1970 - Protection of Mankind's Cultural Heritage Sites and Monuments

Protection of
mankind’s
cultural heritage
Sites and monuments .
Unesco
Published in 1970 by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
Place de Fontenoy, 75 Paris-7e
Printed by Imprimeries Oberthur, Rennes
0 Unesco 1970 Printed in France COM.69/11.28/A

Unesco and its programme
In this series:
Teachers for the schools of tomorrow

by Jean Thomas
The right to education

by Louis Franqois
Children’s progress
by Richard Greenough
In partnership with youth
Four statements on the race question
Protection of mankind’s cultural

heritage. Sites and monuments
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CONSTITUTION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL,
SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL
ORGANIZATION
Article I. Purposes and functions

1. The purpose of the Organization is to contribute to peace and
security by promoting collaboration among the nations
through education, science and culture in order to further
universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the
human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed
for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex,
language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.
2. To realize this purpose the Organization will:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(c) Maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge; by assuring
the conservation and protection of the world’s inheritance
of books, works of art and monuments of history and
science, and recommending to the nations concerned the
necessary international conventions. . . .
Contents
Introduction 9
I
Legal protection 11
II
Scientific co-operation 16
III
The International Campaign for Monuments 22
IV
Unesco missions for monuments 27
v
The International Campaign
to Save the Monuments of Nubia 39
VI
The International Campaign
for Florence and Venice 52
VII
Cultural tourism 60
VIII
Six projects for cultural tourism 66
Introduction
Historic monuments are the adornments with which Man has

decked the earth; they--are the common heritage of mankind and
remind us that civilization is made up of contributions from
all peoples, and that technique has ever gone hand in hand with
the cult of the beautiful, and the taste for the new with the
search for the imperishable. They teach every man reverence
for the creative genius, which unites the nations and generations
on a plane above their conflicts.
The monuments we see have after a fashion escaped the
cataclysms of nature and the ravages of war. They are time- and
weather-worn; they carry the marks of past depredation and
neglect, or of ill-conceived attempts at restoration. Today, new
dangers threaten them: they are smothered by the growth of the
towns, knocked about by large-scale public works, corroded by
noxious fumes, shaken by the wind or by earth tremors.
But monuments, wherever they are, have never been better
known or more universally appreciated than they are today. This
is due to the general advance in education, to the strengthening
of international cultural relations and the spread of television,
films and art publications. They are also becoming more and
more accessible, as a result of more time off from work and the
increasing ease of travel. Governments no longer think of them
only as evidences of past glory, but as an essential element in
the country’s assets, and the security for the development of
its tourist industry. Concurrently, more and more highly devel-
oped techniques are becoming available for the protection of
all types of monuments. Conscious at once of these dangers and
of these possibilities, Unesco has launched a continuing three-
plane operation for the protection of monuments: on the legal
plane, the Organization procures the adoption of international
9
Zntroduction
conventions and recommendations directed to instituting a world-

wide protective system; on the scientific plane, in co-operation
with the appropriate experts and organizations, it undertakes
studies and trials of the newest techniques of conservation and
restoration ; on the practical plane, it helps Member States, at
their request, to prepare and execute programmes for the rehahili-
tation of monuments and sites, for touristic ends in particular.
In addition, Unesco has launched two international campaigns
seeking the co-operation of governments, experts and the public:
firstly, to save the Nubian monuments threatened by the building
of the Aswan High Dam (1960) ; and secondly, to preserve the
cultural heritage of Florence and Venice, ravaged by the floods
of November 1966.
This booklet offers a digest of different aspects of this
action by Unesco.
10
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I Legal protection
The juridical system which Unesco aims at instituting for the

general protection of cultural property is based on two categories
of international instrument: conventions and recommendations.
Conventions imply an obligation on the States which have ratified
them or acceded to them to respect their provisions. The recom-
mendations adopted by the General Conference of Unesco lack
this binding character; they are invitations to Member States
to introduce the measures required to implement them under
their national legislation.
In 1954 Unesco procured the adoption of the International
Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event
of Armed Conflict and a further convention-on the exportation,
importation and transfer of ownership of cultural property,
already the subject of a recommendation-is currently under
study.
There are four recommendations concerning mankind’s heri-
tage of monuments and sites. Their titles are respectively the
International Principles Applicable to Archaeological Exca-
vatiom (1956) ; the Safeguarding of the Beauty and Character
of Landscapes and Sites (1962) ; the Means of Prohibiting and
Preventing the Illicit Export, Import and Transfer of. Ownership
of Cultural Property (1964) ; and the Preservation of Cultural
Property Endangered by Public or Private Works (1968).
The International Convention on the Protection of Cultural

Property in the Event of Armed Conjlict
This convention was adopted on 14 May 1954 by an intergovern-

mental conference convened by Unesco at The Hague on the
invitation of the Government of the Netherlands. On 1 July 1969,
11
Legal protection
fifty-nine States had deposed instruments of ratification of or

accession to the Conventi0n.l
By this convention, the contracting States undertake to respect
cultural property situated within their own territory as well as
within the territory of other contracting States, refraining from
any use of the property which is likely to expose it to destruction
or damage in the event of armed conflict and by refraining from
any hostile act directed against such property. They also under-
take to prevent any theft, pillage or misappropriation of cultural
property as well as acts of vandalism. They abjure the requisi-
tioning of cultural property or reprisals against such property.
In the event of their occupying any territory of another
contracting State, they are required to co-operate with the
competent national authorities in order to ensure the safeguard
and preservation of cultural property.
The regulations for the execution of the convention charge
the Director-General with the preparation of an international
list of persons designated by the contracting States as being
capable of fulfilling the functions of commissioner-general for
cultural property. In the event of armed conflict, a commissioner-
general to each party is appointed by the Director-General from
this list, with the agreement of such party and of the protecting
powers watching the interests of the opposing parties, to oversee
the application of the convention.
Thus in 1967, commissioners-general ‘were accredited respect-
ively to Israel and the Middle Eastern Arab States. They are
Mr. H. J. Reinink (Netherlands) and Mr. Karl Brunner (Switzer-
land). Mr. Reinink wrote, on 8 April 1968, that, for the first time
in history, neutral notabilities were able on behalf of an inter-
national organization (Unesco), to carry out inspections in the
territory, occupied or not, of the belligerent States, to determine
1. Albania, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Byelorussian S.S.R.,

Cambodia, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cuba,
Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Gabon,
Federal Republic of Germany, Ghana, Guinea, the Holy See, Hungary,
India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,
Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Monaco,
Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan,
Panama, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand,
Turkey, Ukrainian S.S.R., U.S.S.R., United Arab Republic, Yugoslavia.
12
Legal protection
whether cultural property had been destroyed, in violation of the

convention, a procedure which would undoubtedly constitute an
invaluable precedent and could make a crucial contribution to
the development of international law.
Another important innovation of the convention in the matter
of international law, i,s the creation of an ‘International Register
of Cultural Property under Special Protection’. In this register,
which is kept by the Director-General of Unesco, there may be
entered, at the request of the concerned Member States, and
subject to no objections by other contracting States, ‘a limited
number of refuges intended to shelter movable cultural property
in the event of armed conflict, of centres containing monuments
and other immovable cultural property of very great importance’.
Inclusion in the register was granted to the whole of the Vatican
City State in 1960, to the refuge established by the Austrian
Government in the disused salt mines near d’Alt-Haussee (Upper
Austria) in 1967, and to six refuges set up by the Government
of the Netherlands in 1969. For the first time, cultural property
of universally acknowledged importance thus enjoys international
protection.
Recommendations
The recommendations to Member States adopted by the General

Conference of Unesco go on the principle that, in normal
circumstances, the States are responsible towards the international
community for the preservation of cultural property situated on
their territory and that they have a duty to take the appropriate
measures to protect this property and to render it accessible to
all, in the interests of science and of mutual understanding
between the nations.
The Recommendation on International Principles Applicable
to Archaeological Excavations (1956) is aimed at preventing
trafficking in archaeological finds, which ought to enrich the
whole of humanity. The Member States are invited particularly:
to make archaeological explorations and excavations subject to
prior authorization and subsequent inspection; to require that all
the objects discovered be declared, under penalty of confiscation
and prosecution; to form collections and in appropriate cases
13
Legal protection
create museums in order to exhibit the archaeological finds to

the public.
The Recommendation on the Safeguarding of the Beauty and
Character of Landscapes and Sites (1962) extends the notion of
‘cultural and aesthetic heritage’ to nature and wild-life. It invites
Member States to set up nature reserves and parks, to classify the
most beautiful sites and landscapes and to check the execution
of development and town-planning projects to prevent the erection
of unaesthetic groups of buildings or industrial plants or
the prosecution of large-scale road-building, electrification or
irrigation schemes in the protected areas. Among the most serious
threats to the natural environment, the recommendation cites
deforestation, pollution of air and water, dumping of industrial
or household waste and garbage, and damage caused by walkers
and campers.
The Recommendation on the Means of Prohibiting and Pre-
venting the Illicit Export, Import and Transfer of Ownership of
Cultural Property (1964) reminds Member States that they have
the moral obligation to protect the objects which constitute their
cultural heritage. Widening the scope of the recommendation on
archaeological excavation, it aims at preventing speculation, in
both the domestic and the international market, in important
cultural property, movable or fixed, public or private, of all
categories: works of art and architecture, manuscripts, books and
other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest,
ethnological documents, type specimens of flora and fauna, scien-
tific collections, important collections of books and archives,
including musical archives. Member States are called to adopt
the appropriate measures, and exercise effective control for the
discouragement of speculators.
This question is of especial international importance by
reason of the despoilment to which cultural property inade-
quately protected by legislation is exposed. It is on this account
that it has been deemed useful to make it the subject of an
international convention, ‘which is currently in course of prep-
aration.
The Recommendation concerning the Preservation of Cultural
Property Endangered by Public or Private Works (1968) rounds
off and particularizes the recommendation on the safeguarding
of landscapes and sites. Technical progress-urban development,
14
Legal protection
industrialization, improvement programmes-not only threatens

