World Heritage Map(2)

Build Friendships and Share Dreams with People Across the World!

 Do you want to build friendships and share dreams with people across the world?
To build true global friendships, there is one precondition.
That is to learn and respect their culture and history.

To help you do so, VANK created a map of world cultural assets that introduce you to the world’s history and culture. The map includes 40 cultural assets around the world.

Did you know that the legendary Troy actually exists in Turkey? In Spain, the church that Antoni Gaudi started in 1883 is still under construction. In Zimbabwe, impressive stone edifices were built by the indigenous Shona people from the 11^th to the 15^th century. In Korea, Jikji, the world’s oldest extant book printed with movable metal type, was printed in 1377. In Peru, an ancient city in the clouds was built at 2,430 meters above sea level on the slopes of the Andes by the Incas.

Did we miss cultural assets in your or your friends’ countries? Tell us about them.

Are you interested in making Korean friends? Visit the VANK website! Here you will find Korean friends, who will introduce you to Korean culture and history. → Friendly Korea Community: chingu.prkorea.com

① Jikji
Jikji is the world’s oldest existing book printed with movable metal type. It is a collection of Buddhist teachings, printed at Heungdeok Temple in Cheongju, Korea, in 1377. It was found and made public in 1972 by Korean historian Dr. Byeongseon Park (1929-2011), a librarian at the National Library of France at the time. Its appearance surprised the world. Until then, Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible, printed in 1455, was believed to be the oldest book ever printed with movable metal type. Historically, Korea has had an advanced printing technology. The Mugujeonggwang Daedaranigyeong, the world’s oldest book printed with wooden blocks, was printed in 751. Before Jikji was printed, Korea already had the advanced metal-casting, paper-making, and inkstick-making techniques that are necessary for movable metal type printing. Joseon (1392-1910) installed a government office dedicated to casting metal type and printing and published many books.

② Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is a temple in northern Cambodia, built by Suryavarman II (r. 1113-1150)of the Khmer empire in the 12^th century. It was originally a Hindu temple and was later converted to a Buddhist temple. It is a huge complex in the shape of a rectangle of 1,000 meters from east to west and 800 meters from south to north, surrounded by a 200-meter-wide moat. The temple is made up of three levels with a 65-meter-high central tower and four surrounding towers on the third level. Its architecture, sculptures, and bas-relief carvings are exquisite. Angkor Archaeological Park contains over 1,000 temples, representative of Khmer architecture, religion, and art. Besides Angkor Wat, the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom and the Ta Prohm temple are among the most popular.

③ Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a palace-mausoleum in the Indian city of Agra, which was the capital of the Mughal Empire. During his reign (1628-1658), Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in memory of his late wife Mumtaz Mahal. Numerous resources were used to build the enormous mausoleum. During its 22 years of construction, architects and engineers were brought in from Italy, France, and Iran, and over 20,000 workers were put to work. Past the main gate, a 300-meter-long water channel stretches toward the impressive white marble mausoleum. The mausoleum is elegantly decorated with geometric patterns, Quran verses, and precious stones.

④ Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu was an ancient city of the Inca Empire built at 2,430 meters above sea level on the slopes of the Andes. The Inca Empire ruled the Andes region of South America from the 15^th to the early 16^th century. Due to its location on a high mountain range, this ancient Inca site remained hidden for centuries. Spreading across 32,592ha, Machu Picchu contains elaborate stone temples, palaces, houses, and agricultural terraces. Carved into the steep mountainside, the stepped agricultural terraces occupy the largest area of this archeological site. Machu Picchu relics, mostly built on mountain slopes, seamlessly blend in with their natural surroundings. Machu Picchu is also an ecological sanctuary that houses diverse wildlife in dense forests.

⑤ Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza is the ancient Mayan-Toltec city site on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The Mayan civilization was developed by the Mayans in Central America, several centuries. The Mayans made remarkable advancements in many areas, including architecture, sculpture, astronomy, and mathematics. They settled in Chichen Itza in the mid-fifth century but suddenly abandoned the area in the late seventh century. In the 10^th century, Chichen Itza rose again as a religious and political center in the region. Surviving buildings, such as the Warriors’ Temple, El Castillo pyramid (also known as the Temple of Kukulcan), and the circular observatory of El Caracol, reveal the height of the Mayan-Toltec civilization.

⑥ Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is the tomb complex of the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BC) in the city of Xian in northwest China. Qin Shi Huang unified China and declared himself emperor for the first time in Chinese history. The famous terracotta army was discovered in 1974 by local farmers digging a well, around 1km east of the mausoleum. Thousands of life-size clay soldiers and horses and bronze chariots and weapons were found in the pits. A total of four pits have been excavated. Pit #1 is the largest at 210 meters long and 60 meters wide. Each clay warrior is different in facial features, expressions, and styles.

