The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972. [1] Lesotho accepted the convention, making its historical sites eligible for inclusion on the list. As of 2023, Lesotho has only one World Heritage Site, Maloti-Drakensberg Park, which it's shared with South Africa. [2]
| Name | Image | Location | Criteria | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maloti-Drakensberg Park |  | Qacha's Nek District | Mixed (i) (iii) (vii) (x) | 2000 | The Maloti-Drakensberg Park is a transnational property composed of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg National Park in South Africa and the Sehlathebe National Park in Lesotho. The site has exceptional natural beauty in its soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks, and golden sandstone ramparts as well as visually spectacular sculptured arches, caves, cliffs, pillars and rock pools. The site's diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic and globally important plants. The site harbors endangered species such as the Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) and the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus). Lesotho’s Sehlabathebe National Park also harbors the Maloti minnow (Pseudobarbus quathlambae), a critically endangered fish species only found in this park. This spectacular natural site contains many caves and rock-shelters with the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa south of the Sahara. They represent the spiritual life of the San people, who lived in this area over a period of 4,000 years. [3] |
| Site | Image | Location | Criteria | Area ha (acre) | Year of submission | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thaba-Bosiu National Monument |  | Maseru District 29°21′01″S27°40′17″E / 29.3503°S 27.6713°E | Cultural (iii) (v) | 2008 | [4] |
The Drakensberg is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – 2,000 to 3,482 metres within the border region of South Africa and Lesotho.
The Maloti-Drakensberg Park is a World Heritage Site, established on 11 June 2001 by linking the Sehlabathebe National Park in the Kingdom of Lesotho and the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The highest peak is Thaba Ntlenyana rising to 3,482 metres.
As of September 2023, there are a total of 1,199 World Heritage Sites located across 168 countries, of which 933 are cultural, 227 are natural, and 39 are mixed properties. The countries have been divided by the World Heritage Committee into five geographic zones: Africa, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean. With 59 selected areas, Italy is the country with the most sites; followed by China with 57, then France and Germany with 52 each.
The Sehlabathebe National Park is located in the Maloti Mountains in Qacha's Nek District, Lesotho and is part of the Maloti-Drakensberg World Heritage Site. The park was first established on 8 May 1969 and since then, it is recognised important in terms of biological diversity and cultural heritage. The landscape is dominated by a grassland of various types. The larger ecosystem functions provide freshwater to Lesotho, South Africa, and Namibia.
The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park is a protected area in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, covering 2,428.13 km2 (938 sq mi), and is part of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park, a World Heritage Site. The park includes Royal Natal National Park, a provincial park, and covers part of the Drakensberg, an escarpment formation with the highest elevations in southern Africa.
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