to upset the natural environment, but is also liable to involve
the damage or destruction of archaeological sites, traditional
groups of buildings, historical areas of towns and buildings of
great artistic or architectural interest. Member States are invited
to adopt preventive and corrective measures to safeguard both
the monuments and their settings. More particularly, the recom-
mendation invites Member States to subject to appropriate rules
and checks all plans for urban expansion or rebuilding, for road
works, dams, pipelines and electric grids, airports and industrial
development.
Thus, sponsored by Unesco, a set of principles and legal rules
is gradually being worked out, which, if effectively applied by
States, should make it possible to protect the cultural heritage
against the action of man.
15
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II Scientific co-operation
Monuments also need to be protected against dangers which

legislation cannot combat-the effects of time, the climate, the
weather and other natural or artificial factors. In co-operation
with various international organizations and institutions (some
created by Unesco itself), with the appropriate national services
and with experts from all countries, Unesco is pursuing the study
of the scientific and technical problems of preservation and
encourages Member States to take practical steps based on the
results of this study.
The main international organizations and institutions which
are directly associated with Unesco’s work for the protection of
our monumental heritage are the following.
The International Council for Monuments and Sites
(ICOMOS), founded in 1965, has national committees in twenty
six countries. The aim,s of ICOMOS are (a) to ‘promote the
study and preservation of monuments and sites, and (b) to arouse
and cultivate the interest of the authorities, and people of every
country, in their monuments and sites and in their cultural
heritage’. Since 1967, ICOMOS has been publishing an annual
international review, Monumentum, ‘on doctrine, legislation and
technique in respect of the preservation and restoration of
historic monuments’.
Embracing architects, art historians, laboratory experts,
archaeologists and administrators, ICOMOS is the first non-
governmental organization to comprehend specialists in all
subjects relevant to the preservation of monuments and sites.
ICOMOS has been co-operating with Unesco ,since 1966.
The International Union of Architects groups an assemblage of
professional organizations representing the qualified architects
of fifty-eight countries. Founded in 1948, it has had ‘information
16
Scientific co-operation
and consultative relations’ with Unesco since 1962. The union’s

national sections collaborate with the National Commissions and
the Unesco experts in the various countries over the architectural
aspects of the protection and restoration of monuments.
The International Union of Official Travel Organizations
(IUOTO), founded in 1927 and re-established in 1947, comprises
the official tourist organizations of ninety-four countries and
territories. It also has seventy-two associate members (international
and national tourist organizations). The aim of the union is to
‘facilitate international tourism in order to develop the tourist
economy of member countries and to increase friendly social and
cultural relations between nations’. It has had information and
consultative relations with Unesco since 1962.
The collaboration between IUOTO and Unesco is bound to
develop considerably, in connexion with the programme for
cultural tourism (see Chapter VII).
The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation
and Restoration of Cultural Property (Rome) was set up in 1958
under an agreement between Unesco and Italy. The Italian
Government provides the centre’s premises and equipment and
pays a large part of the salaries of the Italian staff. Unesco
afforded the centre financial support for the first years of its
operations, ending in 1965. Since that date the resources of the
centre have come mainly from the contributions of its Member
States, which on 1 April 1969 numbered forty-five: Albania,
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Cyprus,
Dominican Republic, France, Gabon, Federal Republic of Ger-
many, Ghana, Guinea, Honduras, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Jordan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar,
Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland,
Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Republic, United Kingdom,
Yugoslavia.
The Rome centre works in close liaison with Unesco, the
International Council of Museums (ICOM), the International
Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
(IIC), and many specialized institutions from different countries.
Its functions are to study the scientific and technical problems of
preservation and restoration of cultural property, to issue docu-
mentation and provide expert advice on these problems, to
18
organize international meetings and exchanges and to help

towards the training of specialists in this field.
Among the puhlicatiom of the centre a specially noteworthy
item is Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art, by
Harold J. Plenderleith, the director of the centre. Studies have
also been published on the preservation of wood, metal, stone and
mural paintings, and on the general problems of preservation in
tropical and subtropical climates.
The centre% experts have carried out many missions to Member
States at the request of the States and of Unesco. The most
important have been to study the mural paintings of the Maya
Temple at Bonampak (Mexico), and the Mohenjo-Daro site
(Pakistan). The centre has participated-or is participating-in
the Unesco campaigns to save the monuments of Nubia, for the
restoration of damaged cultural property at Florence, and for the
development of Venice as a cultural centre.
Each year, the centre organizes a specialist course for architects
in the preservation and restoration of historic monuments.
In addition, Unesco gives financial assistance to the Documen-
tation Centre on Ancient Egypt (C airo) for its work in Egyptology
and especially for its research in the Thebes area. This centre
was opened in.1955 with the assistance of Unesco, and has played
an important role in the International Campaign to Save the
Monuments of Nubia, for which it did most of the documentation,
photogrammetry and restoration work in the Egyptian sector.
Unesco also contributes to the running of three regional
centres for the training of museum technicians and preservation
specialists: at Jos (Nigeria), for the countries of tropical Africa;
in Mexico City, for Latin America; and in New Delhi, for southern
Asia.
From research to results
As a result of the studies pursued for the last twenty years by

these organizations and institutions, by the Unesco Secretariat and
by the local experts associated ‘with the Organization’s work, it
has been possible to work out new curative or preventive methods
for treating monuments.
For example, in co-operation with the International Centre
for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural
20
Property, Unesco ha,s recently published a manual on the preser-

vation of monuments in tropical climates,l in which international
experts discuss the most effective ways of combating the prolifer-
ation of mosses and moulds, attack by insects, saline efflores-
cences, water seepages, etc. Other studies are proceeding, notably
on the phenomena of the rapid deterioration of stone (crumbling,
disintegration), of cleansing methods for monuments and on the
effects of frost.
In the general opinion of experts, the worst danger to the
health of monuments, as to that of men, is air pollution. The gases
discharged by factory chimneys and car exhaust,s produce sul-
phuric acid which, mixed with the dust and soot about, sets in
blackish deposits on the surface of the stonework. It actively
attacks the stowork and also opens the way to natural destructive
agents such as rain, frost and bacteria. Today no stone or brick
monument located in an industrial town is safe from this danger.
The various protective coatings-with wax or one of the modern
r
synthetic bases-which have been tried have not as yet given
convincing re,sults. The only really effective solution would be
either to dismantle the monuments stone by stone for rebuilding
in an artificially purified and protected environment, or to move
away all the factories and ban the internal combustion engine
from areas where there are monuments. Obviously such steps can
be considered only in exceptional circumstances, for monuments
or zones of limited extent. On the whole one is reduced to
taking palliative measures, of which the best would seem to be
the regular cleansing of urban buildings with hoses and scrubbem,
as has recently been done in Paris, London and elsewhere.
Whatever the value of the steps recommended by the
specialists, applying them in practice depends on the goodwill
of governments and, more generally, on the interest which the
public shows in the fate of the monuments. It was this consider-
ation which led Unesco to initiate an international campaign for
monuments.
1. The Conservation of Cultural Property with Special Reference to Tropical

Conditions, Paris, Unesco, 1968 Wfuseums and Munuments, XI).
21
III The International
Campaign
for Monuments
In launching the International Campaign for Monuments on

2 June 1964, for a period of six months, Unesco was asking
Member States to expand and improve the technical and legal
dispositions for the protection, preservation and restoration of
cultural property, and the preservation of the beauty and charac-
ter of landscapes and sites. Concurrently Member States were
invited to organize publicity during this period, to bring home
to their citizens the value of the monuments of the past.
The meaning of the campaign
Inaugurating the campaign, the Director-General of Unesco,

