Includes 25 Cultural Heritage Sites at Risk from Economic, Political, and Natural Threats.

World Monuments Fund (WMF) today announced the 2018 World Monuments Watch, presenting a diverse group of cultural heritage sites that face daunting threats, including human conflict, natural disaster, climate change, and urbanization, or present unique conservation opportunities. The list features 25 sites spanning more than 30 countries and territories, dating from prehistory to the twentieth century.

Among the sites, the 2018 Watch includes areas affected by the recent string of hurricanes and earthquakes that will need emergency assessment and conservation for damaged cultural heritage (Disaster Sites of the Caribbean, the Gulf, and Mexico); a collection of little-known homes, churches and community centers in Alabama where pivotal events of the Civil Rights Movement took place (Alabama Civil Rights Sites, United States); a once-vibrant marketplace burned amid fighting between the Syrian government and insurgents (Souk of Aleppo, Syria); a trio of historic piers threatened by the effects of climate change (Blackpool Piers, England); one of two remaining synagogues in a once-flourishing Jewish community (Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, Alexandria, Egypt); a collection of vulnerable modern architecture conceived as hopeful symbols of a newly independent nation (Post-Independence Architecture of Delhi, India); and the last-remaining rural passenger railway in Chile (Ramal Talca-Constitución, Chile).

The biennial World Monuments Watch aims to protect history, preserve memory, and strengthen social bonds by bringing these sites and their challenges to an international stage and identifying opportunities for local communities to collaborate with preservation agencies, governments, and corporate sponsors.