A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain range, lake, desert, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated for the international World Heritage program administered by UNESCO.
The program aims to catalogue, name, and preserve sites of outstanding importance, either cultural or natural, to the common heritage of humankind (exact criteria (http://whc.unesco.org/criteria.htm#debut)). Listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund under certain conditions. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage that was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972.
As of 2004, a total of 788 sites have been included in the list (611 cultural, 154 natural and 23 mixed properties in 134 States Parties).
As a signatory to the WorldHeritage Convention, the United States of America participates in the deliberations that lead to cultural, natural, and mixed properties being inscribed on the WorldHeritageList.
The WorldHeritageList as a whole is managed by a WorldHeritage Committee made up of representatives from signatory countries, supported by a secretariat, known as the WorldHeritage Centre, which is based in the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.
A Tentative List is a national list of natural and cultural properties that appear to meet the eligibility criteria for nomination to the WorldHeritageList.
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