Mr. RenC Maheu, defined its meaning thus:
‘This is an age when, apart from other dangers, the remains
of bygone civilizations are threatened by the economic demands
inherent in the expansion of the human race. But it is also an
age in which technical advances are providing particularly
effective means of acquainting people alike with the world’s
cultural wealth and with its natural resources, and of ensuring
that they are preserved. It is unthinkable in such an age that
men should not seek to safeguard the heritage which their forbears
have left them, not only for themselves but for future generations.
‘It is true that, in many countries, remarkable efforts have
already been made and are still being made to protect those
monuments which are endangered; and there is no nation today
which is not proud of its artistic heritage and conscious of the
importance of that heritage in its cultural life. But Unesco, which,
under its Constitution, is called upon to ensure the conservation
and protection of the world’s heritage of works of art and monu-
ments, had a duty to take its own steps to bring these national
22
The International Campaign for Monuments
efforts into a world-wide scheme, and to show the key role that
may be played in the cultural formation of contemporary man
by communion with works produced, through the centuries,
in the various centres of civilization which cover the surface
of the globe like so many volcanoes of history.
‘Architectural works, more than any other form of artistic
creation, are, of course, by reason of the purpose they are designed
to serve, representative of the way man lives: they form the
background to his daily life and reflect the social and psycho-
logical conditions of their time. At every stage of its development,
the art of building has followed the evolution of society. Family,
village, city, State underlie the differing forms of architecture, all
of which are an expression of the society in which they have
emerged. But while this characteristic may give to buildings an
eminent significance, it also exposes them to manifold dangers
arising from the vicissitudes which every society undergoes. The
ties which hind any architectural creation to the social structure
it reflects mean that both must share the same destiny and, in
most cases, doom the creation to disappear with the society
which produced it.
‘Those edifices which have almost miraculously escaped this
harsh law are now the object of our concern because of their
value as witnesses to the culture and history of the past. And it
is in this that our attitude differs radically from that of our
forbears, who had little hesitation in destroying old monuments
in order to substitute new edifices which were more in accordance
with their needs or even merely with their tastes. When they
showed some respect for certain famed buildings, they yet looked
on them simply as manifestations of faith, marks of power or
wealth, artistic masterpieces or merely curiosities. Today, on the
other hand, it is because of their value as irreplaceable evidences
of bygone ages and vanished societies that we are striving by all
appropriate means to preserve our monuments.’
Echoes of the campaign
For the purposes of the International Campaign for Monuments,

the Unesco Secretariat made a film in four languages called
All the Wealth of Man (16 mm), which shows the dangers to
which monuments are exposed and the means used to save them
23
The Zntemationd Campaign for Monuments
from destruction. This film wa,s distributed in the Member States

at the same time as other information material.
More than sixty Member States notified their participation
in the campaign. The Italian Government sponsored an inter-
national congress of architects and technicians for historic
monuments. In France, the operation ‘Chefs-d’oeuvre en P&i1
(Masterpieces in Danger) was launched to help in the protection
of unclassified monuments. In the United States, President
Johnson inaugurated a national campaign under the title
‘American Landmarks Celebration’, co-ordinated by the National
Trust for Historic Preservation, under the honorary chairman-
ship of Mrs. Johnson.
Several countries sent Unesco reports on the steps taken to
protect their heritage of monuments. We quote below extracts
from articles which appeared on the occasion of the campaign,
illustrating the principles applied in the reconstruction of
monuments destroyed during the war in Poland, and in the
restoration of ancient monuments in Mexico.
The reconstruction of historical monuments in Poland 1
After the last war, a devastated Poland faced an immense task in

preserving and restoring its cultural property. Nearly 200 historic
towns and villages had been destroyed from 50 to 90 per cent; palaces
and mansions had been pillaged and were in ruins; art treasures from
museums and private collections had been dispersed. This was the
situation [in Poland] in 1945. The past twenty years, therefore, were
devoted mainly to saving all that could be saved and recording all
that had vanished. Our activity during this period was along two
lines: the protection and preservation of surviving works of art; and
the reconstruction of those monuments and even of entire sections
of cities that were vital to [our] national culture.
When we began to rebuild our country in 1945, we were faced
with this problem: should we reconstruct what no longer existed or
should we break with the past and build a new life in a new urban
and architectural setting? The latter solution met with almost unani-
mous opposition. A number of arguments were advanced for rebuilding
the historic sections of our cities and preserving the characteristic
1. By Stanislaw Lorentz, Director of the National Museum, Warsaw.
24
The Znternationul Campaign for Monuments
Polish landscape with its palaces and manor-houses in their parks,

its picturesque farm-houses and roadside chapels.
Most people maintained that man needs continuity, that he must
feel he is a link in the chain of human evolution; and they stressed
that we could not afford any further losses to our national heritage
after all those incurred down the centuries. Others put forward sen-
timental and scientific arguments. The most convincing of these was
that a reconstructed building-even though it is not an original work
of art-is nevertheless the most lasting, the most comprehensible
‘exhibit’ that can be offered to the public. Architectural plans, measure-
ments, drawings and photographs are documents that can be appreci-
ated by a limited circle of historians and art-lovers. They do not
produce that impression of unity, volume, form and colour created
by a building which, though new, will soon be weathered by wind
and rain and become integrated with the landscape of the city or
countryside.
Of course, we are reconstructing only those buildings which have
an intrinsic historic or artistic value and chiefly those which date
from earlier periods up to the neo-classical era of the nineteenth
century; in the case of more recent buildings we are restoring only
certain structures and certain sites. . . . As a reaction against the
exaggerated and occasionally inaccurate restorations of the nineteenth
century, the trend was to preserve every building that had survived.
Though we still follow this policy in the case of important buildings,
we feel that we should reconstruct only those whose absence would
leave a real breach in our cultural history. . . .
The preservation of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic monuments1
A land of many cultures of common origin but as diverse as the great

civilizations born of Egypt and Greece, Mexico holds a special fasci-
nation both for the archaeologist and the tourist.
More than 11,000 sites have revealed treasures of various epochs,
from the early Olmec culture, which flourished south of the Gulf
of Mexico in the first millennium B.C., to that of the Aztecs, the last
before the Conquest.
Exploration in the past forty years has brought to light fabulous
monuments which prove the high degree of civilization reached by
the pre-Hispanic peoples of Mexico.
1. By Romzin Pitia Chin, Curator at the Mexican National Museum of

Anthropology.
25
The International Campaign for Monuments
Excavations have been followed by extensive restoration work.

Over a period of years, the Mexican Government and several foreign
institutions have successfully restored-and in some cases reconsti-
tuted-sites such as Chichen-Itza, Palenque and Uxmal, where the
treasures of Mayan art and architecture burst from the virgin forest
of Yucatan; such as Teotihuacan, only thirty miles from Mexico City,
with its huge pyramids of the sun and the moon and its religious city;
Mitla, the funerary metropolis of the Oaxaca region; and Cholula, for
centuries a sort of pre-Columbian Mecca.
Similar work has been carried out in the archaeological areas of
Xochicalco, Cuicuilco and Calixtlahuaca on the Mexican plateau;
Labna in Yucatan; and Monte Alban, the sacred city of the Zapotecs,
which, with its hills dotted with tombs, was a kind of ‘Valley of the
Kings’ where high priests, princes and other dignitaries were buried
according to special rites.
The stepping up of excavation work during recent years has brought
to light other treasures such as Bonampak, with its splendid Mayan
frescoes discovered in deep jungle near the Guatemalan border; the for-
tified cityofTulum on the east coast; Tzintzuntzan, capitalofthe Tarascan
Kingdom of Michoacan; Comalcalco, Tlapacoya, Mu1 Chic, Yagul,
Zaachila, Edzna and, most important of all, Tajin on the Gulf Coast,
well worth in itself a trip to Mexico. In all, nearly a hundred archae-
ological areas are today open to tourists.
While restoration techniques have changed somewhat over the
years, certain basic principles remain valid. In the early years, when
funds were scarce, sites were only partially explored and the portion that
had been uncovered during the current season was then restored and
consolidated. Every effort was made to reconstitute the primitive
aspect of the monuments and to indicate the restored parts of the
building so that changes and improvements might be made at a later
date. . . .
But experience has shown that the best method is to explore a
monument completely at the outset. Once this has been done an
over-all restoration project can be drawn up in consultation with all
the specialists involved. Materials found on the site are used whenever
possible and, of course, the modern restoration techniques best adapted
to each situation.
26
IV U nesco missions
for monuments
Any general dispositions taken at national level for the protection

of the cultural heritage must he supplemented by specific
measures in respect of the most gravely threatened monuments
and sites. Each of these monuments is a special case and requires
treatment appropriate to its condition, its architectural charac-
teristics and the influences acting on it. Accordingly, at the
request of Member States, Unesco sends them expert missions to
study endangered sites and monuments in co-operation with the
appropriate national services, and to propose concrete measures
for their protection.
The first mission of this kind was organized after the earth-
quake in 1950 which largely destroyed the historic city of Cuzco,
in Peru; the task of the experts was to participate in the elabora-
tion of the scheme for reconstructing the town. To give an idea
of the distance travelled since that date, it may be noted that in
1967-68-the latest period for which definitive figures are available
-the Organization afforded technical assistance to twenty-nine
countries for the preservation of their cultural heritage. This aid,
totalling $561,000, consisted in the supply of 98 experts and the
grant of 73 fellowships for the training of the countries’ own
specialists.
Monuments all over the world which ne&d saving
Below will be found a summarized description of the most

important missions organized by Unesco for the preservation of
monuments. This list is by no means exhaustive; its purpose is
above all to illustrate both the variety, and the growing volume,
of these activities. In this connexion the following preliminary
remarks are called for:
27
Unesco missions for monuments
The classification of countries by regions is that used by Unesco

for programme purposes; no political considerations are
involved.
The aid supplied by Unesco amounts essentially to a form of
technical assistance to the developing regions. Only in
exceptional cases has aid been given to European countries.
The relatively small space which Africa occupies in the list is due
to the fact that, in general, the countries of this region prefer
to give priority to the development of education and science
in their use of international aid. The value of the African
monumental heritage is not in question.
The list does not include the missions sent by Unesco to the
United Arab Republic and the Sudan during the International
Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, and to Italy in
connexion with the International Campaign for Florence and
Venice. These two campaigns are described separately in
Chapters V and VI.
It will be noted that from 1965 onwards the subject of an
increasing number of m&ions has been the development of
monuments in connexion with national plans for enhancing
touristic assets. This new policy of ‘cultural tourism’ is
described in Chapter VII. The cultural tourism projects for
Iran, Peru, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan and Brazil-chosen
as examples-are described in Chapter VIII.
Africa
Cameroon. Restoration of the Sultan Njoya Palace, at Foumban

