According to multiple reports out of Timbuktu, militants from the Ansar Dine Islamist group have attacked and burned the tomb of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It’s the first major destruction of a shrine in Mali, and a clear warning to the rest of the country’s cultural heritage sites.

With its first post-Mubarak presidential election just days away, Egypt’s political turmoil has been the focus of global headlines for well over a year. Since the popular uprising in January 2011, instability and a lack of security have plagued the country’s heritage sites, not only in terms of tourism, but looting as well.

Three California-based organizations — the India Community Center, Pakistani American Culture Center, and 1947 Partition Archive — teamed up on April 29th in Milpitas to host the first annual Indus Heritage Day, designed to celebrate shared South Asian histories.  This year’s festivities focused on the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, a highly advanced but little known culture that was at its height more than 4,000 years ago.

One goal of last Thursday’s The Forum on Global Heritage in a Developing World: Focus on Asia, hosted in partnership with the Asia Society in New York, was to “increase public awareness of a global crisis.” So far, the results have been promising, with several major media outlets helping to spread GHF’s message.

Professor Herb Stovel, a Canadian conservationist who spent four decades leading efforts to protect cultural heritage sites around the world, passed away last month after a long battle with cancer.  Stovel was one of the world’s most renowned experts in heritage conservation, and GHF would like to recognize his many contributions to the field.

In Bogota last month for the Sixth Summit of the Americas, the Presidents of Chile and Colombia took a day trip to the ancient site of Ciudad Perdida, where they were greeted by GHF’s very own Dr. Santiago Giraldo.

GHF had a day to remember at the Asia Society in New York on May 3rd, hosting The Forum on Global Heritage in a Developing World: Focus on Asia, a discussion of development challenges facing Asia’s most important and endangered heritage sites. The event featured a diverse program of speakers and panelists, and was well-attended by leading experts in conservation, development, venture philanthropy, technology, travel, academia and media.

From April 27 to May 1, young Peruvian professionals will gather at Pachacamac, an archaeological site south of Lima, for the 3rd International Workshop on Conservation of Structures.  The event, organized by Peru’s Ministry of Culture with support from GHF, will help train aspiring conservationists and develop the practical skills of those who safeguard the country’s many historic cultural sites.

Few of Earth’s ancient cities have the mystique to match Timbuktu.  During its golden age in medieval times, Timbuktu was a thriving desert trading capital, as well as an intellectual and spiritual center, from which Islam spread throughout Africa.  Since then, the city has fallen into serious decline, suffering from poverty and desertification.  Now it faces another threat:  war and conflict.

The grand opening of what Turkey plans to be the “biggest museum in the world” may be more than a decade away (the republic celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023), but the country’s government appears eager to recover what it says are illegally excavated antiquities from institutions around the world.

To celebrate the 40-year anniversary of UNESCO World Heritage, Current World Archaeology (CWA), a popular British world archaeology magazine, has launched a new webpage in partnership with GHF to raise awareness of important and endangered cultural heritage sites, what we can do to save them, and how they can improve the lives of future generations across the developing world.

Many of the world’s major cultural heritage sites went dark last week to recognize Earth Hour, a worldwide event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to raise awareness about climate change.

For nearly a decade, conservationists at My Son Sanctuary in Vietnam have enjoyed tremendous support from the government of Italy.  Now, thanks to a new grant of $250,000 over the next two years, “Safeguarding of My Son World Heritage” will enter a third phase of restoration and conservation.

Last week we wrote about the return of foreign archaeologists to Iraq, where much of the country’s ancient treasures remain buried and unexplored.  Among the difficulties now facing heritage authorities is how to deal with Iraqis who have taken up residence among the ruins.

On February 28th, in the presence of HRH The Duke of Gloucester, GHF Europe (UK) hosted a reception to celebrate four years of conservation success at Banteay Chhmar, Cambodia.  More than 50 guests gathered in the newly restored Chapter Hall of London’s Museum of St. John to hear John Sanday FSA OBE, GHF’s Director for Asia & Pacific, describe progress and new technologies being used at the site.

Since the overthrow of ruler Muammar Gaddafi last October, much has been made about how newly free Libya should go about building its new identity.  This week, a CNN special report by Alia Al-Senussi focuses on the potential of Libya’s history to help heal and develop the country as it makes that transition.

Looting is not a new problem for Syrian cultural authorities.  Despite harsh punishments doled out to offenders (up to 20 years in prison), gangs of looters have operated in the country for years, smuggling artifacts over the border to satisfy antiquities markets in Europe and the US.  But a government memo leaked earlier this month suggests that the current conflict has put Syrian cultural sites at an even greater danger of organized looting.

On December 17th, the same day the last U.S. troops left Iraq, a group of archaeologists from Stony Brook University arrived in the country, becoming one of the first foreign archaeology teams to visit in more than 20 years.

In 2004, Vietnam’s My Son Sanctuary — imperiled at the time by Vietnam War damage, illegal looting, deterioration from exposure, overall decay, and vegetation overgrowth — became the focus of a GHF project.  After successful efforts to support urgently needed stabilization, archaeological documentation, planning, site conservation and training, My Son was declared a “Completed Project” in 2006.

Spread over nearly one million acres, the Maya Biosphere in Petén, Guatemala, is home to not only some of the world’s most important archaeological sites but also a diverse ecosystem with a vast array of flora and fauna.  Faced with a number of human-made threats in recent decades, the reserve’s tropical forests are finally getting the protection they need thanks to initiatives like the newly signed Carmelita Conservation Incentive Agreement.

On its first day as a full-fledged UNESCO member state, Palestinian officials wasted no time announcing plans to submit the names of 20 sites in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza for nomination to the World Heritage List.

The Kalash are a unique tribal community living in the Hindu Kush mountain range, in Pakistan’s wild northwest frontier. A popular tale tells of their descent from members of Alexander the Great’s army, which tore through the mountains more than 2,000 years ago. DNA tests have apparently found no actual connection, but the myth has persisted well enough to play a key role in Kalash tourism.

Since the violence that erupted in Syria nearly one year ago — a war that has so far left thousands dead and become one of the world’s biggest stories — the damage to the country’s ancient cities and cultural sites as a result of the conflict has remained largely unknown.

As leaders of Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia gather in Lamu this week to celebrate the beginning of the “Lapsset” project (Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport and Economic Development Corridor), Kenya’s government has assured Lamu residents that heritage sites will not be affected.

Göbekli Tepe, the world’s oldest known ceremonial center, will be conserved with the help of two new funding pledges:  a $400,000 in-country matching fund pledge from the Vehbi Koç Foundation and a $125,000 pledged donation from the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

Dotting the landscape of Xieng Khouang Plateau in Laos are thousands of megalithic jars — part of an archaeological landscape aptly named the Plain of Jars.  The structures, carved mainly from sandstone, granite or limestone, have been associated with the funerary customs of ancient inhabitants who occupied the area during the Iron Age (500 BCE - 500 CE).

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.