⑦ Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric stone monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. It remains a mystery who and why they built it. This mysterious monument is made up of 80 stones, mainly shale and bluestone, standing up to 8 meters high and weighing 50 tons each, in a circular formation. These giant standing stones are surrounded by a 98-meter-diameter circular ditch. In 1963, the renowned British scientific journal Nature published a theory that Stonehenge was an astronomical observatory. However, this theory still has not been proven. Thus, we still question: Who and why did they build Stonehenge?

⑧ Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles is a Baroque-style palace in the city of Versailles, southwest of Paris, France. It was originally Louis XIII’s hunting lodge. Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) turned it into a luxurious palace complex by building the palace and massive gardens. In 1682, the Sun King moved his court and government to the Palace of Versailles, which was the center of politics until the royal family was forced to move to Paris in 1789 during the French Revolution. At its center lie the bedrooms of the king and the queen and lavish rooms, such as the Hall of Mirrors. Its vast gardens with flowers, trees, fountains, and canals are considered the first of its kind and scale for a European garden.

⑨ Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible
Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible, printed in 1455, is the first book printed with movable metal type in Europe. It contains 1,282 pages with two columns of 42 lines on each page. In the mid-15^th century, Johannes Gutenberg(1390s-1468) invented movable metal type printing technology at his printing workshop in Mainz, Germany. With movable type, he printed 180 copies of the Bible for three years, which was the amount of time a scribe took to copy the entire Bible before the printing press. His invention made a significant contribution to spreading knowledge and information by increasing the efficiency of printing.

⑩ Sagrada Familia
The Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Spain. It was designed and constructed by legendary Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926). He took charge of this project in 1883, fundamentally changed its initial design, and dedicated over 40 years of his life to constructing the church until his death. This church shows his creativity and strong religious faith. It has three grand facades that depict the birth, ordeal, and glory of Christ. Only the birth facade was completed during his lifetime. This unfinished masterpiece is still being constructed.

⑪ Archaeological Areas of Pompei
Pompei was an ancient Roman city, southeast of Naples in Italy. It was a vacation destination for the Roman nobility and a thriving commercial center. However, the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79 A.D. abruptly buried the prosperous city under volcanic ash. The excavation of Pompei began in the mid-18^th century, revealing houses, theaters, roads, and shops of the time nearly intact. A thick blanket of volcanic ash over the city preserved the relics. Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli’s excavation team poured plaster into the cavities in the ash, creating incredible replicas of the Pompeian victims.

⑫ Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is a stone slab that made a breakthrough in deciphering ancient Egyptian writing. It was discovered in 1799 near the town of Rosetta in the Nile Delta by Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition troops. The black granite slab of 72cm wide, 114cm long, and 27cm thick was inscribed with three versions of a decree in hieroglyphs, Demotic, and ancient Greek. After many scholars’ attempts to decode the text for over twenty years, French linguist Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832) finally decrypted the hieroglyphs in 1822. Deciphering the Rosetta Stone opened the door to understanding the Egyptian civilization.

⑬ Great Zimbabwe National Monument
Great Zimbabwe National Monument is the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, built by the Shona people in the 11^th century. Great Zimbabwe was built and occupied until the mid-15^th century. Spreading across the area of 80ha, it was once inhabited by over 10,000 residents at its peak. Its 11-meter-high stone walls were built without mortar. Its first introduction to Europeans in 1871 sparked a large controversy because Europeans struggled to accept the architectural mastery of indigenous Africans. The Zimbabwean government designated the ruins as a national monument and took its name after Great Zimbabwe.

⑭ Petra
Petra is an ancient city site in the mountains of southwest Jordan. It was built by the nomadic Arabian tribe of the Nabataeans in the 7^thcentury B.C. Located at the crossroads of main trade routes, Petra flourished culturally and economically. Passing the narrow gorge passage called the Siq, the red sandstone temples, tombs, and other public buildings appear. The Nabataeans had sophisticated water management systems, enabling them to build a large city in the desert. Al-Khazneh, standing 43 meters high and 30 meters wide, is the most iconic monument in Petra, blending ancient Eastern traditions with Hellenistic architecture.

⑮ Archaeological Site of Troy
Troy is an ancient city site in western Turkey. It was discovered by German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890). Since the first excavations in 1870, the remains of nine ancient cities were found in this site. Two of them were new to archeologists. Schliemann didn’t find the Troy that he was looking for. He believed that the second layer of the site was the Troy in Homer’s Iliad, but it later turned out to be the seventh layer. He is often criticized for the destruction of Troy during excavations. However, his dedication to Troy and his role in transforming legend to history are undeniable.