(1964-68) .I
Dahomey. Restoration of the Abomey Royal Palaces (1965-68).
Abomey was one of the first centres of culture in West Africa. The
most ancient buildings have not survived the processes of erosion
but it has been possible to preserve those of the nineteenth century,
decorated with bas-reliefs of coloured terracotta.
Ethiopia. Development plan for six touristic zones: Addis Ababa

and environs; ‘Historic route’ from Addis Ababa to Aksum, by
way of Bahar Dar and Gondar; Gambeila; Diredawa and Harar;
Asmara and Massawa; Lalibela and environs (1967-68).
1. The dates in parentheses are those of the Unesco missions.
28
Latin America and the Caribbean
Bolivia. Restoration and development of archaeological sites (pre-

Inca) of the Altiplano, notably at Tiahuanaco. Restoration of
baroque churches at La Paz, Oruro, Potosi, Cochabamba (1966).
Brazil. Cultural tourism programme (see Chapter VIII).
Colombia. Plan for the restoration and development of the

monuments at Cartagena (1968).
The city of Cartagena on the Caribbean Sea, founded in 1533,
still has ramparts, palaces, churches and monasteries characteristic
of the colonial period.
Chile. Restoration of the colossal statues on Easter Island and
touristic development plan for the island (1966).
Easter Island, some 2,500 miles off the Chilean coast, was discovered
by the Dutch navigator Roggeveen on Easter Sunday, 1722.
It has belonged to Chile since 1888. Its principal curiosities are
the giant monolithic images, some of which rise to the height of
a six-storey house and weigh as much as eighty tons. These colossi
are all carved after the same pattern: a massive trunk, bulky head,
low forehead, straight nose, heavy chin and drooping ears. They
were originally capped with cylindrical crowns hewn in red volcanic
rock and weighing in some cases over five tons. The meaning of
these images and also the techniques used for their transport
and erection remain a mystery to this day.
Guatemala. Restoration and display of monuments of Hispanic
culture (1966).
Jamaica. Recovery and conservation of the relics of the town of
Port Royal (1967).
Port Royal, one of the principal commercial centres of the New
World, was swamped on 7 June 1692 by a tidal wave. Under-water
archaeological research is in progress on its site.
Mexico. Conservation of the Maya temple at Bonampak (1961,
1962, 1964).
The temple of Bonampak, discovered in 1946 in the depths of
the tropical forest, probably dates from the seventh century of our
era and its desertion from about the ninth century. It has frescoes
which are the most important of ancient America. Until 1946 the
frescoes were protected against humidity and variations of tem-
perature by the natural plant cover, but when this was removed,
30
urgent measures had to be taken for their preservation. Several

missions from Unesco and from the Rome centre have participated
in this task.
Peru. Cuzco restoration scheme (1951). Study of the ruins of
Chan-Chan, capital of the Chimu Empire (c. 1000-1600 A.D.)
(1964). Cultural tourism programme (see Chapter VIII).
Dominican Republic. Conservation plan for the historic monu-

ments and sites dating back to the discovery of America (1968).
Arab States
AZgeria. Programme for restoration of Roman monuments (theatre

and baths at Cherchel, sites at Timgad and Tipasa), of the
Byzantine fortress at S&if, and the Islamic monuments at Cher-
chel. Preservation of the Algiers Kasbah, the ramparts at Honain,
Cap Matifou harbour, and the rock paintings of the south (several
missions : 1963-68).
Iraq. Study of preservation measures at Baghdad, Nineveh, Hatra,

Ctesiphon (1954-60).
Many ancient monuments, built of clay bricks or soft stone,
are badly damaged by rain and water seepage. General programme
for preservation of monuments (1966-1968).
Jordan. Preservation of Classical, Islamic and mediaeval monu-

ments (crusaders’ castles) (1956-60).
Lebanon. Preservation and display of the ruins of Baalbek and

of Phoenician, Roman, Christian, Arab and Ottoman monuments
-more particularly at Tripoli (1953).
Libya. Archaeological excavations on the Islamic sites of Sultan

and Zwilah and in the Fezzan (1964-65).
Morocco. Recommendations for preserving the character of the

ancient towns (Fez, Meknes, Marrakesh) . Archaeological excava-
tions on the site of Volubilis (1962).
Syria. Preservation and display of the ruins of Palmyra and

Dura Europus (Seleucid town of the fourth century B.C.), of
mosques in Aleppo and Damascus and of the Krak des Chevaliers
(1953-60). Protection of thirty-four ancient sites and monuments
32
--.- ---.-._ -.~.

in the Upper Euphrates threatened by the construction of the dam

at Tabqa. Development of the city of Busra (Roman monuments,
citadel, mosque) (1967-68).
Tunisia. Plan for restoration and display of the historic monu-

ments for touristic purposes. Preservation of the Roman site of
Bulla Regia (1967-68).
Asia
Afghanistan. Safeguarding the Bamiyan site (1963).

Nearly 2,800 metres above sea level in the Hindu Kush mountains,
set back in recesses hewn in a sheer cliff, are two statues, 52 metres
and 36 metres in height, carved from the rock. They date back at
least 1,300 years and mark one of the historical holy places of
Buddhism. Disfigured and mutilated by Genghis Khan’s Mongols
and other invaders, they have also sustained much damage over
the centuries through variations of temperature and water seepage.
According to the experts, the cliff face has retreated approximately
ten metres since the statues were carved. The larger statue was
menaced by an unstable block of 3,000 tons weight. The experts
proposed that after consolidation of the cracks, the original rock
faqade should be reconstructed in masonry, faced with local stone.
Safeguarding of the monuments of Herat, Ghazni and Mazar-i-
Sharif. General study of sites of the Kushan civilization (now
proceeding).
Burma. Study of the site of Pagan (1961).

A former capital, Pagan contained several thousand pagodas, the
majority of which are today in ruins. It is still possible, however,
to save the mural paintings, dating from the eleventh and thir-
teenth centuries, which cover nearly 23,000 square metres in
250 pagodas.
Cambodia. Restoration of the site of Angkor-Wat (1967-68).

The temple of Angkor-Wat and the sacred town of Angkor-Thorn
represent the Khmer civilization (twelfth to thirteenth centuries)
at its zenith. The temple symbolizes Mount Meru, abode of the gods;
its three levels surmounted by towers rise to a height of over 70
metres. Around the central building runs a colonnaded gallery, 850
metres long, the inner wall of which is entirely covered with bas-
reliefs in the Hindu tradition. Not far away is Angkor-Thorn, adorned
by a multitude of other temples and palaces and protected by a
quadrangular fortification measuring over three kilometres in its
33
longest dimension. Abandoned after the Siamese invasions of the

fifteenth century, the Angkor sites were completely buried in jungle
growths and it was only in 1861 that a French naturalist, Henri
Mouhot, discovered them by chance. Thanks to unceasing labour
since 1907, the principal buildings have been cleared, consolidated
and partly restored. It remains to ensure their permanent pro-
tection against humidity and rain, the action of lichen and bacteria
and the various diseases to which stone is subject.
Republic of Korea. Preservation of the rock-hewn Buddhist

temple of Sokkulam: statues and baa-reliefs damaged by infil-
tration of water (1961).
In&u. Preservation of the paintings in the Ajanta and Ellora caves

(fourth to ‘seventh centuries) (1965).
The Unesco mission noted numerous instances of deterioration due
to the use, in the past, of bad preservation techniques including
excessive restoration, scraping, daubing and over-painting of frescoes.
The most serious damage, however, results from the degeneration
of the rock faces with cracking, water seepage, crystallization of
salts, and dimming of the paintings by smoke and heat-for at
one time people lived in the caves. The Indian specialists have
aiready succeeded in cleaning up frescoes hidden under thick layers
of soot or lacquer and the Unesco mission advised on modern
methods for revealing the hidden paintings and waterproofing
the surfaces.
Study of the possibilities of rehabilitating temples at Srirangam,
near Madras (1966).
The architecture of southern India, first Dravidian and then Brah-
man, is distinguished by the enormous size of the temples and of
the gate-towers (‘gopura’) of their enclosure walls, with every inch
of the external faces sculptured and decorated. Round the temple
of Srirangam, one of the most extensive and probably the most
representative of the Vidjayanagar style (fourteenth to sixteenth
centuries), there grew up an entire town. There are seven concentric
enclosures and twenty-one ‘gopura’. Much damage has been caused
everywhere by humidity and changes of temperature. The sculp-
tures have deteriorated through ‘stone disease’. The gate-towers
are defaced by colour washes and modern additions. With the help
of the Unesco experts, a plan for restoration and display has been
prepared.
Indonesia. Study of the site of Borobudur (1966). Cultural tourism

programme (see Chapter VIII).
34
Iran. Study of the historical sites of Persepolis and Pasargadae.

