal town called Rikuzentakata was among the most violently hit. Approximately 10 percent of its 23,000 residents were killed by the disaster, including one third of its city officials, while the downtown core was turned to rubble. Among the destroyed buildings was a municipal museum—at once a safe haven for the town’s most important cultural relics, then suddenly a ruin.

Halji village, located in northwestern Nepal’s remote Humla district, is a settlement of approximately 400 inhabitants. Best known for its 1000-year-old monastery, a potential World Heritage Site, the village has also become increasingly popular among trekkers due to its position at the end of the Great Himalayan Trail.

As we reported last November, French and Afghan archaeologists have been working feverishly to excavate Mes Aynak, a 9,800-acre site in eastern Afghanistan that contains the ruins of an ancient Buddhist settlement. Since then, the conservation team has expanded to include more than 100 laborers, but the site remains on track for demolition.