{"id":5788,"date":"2022-12-23T10:04:03","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T04:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=5788"},"modified":"2025-03-27T10:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T05:25:15","slug":"gujarats-vadnagar-included-in-the-tentative-list-of-unesco-world-heritage-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/gujarats-vadnagar-included-in-the-tentative-list-of-unesco-world-heritage-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Gujarat\u2019s Vadnagar included in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Vadnagar:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Vadnagar, a city known by names like Vridhanagar, Anandapur, Anantapur and Nagar, is said to have been inhabited uninterruptedly for<strong> over 2,700 years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The town represents a continuously evolving historic urban landscape\/area which played a major role in the hinterland trade network of Western India.<\/li>\n<li>The continuity of the historic town proves its resilience and outstanding universal value unlike the sites like <strong>Harappa and Kalibangan, (Rajasthan)<\/strong> which were abandoned eventually.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Significance:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The town\u2019s fortifications, arched gateways (toranas), temples, wells, residential structures (kothis) <\/strong>and excavated sites like <strong>Buddhist monasteries and dedicated stupas<\/strong> showcase the architectural influence of various cultural periods.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>extensive water management system<\/strong> here has also played a role in the town\u2019s continuity.<\/li>\n<li>The study of the historical geography of ancient India reveals Vadnagar was situated at a strategic location of two major ancient trade routes:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>one joining central India with the Sindh and further northwest regions, while another connected the port towns on Gujarat\u2019s coast to northern India.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Excavated cowry shells<\/strong> traced to the Maldives further imply involvement in <strong>overseas trade.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>A gold coin,<\/strong> believed to be from <strong>the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt<\/strong> that dated back to the 15th century, was also found.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The first excavations in Vadnagar happened in 1953-54<\/strong> and were later taken up by the Gujarat state archaeology and museum directorate in 2006.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Vadnagar: A centre of Buddhism:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Chinese traveller <strong>Xuanzang or Hieun Tsang<\/strong> is said to have visited Vadnagar around 641 AD, referring to it as \u2018<strong>Anandpur\u2019<\/strong> in his writings, which also record how more than 1,000 monks of the <strong>Sammitiya School or Little Vehicle lived in 10 monasteries at Vadnagar.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>What is World Heritage Site and how is a place declared as one?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A World Heritage Site<\/strong> is a location with an \u201coutstanding universal value\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>This signifies \u201c<strong>cultural and\/or natural significance<\/strong> which is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity\u201d.<\/li>\n<li><strong>According to the World Heritage Convention\u2019s <\/strong>operational guidelines, a tentative list is an \u201cinventory\u201d of properties a country believes deserve to be a <strong>World Heritage Site.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>After UNESCO includes a place in the Tentative List, that country has to prepare a nomination document that will be considered by the <strong>UNESCO World Heritage Committee.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>This will be followed by a UNESCO evaluation and an inspection by their representative.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites are there in India ?<\/h3>\n<p>As on 2022, India has 40 world heritage sites that include 32 Cultural properties, 7 Natural properties, and 1 mixed site.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-culture\/vadnagar-gujarat-history-unesco-world-heritage-list-8337921\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The history of Gujarat\u2019s Vadnagar, included in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vadnagar represents continuously evolving historic urban area with major role in hinterland trade network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}