Restoration of the monuments of Isfahan (1960, 1962, 1963).
Cultural tourism programme (see Chapter VIII).
Nepal. Programme for preserving the monuments of Katmandu,

Patan, Bhaktapur and Kirtipur. Study and clearance of the site
of Lumbini (birth-place of Buddha) (1963, 1964, 1968).
Pakistan. Study of the site of Mohenjo-Daro, in the Indus valley

(1956, 1961, 1964, 1966, 1968). Cultural tourism programme (see
Chapter VIII).
Thailand. Study of conservation methods for the temples of

Bangkok, Thonburi, Sukhotai, Muang Lampang and Ayutya (1966-
67).
Ayutya, capital of Siam from the fourteenth to the eighteenth
century, was an ‘amphibious city’ built in a loop of the river Menam
and criss-crossed by canals intersecting at right angles. It contained
three palaces, the chief of which formed a fortified enclave, and no
less than 350 monasteries. Destroyed and abandoned in 1767, it
was entirely overgrown by jungle. Later, a new town began to
grow up near by, overlapping slightly on to the historical site. A
long-term plan has been prepared for the clearing of the jungle,
and the restoration and display of the ancient monuments-plus
the enlargement of the modern town which will be used as a tourist
base.
Europe
Bulgaria. Preservation of the paintings in the Thracian tomb at

Kazanluk (1966).
Discovered in 1944, this tomb consists of a lobby, a corridor and a
domed burial chamber. The inner walls and ceiling are entirely
covered with paintings depicting scenes from the life of the Thracian
nobles of the Hellenistic period (fourth to third centuries d.~.).
For historians this was a unique discovery. However, removal of
the earth which covered the tomb has subjected it to variations
of temperature and to humidity which are damaging the frescoes.
Measures for conservation have been recommended by experts
from Unesco.
Cyprus. General programme for conservation and display of

monuments and sites (1966, 1967, 1968).
36
Greece. Emergency measures for the preservation of the Parthe-

non (1968).
The Parthenon, Greece’s most famous monument, Phidias’s mas-
terpiece and a glory of the Periclean Golden Age has known many
vicissitudes in the twenty-four centuries it has existed. It became
a church in the fifth century, a mosque in the fifteenth and was
being used as a powder magazine when a Venetian cannon-shot
blew up the middle part in 1687. In 1803, Lord Elgin had most of
the sculptures removed and taken to London. But even as it stands,
patiently restored by the Greek Archaeological Services and with
its architectural unity restored, the Parthenon remains a monu-
ment of imposing and splendid beauty. The imperceptibly incurved
shafts of its forty-six external columns still rise to the sky at the
summit of the Acropolis. Their marble, however, is weathered by
the wind and the rain, its surface cracked by the alternations of
heat and frost and attacked by the rust of the iron cramps formerly
used to consolidate the tambours. There is some danger that the
porous stone of the foundations, more fragile still, will no longer
be capable of sustaining the mass of the temple. Atmospheric
pollution, air vibration set up by passing aircraft, and the trampling
of millions of tourists are currently creating new causes for alarm.
The Greek Government has appointed a special commission to
study the case of the Parthenon and to propose measures to safe-
guard it. A Unesco mission will collaborate in this work.
Malta. Programme for the preservation of the island’s prehistoric,

Phoenician and Roman sites. Restoration and display of the
Vilhena Palace at Mdina, the castle on Gozo and the St. Angelo
Fort at Valletta (1965, 1966, 1967).
Turkey. Investigation of the historical sites and monuments of

Cappadocia, Pamphylia and the Izmir region (1965-66). Cultural
tourism programme (see Chapter VIII).
37
NUBIA
The fine lines show

the outline of the
man-made lake formed
by the Aswan High Dam.
38
v The International
Campaign to Save
the Monuments of Nubia
Background of the campaign
From time immemorial, life in Egypt has depended upon the

seasonal, and capricious, flooding of the Nile. To regularize the
flow of the river, construction of a dam at Aswan was started in
1899 and finished in 1902. Twice heightened, first between 1907
and 1912, and again between 1929 and 1934, it was still-with a
capacity of 5,000 million cubic metres-insuflicient for the needs
of a country in the full flood of population and economic growth.
On 9 January 1960, President Nasser laid the first stone of the
High Dam of Aswan. With a height of 180 metres and a length
of 5 kilometres, the new dam would create an artificial lake of
130,000 million cubic metres capacity, and 3,000 square kilometres
in area, extending over a length of 500 kilometres in the valley
of the Nile-meaning that it would drown Egyptian and Sudanese
Nubia, beneath its waters.
Nubia, however, is one of the cradles of world civilization.
Over thirty centuries of art and history have left their traces there
and some of its monuments are numbered among the most famous
in the world. Was all that doomed to vanish?
As soon as the High Dam project was made public, in 1955, the
Egyptian and Sudanese archaeological services began a census of
monuments and sites threatened. In 1956, with Unesco’s co-
operation, the Government of the United Arab Republic set up a
documentation centre on ancient Egypt covering the history of
its art and civilization. The centre immediately embarked on the
preparation of scientific and photogrammetric records of the
monuments of Egyptian Nubia. Several countries, universities
or institutions also volunteered to send research teams to the
sites. However, it was felt that, rather than simply preserving
39
The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia
descriptions or photographs of the monuments fated to perish, it

would be better to make an all-out effort to save the actual
monuments as far as possible and in 1959, the governments of
the United Arab Republic and of the Democratic Republic of
the Sudan requested Unesco to assist them in this task.
Ou 8 March 1960, two months after the laying of the first
stone of the High Dam, Mr. Vittorino Veronese, Director-General
of Unesco, launched a solemn appeal: ‘Wondrous structures,
ranking among the most magnificent on earth, are in danger of
disappearing beneath the waters. . . . These monuments . . . do
not belong solely to the countries who hold them in trust. The
whole world has the right to see them endure. . . . It is, therefore,
with every confidence that I invite governments, institutions,
public or private foundations, and men of goodwill everywhere to
contribute to the success of a task without parallel in history. . . .
May the peoples of the world unite to ensure that the Nile, in
becoming a greater source of fertility and power, does not bury
beneath its waters marvels which we of today have inherited
from generations long since vanished.’
Thus began the International Campaign to Save the
Monuments of Nubia. An International Committee of Patrons was
formed under the presidency of H.M. King Gustaf VI Adolf of
Sweden. At the end of the year, the General Conference of
Unesco started a trust fund to receive the contributions paid in
cash to the Organization and set up an executive committee for
the Campaign which, under the chairmamhip of H.E. Professor
Paulo de Berredo Carneiro, would exercise financial and technical
control over the operations.
Nine years later, now that the artificial lake created above the
High Dam has reached its final level, what is the state of the
International Campaign?
All the sites due to be submerged have been explored, yielding
very important archaeological material. Out of twenty-two temples
or monuments in a good state of preservation, it has been possible
to save eighteen completely and the four others to a great extent.
The Abu Simbel monumental group has also been preserved in its
entirety.
Fifty-one States have made contributions to one or more of the
accounts opened under the trust fund of the International
Campaign (fifty States contributed to the Abu Simbel account).
40
On 28 February 1969, the total receipts of the fund amounted

to $24,691,012 (of which $20,930,007 came from contributions
by governments). In this total, the Abu Simbel account alone
represented $21,047,696 (of which $16,860,516 came from govern-
ments’ contributions).
Twenty-four countries sent archaeological missions to inves-
tigate the ,sites of Egyptian or Sudanese Nubia; seven countries
contributed to the dismantling of temples or monuments in the
region.
Archaeological excavation
Nubia has been described as ‘a museum 400 kilometres long’.

From Aswan as far as the 3rd Cataract, the two banks of the
Nile and the islands with which the river is studded provide a
succession of monuments and sites illustrating all the stages of
civilization, from pre-historic to Christian mediaeval. Remains
of habitations, of necropolises and isolated tombs, of fortresses,
temples, chapels and churches held precious clues to these past
millennia : steles, inscriptions, drawings, mural paintings, statues
and other archaeological evidence.
A systematic survey-epigraphic, architectural and photo-
grammetric-of the monuments in Egyptian Nubia was made
by the Documentation Centre on Ancient Egypt and finished in
1964, the date of the closing of the High Dam. In Sudanese Nubia,
after a first brief reconnaissance in 1962-64, a careful archaeolo-
gical survey was carried out by a Unesco mission which concluded
its work in 1969, while the antiquities service of the United
Arab Republic and of the Sudan undertook the detachment of
rock drawings and inscriptions. In addition no less than 120 digs
have been organized, both in the United Arab Republic and in
the Sudan, by the governments or by institutions (universities,
museums, archaeological services) of twenty-four States.
The 1968-69 season saw the completion of the Swiss campaign
on the Christian site of Aksha and of the seven French campaigns
devoted to the Pharaonic fortress of Mirgissa. In 1969-70, the
water level will still allow the University of Kentucky mission
to return to the Christian site of Kulubnarti. This will be the
final episode of the archaeological exploration of Nubia.
The Documentation Centre on Ancient Egypt has published
41
the results of its surveys in two volumes, while the antiquities

service of the Sudan consistently prints the reports of the archaeo-
logical missions in Sudanese Nubia in the review Ku&. The
principal results of’ the explorations carried out in both the
United Arab Republic and the Sudan are to be assembled in a
series whose plan is currently under study.
One of the most interesting discoveries in Sudanese Nubia
was that of the Christian basilica of Faras by the Polish mission
led by Professor Michalowski.
‘We discovered a complete basilica at Faras,’ says Professor
Michalowski. ‘Engulfed by the sands, it had been abandoned in
the twelfth century. . . . It is built of stone and fired brick in
contrast to most other buildings of the period . . . scattered
along the Nile, whose mudbrick construction has suffered from
weather. . . . The basilica dates from the seventh century. Its
five naves are a rare find in Nubia. . . . We gradually cleared
the building [and] . . . brought to light a collection of frescoes
and mural paintings that will become a landmark in the history
of Byzantine art.’
In all, 169 paintings, some measuring 7 metres by 4 metres,
have been unearthed. Some frescoes ‘were painted by the alfresco
method (painting on plaster that is still humid), though most
were done on dry plaster. The vivid and delicate colours seem
as fresh as the day they were applied. The subjects include
scenes from the Old and New Testaments . . . the Virgin, St.
Michael and the Apostles, and the bishops of Faras. A publication
comprising all of these paintings was produced in 1967 by their
discoverer.
Monuments preserved
Ascending the Nile from the High Dam, one used to encounter
a long succession of monuments: the Graeco-Roman temple of
Debod and the shrine of Kertassi, decorated with inscriptions
and busts carved in the rock; the chapel of Taffeh; the sanctuary
of Beit el Wali, almost entirely hollowed out of the cliff in the
days of Rameses II and decorated with reliefs depicting scenes
of life in Nubia; the temple of Kalabsha, the most important
Graeco-Roman building in Nubia after Philae, rebuilt by
Augustus on ruins dating back fifteen centuries, with its
42
The Znternational Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia
embankment and landing stage on the Nile still preserved; the

small temple of Dendur, fronted by a terrace and a monumental
doorway; the sanctuary of Gerf Hussein dating from the time
of Rameses II and flanked by colossal statues; the Ptolemaic
temple of Dakka, decorated with reliefs; the temple of
Maharraqah; W a d i es Sebua with its avenue of sphinxes and
its partly rock-hewn sanctuary, where Christian paintings covered
the portrayals of the gods of Egypt; the little temple of Amada,
dating from the New Empire, decorated with reliefs and monu-
mental steles; the temple of Derr, another rock-hewn work from
the time of Rameses II; the temple of Ellesya; Aniba, once the
capital of lower Nubia, where stood the tomb of Pennut, a high
official under Rameses VI; and the rock-hewu chapels of Kasr
Ibrim.
Beyond Abu Simbel, of which more will be said later, Egyptian
Nubia still had the XVIIIth dynasty rock-hewn sanctuaries of
Abu Oda and of Jebel Shams to show. Lastly, in Sudanese Nubia,
there came four stone temples: Aksha, dating from the time of
Rameses II; Semna and Kumma, dating from the Middle
Kingdom; and Buhen, built by Thutmosis II. Another important
monument was the tomb of Djehuty Hotep at Debeira, decorated
with paintings recently discovered.
What has been the fate of these monuments?
The antiquities service of the United Arab Republic has
entirely dismantled Debod, Kertassi, Taffeh, Dendur, Dakka,
Maharraqah and Derr and already had Kertassi and Dakka
re-erected. The Service has also cut out of the rock the most
distinctive elements of the Get-f Hussein, Kasr Ibrim, Abu Oda
and Jebel Shams monuments which will be displayed in a museum
to be built near the High Dam.
The Federal Republic of Germany dismantled and rebuilt
Kalabsha. The Government of the United States paid the whole
cost of dismantling and reconstructing Beit el Wali and the
tomb of Pennut, and it contributed towards saving Wadi es
Sebua, which is in course of rebuilding. The French Government
made the main contribution to the salvage of Amada, with the
United Arab Republic participating. Ellesya has been cut out of
the rock and reassembled at the expense of the Municipality
and University of Turin.
In Sudanese Nubia, Kumma and Semna were dismantled and
43
have been rebuilt as the contributions of the Netherlands and

Belgium respectively, and Buhen with financial aid from the
Egypt Exploration Society (United Kingdom). Together with
Aksha and Debeira, not yet reassembled, their location hence-
forward is the National Museum at Khartoum.
In token of gratitude for the international aid provided, the
Government of the United Arab Republic has presented four
temples to foreign countries: Debod to Spain, Dendur to the
United States, Ellesya to Italy (city of Turin) and Taffeh to the
Netherlands.
Abu Simbel
The two temples hollowed out of the cliff at Abu Simbel consti-
tute the most imposing architectural achievement of the reign
of Rameses II (thirteenth century B.C.). The Great Temple is
33 metres high, 38 metres wide and 63 metres in depth. Backing
on to the fasade, four colossi each 20 metres high bear the features
of the Pharaoh. The Small Temple, dedicated by Rameses II to
his wife Nefertari, is embellished by six statues each 10 metres
high. Quite obviously, it was upon the rescue of this exceptional
group that the success of the International Campaign to Save
the Monuments of Nubia depended.
Expert committees, formed at the outset of the International
Campaign by Unesco and by the Government of the Unite’d Arab
Republic, studied a number of solutions in turn. One facile
solution consisted in leaving the temples where they were behind
protecting earth packing in the hope that they might thus be
preserved for future generations. It was realized however that
the inevitable infiltration of water would lead to the disinte-
gration of the whole within a short time.
Another way to avoid moving the temples was suggested:
this was to surround them with a protecting dam capable of
resisting ‘the pressure of a body of water 60 metres high. This
solution was also rejected, partly because it would have required
the installation of a pumping station extremely costly to run, but
mainly because a sanctuary expressly designed to let the sun’s
rays reach its inmost chambers would have been plunged in
darkness for ever.
The first plan that was accepted for further study was to cut
46
the temples free of the rock face, each in a single block, and to
raise them to the required level by a jacking system. Another
plan was to float each temple up to its new site in a specially
shaped giant pontoon, on the principle of the reach above a
lock. These two proposals had to be abandoned, chiefly owing
to their cost.
The final proposal, adopted in April 1963, was to cut the
two temples into blocks and to reconstruct them on an adjacent
site.
The operation began on 1 April 1964 with the construction of
a coffer-dam designed to protect the work site against the rising
waters. After this, the cliff around the temples was cut away.
To free them, it was necessary to excavate over 150,000 cubic
metres of rock, without the use of explosives. The cutting into
blocks which began in May 1965, was completed in March 1966,
producing 1,035 blocks each weighing between twenty and
thirty tons.
As early as 26 January 1966, the first stone of the Great
Temple was laid on its new site, 64 metres above the old, facing
in exactly the same direction. The last block of the temple was
put into place in September 1967.
The two temples and the colossal statues which adorn their
faGades now stand out of reach of the waters, completely recon-
structed without any visible trace of the cutting remaining. Each
temple is protected by a concrete dome hidden under an
artificial hill.
The completion of the work of saving the two temples was
marked on 22 September 1968 by a formal ceremony at Abu
Simbel in the presence of Mr. Ren6 Maheu, Director-General
of Unesco, H.E. Mr. Paulo de Berredo Carneiro, Chairman of
the Executive Committee of the International Campaign to Save
the Monuments of Nubia, and H.E. Dr. Sarwat Okasha, Minister
for Culture of the United Arab Republic.
On that occasion, the Director-General described the universal
import of the International Campaign in these words:
‘It is not, of course, the first time that a noble cause has called
forth a surge or generosity, for men are always ready to take
part in exploits which meet their need for an ideal and give
them an opportunity to excel themselves. But this is the first
time that we have seen international co-operation in action on
47
such a scale in the sphere of culture, beatiing witness to the

fact that public opinion and governments, as well as learned
institutions, now realize and admit that some monuments of
exceptional importance belong to mankind at large, no matter
where they stand or to what history they belong.
‘This idea of a universal cultural heritage which it is man’s
duty to preserve in the interest of the international community
is one of the key concepts that it is Unesco’s mission to promote.
And not only because of the intrinsic value of these precious
witnesses to the past, but also, and even more so, because of the
positive awareness it arouses of that intellectual and moral
solidarity of mankind which the Constitution of the Organization
sees as the foundation of true peace among peoples. By taking
upon itself responsibility for the preservation of these relics,
whose message is for ever becoming more broadly and deeply
diffused, as the duty of conserving common property, mankind
recognizes its own oneness through time and space, through the
centuries and the nations, and proclaims the unity of its destiny.
This is the essential lesson which emerges from the success of
the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia.’
Philae
Since ancient times the Island of Philae has been known as ‘the
pearl of Egypt’ and its fate was already causing anxiety in
cultured circles when the first Aswan dam was built at the
beginning of this century. It may therefore appear paradoxical
that it should be the last to benefit by the effort of solidarity
manifested in connexion with the International Campaign to
Save the Monuments of Nubia.
The reason for this is that Philae, situated down-stream from
the High Dam, was not doomed like the other sites in Nubia to be
submerged immediately. But the danger that threatens it, though
more distant, is no less real.
We retain the poetic picture of Philae resting beneath the
waters for nine months of the year and in the dry season resur-
recting unharmed the pylons of the Ptolemaic temple of Isis, its
Roman colonnade and the so-called ‘Trajan’s’ Kiosk. Since the
construction of the High Dam, these monuments are permanently
under water up to about one-third of their height and are also
48
subjected to daily variations of level which damage the stonework

much more than the seasonal rise and fall of the river.
In the context of the international campaign, a variety of
experiments for ,saving the Philae monuments were envisaged, of
which two were accepted as practicable by a Unesco international
committee comprising engineers, archaeologists, landscape archi-
tects and financial experts. One consisted in preserving the
monuments as they stand, by creating around the island an
artificial lake maintained at a level lower than that of the Nile
by means of a series of dams. The other wa,s to dismantle the
monuments and to rebuild them on the neighbouring and higher
island of Agilkia, where they would be secure from the variations
of river level.
Finally, the second solution was adopted by the Government
of the United Arab Republic, and the executive committee for
the International Campaign concurred unanimously in this
decision in May 1968.
In accordance with the unanimous wish expressed by the
General Conference of Unesco, Mr. Rene Maheu, the Director-
General, in his appeal on 6 November 1968, solemnly called
upon ‘governments, institutions and foundations, both public and
private, and upon all men of goodwill to contribute, as the means
of each allow, to the success of the final stage in a cultural
undertaking whose high significance is obvious to the whole
world’.
‘I cannot imagine, the Director-General said, ‘that the Member
States of Unesco, which have given such abundant proof of their
generosity, should fail, when so near the goal, to make the final
effort necessary to save this wonderful group of monuments,
justly called “the pearl of Egypt”, from disappearing for ever
beneath the waters. Such a failure would be all the more
incomprehensible to our own and future generations because the
temples of Philae are probably the best known of all the Nubian
monuments, and geographically more accessible than many others
for the increasing number of visitors who will undoubtedly be
attracted to them.’
According to the provisional estimates, the cost of the work
should be $12,270,500 and the project take five years to complete
(1970-74). The Government of the United Arab Republic has
announced its readiness to finance one-third of the total cost. The
50
The Zntemational Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia
sum to be raised by Unesco is reckoned at $6 million, of which

$2,400,000 in foreign exchange would need to be collected for
the period 1970-72 to enable the Director-General to sign the
necessary agreements with the Government of the United Arab
Republic. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany
has promised a contribution of $500,000.
There remained therefore, at 1 June 1969, $1,900,000 in
foreign exchange to be assembled to permit the salvage of Philae
to be undertaken.
UNESCO FILMS ON NUBIA
Land of Kush. Produced by Unesco, 1961. The archaeological monuments

and sites of Sudanese Nubia. (13 min 25 s; black and white; 16 mm.)
Opkration Nubie (French version only). Produced by Unesco, 1966. Tele-
vision programme on the techniques of dismantling, transport and
reassembling of the temples of Abu Simbel. (27 min 25 s; black and
white; 16 mm.)
The World Saves Abu Simbel. Made for Unesco in co-production with Joint
Venture Abu Simbel, 1967. Film of the dismantling and transport of the
temples of Abu Simbel. (28 mitt; colour; 16 mm.)
VI The International
Campaign
for Florence and Venice
The floods of 1966
On the morning of 4 November 1966, a national holiday, the

Arno in spate invaded the entire centre of Florence, drowning
the gtreets in water and mud from six to twenty feet deep.
Eighteen churches were flooded, as well as the restoration rooms
and store rooms of the Uffizi Gallery, the museums of Santa Croce
and of the cathedral, the Barge110 Museum, the Archaeological
Museum, the National and the University libraries, and the Palace
of Archives. The flood water broke open the bronze doors of
the Baptistery, wrenching away five of their ten sculptured
panels. . . .
When it was possible to assess the havoc, it was found that
more than a thousand works of art had been destroyed or
seriously damaged: 313 paintings on wood, 431 canvas paintings,
81 frescoes or sets of frescoes, 158 sculptures or groups of sculpture
and 23 illuminated codices. Among the most seriously damaged
items were works by Cimabue, Donatello, Bronzino, Vasari,
Orcagna. . . . Further, the unique manuscript collection of the
archives and over 400,000 volumes in the libraries had been
damaged by the water.
On the same day, at Venice, the sea breached the protecting
dykes in several places and rose to nearly two metres above street
level. Flooding is not an unusual sight in Venice and the damage
there, although serious, was far from measuring up to the
catastrophe at Florence. But this new onslaught on the lagoon
brought home to everyone the reality of a looming menace. In
any event public opinion spontaneously coupled the two cities
together in its solicitude as it already did in its admiring affection.
52
The Zntemational Campaign for Florence and Venice
A vast impulse of solidarity spread through the world and Unesco

was to play a large part in making it effective.
Appeal by the Director-General of Unesco
On 14 November 1966, the General Conference of Unesco-meeting

in Paris for its fourteenth session-unanimously adopted a reso-
lution declaring that ‘the damage to the artistic and historic
monuments and treasures of Florence and Venice constitutes
a grave loss to the cultural heritage of all mankind’ and appealing
‘urgently . . . to the spirit of fellowship of Member States to
assist, to the fullest extent of their means, the efforts of the
Italian people and authorities to preserve and restore cultural
property that has been or is in danger of being damaged’.
On 2 December, Mr. Reni Maheu, Director-General of Unesco,
in the name of the Organization, addressed a solemn appeal to
the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind on behalf of
Florence and Venice. This call for aid in the form of money,
equipment and services was addressed to governments, to learned
and cultural institutions, to organizations of specialists, to writers
and artists and concluded: ‘I call on the millions and tens of
millions of persons who have visited these famous cities, even if
only once, and who have returned enriched for the rest of their
lives, to send one dollar-or whatever they can-to Unesco.’
The first measures taken by Unesco, in close agreement with
the Italian authorities, were directed to arousing world public
opinion to establishing the exact extent and nature of the damage
and to co-ordinating and guiding the relief efforts.
Salvage and restoration in Florence
The most urgent need for help was in Florence. In a city sodden
with water, it was a race against the clock to avert the effects
of the humidity and moulds which were eating into frescoes,
paintings on wood and books. To dry the frescoes, hot-air blowers
had to be installed in safety tunnels of asbestos sheeting. To
deal with the panel paintings which were particularly vulnerable,
a special workshop was installed in the Orangery in the Boboli
Gardens. The treatment, worked out not without a degree of
trial and error, necessitated large quantities of rice paper, acrylic
53
The Znternational Campaign for Florence and Venice
resin and solvents. Books had to be pressed to squeeze out the

water, dried in industrial installations, and sterilized with ethylene
oxide in a vacuum chamber. Special blotting paper was used for
the parchments.
The materials needed were not always available on the spot in
sufficient quantities and it was thanks very largely to Unesco’s
intervention that it proved possible to collect them and route them
to Florence with a minimum of delay. Concurrently large numbers
of experts from other countries arrived to help their Italian
colleagues carry through the salvage operations. It was also
necessary to repair the physical damage to the canvases and
museum collections, to remove a film of oil and mud from the
sculptures and statues. . . . And all this as a preliminary to the
restoration work proper which promised to take years.
At the request of the Italian Government, Unesco is co-
ordinating the international aid provided for both Florence and
Venice. To this end it has started a trust fund, for public and
private contributions, the target, set in November 1967, being
$10 million, to be collected in five years. In February 1967, the
Organization opened a permanent bureau in Rome for liaison
with the Italian authorities and co-operated with the latter in
1968 in setting up two international advisory committees-one
for Florence and one for Venice.
Unesco’s immediate contribution to the work of restoration-in
the form of equipment, of services of experts and consultants,
and of funds-is important. It is supplied partly through the
Rome international centre for the study of the preservation and
the restoration of cultural property, which receives special allo-
cations for this purpose, and partly direct. Notable examples of
direct aid by the Organization have been its help to the resto-
ration laboratory for paintings (Fortezza da Basso), the National
Library and the State Archives of Florence. This last institution
received a credit of $30,000 in 1967-68 for the restoration of its
collections.
UNESCO FILM ON FLORENCE
Return to Florence. Produced by Unesco, 1967. This film shows how experts
from several countries are contributing, at the appeal of Unesco, to the
patient effort to restore the works of art damaged in November 1966.
55
The International Campaign for Florence and Venice
Venice today . . . and tomorrow?
The floods of 4 November 1966 are unique in the annals of

Florence. In Venice, although the water level on that day was
1.95 metres above the average, it was 1.45 metres above on
5 November 1967, and again on 3 November 1968. Of course, ever
since the founding of the city, its lagoon has been at once a
defence and a danger. However, of the 58 serious inundations
recorded over the last hundred years, 48 have occurred during
the last thirty-five years, and 30 of these in the last ten. The
trouble was that protection against the sea was no longer reliable,
with the Murazzi system of dykes dating from 1782; it was
breached in several places in 1966. It is now being rebuilt and
modernized and when we consider the Dutch polders it seems
hard to believe that technology will be powerless, in the years to
come, to ensure effective and permanent protection of Venice
from the tides and tempests of the Adriatic.
Another danger is the sinking of the bed of the lagoon. Since
1908, subsidences of from 8 to 18 centimetres according to location
have been noted. At the present rate, St. Mark’s Square would
appear to be sinking approximately 30 centimetres per century.
Is this due to a geological process, likely to continue, or even
to accelerate? ‘Or is it a local settling phenomenon of limited
duration? Neither on this point nor in regard to the floods is it
for Unesco to pronounce on the causes or to propose solutions
and both are only mentioned here because knowing about them
is essential for a broad understanding of Venice’s ‘case’.
What does properly concern Unesco is the impairment of the
cultural heritage constituted by Venice, which has been described
as a ‘museum set upon the waters’. For this, the spectacular
variations of water level are less directly responsible than the
insidious action of time and the elements. The vast majority of
the buildings are the worse for wear, with their foundations in
water kept in constant agitation by the ebb and flow of the tides,
the currents and counter-currents of the lagoon, the shock-waves
and eddies caused by the fast and heavy motor-boat traffic. To
the mechanical action of the water is added the corrosive effect
of the substances it transports: salts, bacteria, refuse and fuel oil.
The moisture rises in the walls by capillary action and salt crusts
form on them; panelling and decorated ceilings grow moulds;
56
The Znternational Campaign for Florence and Venice
paintings flake or darken; stone ‘disease’ attacks sculptures and

marble. To the action of moisture is added that of air pollution.
More than 15,000 tons of concentrated sulphuric acid are released
into the atmosphere every year by the near-by industries, and
their fumes are forced down on to the city by the wind.
Within the framework of the International Campaign for
Florence and Venice, Unesco has granted direct aid to the San
Gregorio Restoration Laboratory for paintings, to the Superintend-
ency of Art Galleries for the restoration of frescoes, and to the
Municipal Archives. It opened a credit of $23,200 for the super-
intendency for a survey of the state of preservation of works of
art in Venice: paintings on canvas and wood, sculptures and the
external decorative features of churches and monuments, frescoes,
furnishings and objects of art preserved in churches and sacristies.
This survey was begun in March 1968. Similarly, Unesco provided
$20,000 towards the financing of a ‘protective inventory’ of the
palaces-some 40O-and the churches-some 350-in Venice
requiring protective measures. In addition the Unesco Secretariat
prepared a very full study-‘The Problems of Venice’-of the
different angles from which the present situation and the future
of Venice require to be envisaged: protection of the, site, preser-
vation of the monumental and artistic heritage, social and eco-
nomic development, town planning, cultural development.
The fact is that the material dilapidation is paralleled by an
economic decline which in fifteen years has caused the town to lose
nearly one-third of its working population. Building a new dyke,
reinforcing the city’s foundations and restoring its monuments
and works of art is a gigantic task. Ought its sole outcome to be
the preservation of an empty husk, a dead city enlivened only
by the coming and going of tourists? The Italian Government
and Unesco did not accept this. The preservation of Venice the
museum-piece is bound up with the survival of the citizens’
Venice.
As early as 15 March 1967, the Italian Government, in a
memorandum to the Executive Board of Unesco concerning
Venice, stressed its intention ‘to safeguard the artistic heritage
and the special cultural features and atmosphere of the historic
city, without overlooking the essential needs of the population,
which must feel itself to be part of modern civilization’. The
Executive Board thereupon authorized the Director-General ‘to
58
The Znternationd Campaign for Florence and Venice
involve Unesco actively in the work being done by the Italian

authorities’ and the General Conference, at its fifteenth session
(November 1968), adopted a resolution defining the future role
of Unesco in this regard. This role is ‘to promote, in close co-
operation with the Italian authorities, large-scale action to
safeguard the artistic and historical monuments of Venice and
develop the latter as a cultural centre, taking into account the
need to ensure that activities undertaken in the city as a whole
and its environs-lagoons and mainland-should be consonant
both with its natural and architectural characteristics and with
its age-old cultural vocation’.
The task is unprecedented. It is so, as Mr. Rene Maheu,
Director-General of Unesco, said, ‘not only because of the magni-
tude of the resources to be mobilized or of the technical diffi-
culties inherent in some kinds of work, but because in the case
of this illustrious city, where culture has always been part and
parcel of life and the joy of living, what is required is to safeguard
its life in the present and for the future while at the same time
preserving the setting of the past, as well as to secure its physical
safety and economic prosperity a8 much as its cultural activity. ...
It is clear that an undertaking of this kind can only be determined
and carried out by those who are directly concerned and inti-
mately connected with the environment in which the proposed
action is to take place, that is to say the city itself, the Italian
nation and State, together with lovers of culture from all countries
who can give life to Venice because Venice is part of their lives.’
Within the limits of its competence, which is of a cultural
order, and of its function-which is to stimulate, advise, assist
and co-ordinate-Unesco can bring to this undertaking an import-
ant and a necessary contribution.
In March 1969, an agreement was concluded between Unesco
and the Italian National Research Council with a view to co-
operation in the protection of Venice.
UNESCO FILM ON VENICE
Venice in Peril. Produced by Unesco, 1969. The film shows how Venice is
slowly sinking and deteriorating and what gigantic efforts are needed to
save its artistic treasures.
59
VII Cultural tourism
The expansion of tourism is one of the outstanding circumstances

of the last twenty years, and probably one of the most reliable
indications of the general advance of civilization. Not so long ago,
the traveller prompted solely by curiosity was considered an
eccentric. Still more would it have been considered absurd to set
off in masses for distant parts with no notion of profit, conquest
or missionary work. But it is indeed mass movements which we
have to consider.
International Tourism Year, in 1967, provided an opportunity
for a very provisional assessment of the situation, world figures
emerging being: tourists, 115 million; air passengers, 180 million;
motor-cars, 130 million. Unquestionably these figures have already
been exceeded very considerably. Air fares are tending to grow
less and flight times to shrink even more markedly. The motorway
network is steadily expanding. And in some countries, the receipts
from international tourism amount to nearly 50 per cent of total
earnings of foreign exchange.
At the same time, tourism is becoming more diversified. Of
course, the major congresses and cultural or sporting events
retain or are increasing their drawing power, while sea, sun and
snow have all their old ‘holiday’ appeal. But there is a visible
growth in the numbers of ‘footloose’ tourists seeking new paths
and undiscovered corners. But above all, we may note the super-
imposition on the need for escape and relaxation of the pursuit
of aesthetic and mental satisfactions. People want to see with
their own eyes, and touch with their own hands, the marvels
they have heard of at school, or seen pictured in albums, at the
cinema or on television: the monuments of antiquity.
60
Cultural tourism
A spiral reaction
Monuments attract tourists. Tourists bring money. It is only

natural that part of this money should serve to maintain, to
restore and to display the monuments and thus the monuments
attract still more tourists. Such is the very simple reasoning
behind Unesco’s cultural tourism policy.
The bases of this policy were expounded for the first time in
a report submitted by the Director-General, Mr. Rem.5 Maheu, to
the May session of the Executive Board of Unesco in 1966:
‘The dangers which increasingly threaten historical monu-
ments in many countries call for intervention on a large scale if
this heritage is to be saved for mankind. Such large-scale action,
involving the solution of difficult technical problems, requires a
very substantial financial effort, and this at a time when many
States are hard-pressed for funds with which to pursue their
economic development. Monuments, whose cultural importance
no one denies, have until recently been considered as a kind of
luxury, for which no considerable sums could be diverted from
projects dealing with more urgent, basic necessities. . . .
‘Under these circumstances, Unesco has been led to reconsider
the problem and to examine whether, apart from their immense
cultural significance, some economic value can be attached to
historical monuments. The assumption is that, if such economic
value exists, the measures taken for the preservation of monu-
ments will not compete with economic development, but will
actually form part of it. The justification for recognizing a
potential economic value to monuments is that they are respon-
sible for a considerable amount of tourist activity. . . .
‘Today the importance of tourism and of the national income
deriving from it appear to be increasing rapidly, with the exten-
sion of leisure time and with greater prosperity, especially in
the developed countries. Where the developing countries are
concerned, the fact that tourism can bring profit and stimulus
to the economy, as well as foreign exchange, and the fact that it
represents a form of capital investment which can be amortized
with exceptional swiftness, are likely to lead to its being given
a high priority in national plans for economic development. . . .
‘Moreover, the Organization’s ultimate objective with regard
to cultural property is, after securing its physical preservation,
61
Cultural tourism
to put it to full cultural use, to make it play its true role in the
life of the community. If monuments are assigned a mission in the
promotion of tourism, not only will they be more easily preserved,
but knowledge and appreciation of them will be vastly enhanced.
Tourism-in which Unesco must necessarily be interested because
of its many contributions to education, to culture and to inter-
national understanding-will help to put monuments to wider
cultural use, both amongst inhabitants of the country and among
foreign visitors. . . .’
On the recommendation of the Executive Board, the General
Conference adopted a resolution in its fourteenth session
(November 1966) declaring that cultural tourism serves Unesco’s
basic objectives from four different points of view:
‘by contributing to the mutual knowledge and understanding of
peoples, it helps to strengthen peace;
‘by promoting adult, youth and child education-by facilitating
exchanges of knowledge and first-hand acquaintance with past
and present civilizations--it contributes to the spread of
culture and to popular education;
‘by contributing to the promotion of development, it is in accord
with the main activity of the United Nations system during
the Development Decade;
‘by helping to finance the restoration and preservation of monu-
ments and sites of historical or artistic value, it makes possible
the safeguarding of the world’s cultural inheritance.’
The General Conference accordingly authorized the Director-
General ‘to assist Member States, at their request, in studying
and carrying out programmes for the protection and development
of sites and monuments in the context of the promotion of
tourism. . . .’
The role of the National Commissions
With the principles of this new Unesco action thus defined and
approved, it remained to settle the modus operandi. As the
Conference resolution stipulates, inasmuch as this action is to
b e pursued in the territory of Member States, it can only be
undertaken at their request and in co-operation with them. Here,
the National Commissions which, in the terms of the Constitution
of Unesco, ‘shall function as agencies of liaison in all matters of
62
Cultural tourism
interest to [Unesco]‘, are manifestly called on to exercise a

priming and promotional function.
On this point, the Fourth Regional Conference of National
Commissions in the Western Hemisphere, meeting on 12-17 June
1967 at Tlatelolco (Mexico) adopted a resolution which recom-
mends that National Commissions undertake ‘. . . systematic
and effective action for the care and study of the cultural heritage
of [their] country. . .‘. National Commissions should, the reso-
lution continues:
‘Promote or assist in the preparation of inventories of the property
forming the cultural heritage of each nation. . . .
‘Place special emphasis on the expansion of existing museums
and the creation of new ones, so as to provide maximum
accommodation for the cultural treasures of the country
concerned, which will thus place them at the disposal of the
public and help to prevent them from being illicitly exported.
‘Conduct-through publications, meetings, round-table confer-
ences and seminars-campaigns to create an awareness of
the value of the nation’s cultural heritage and of the need to
preserve and publicize it, for the benefit not only of the
country itself but of all mankind.
‘Obtain advice and assistance on techniques for conservation,
restoration, preparation of inventories and classification of
cultural property and on the training of specialists in these
techniques through courses, fellowships and expert exchanges.
‘Promote practical projects for the investigation, restoring and
preservation of specific monuments and historic places in
accordance with priorities that depend upon their importance
and the dangers that may threaten them.
‘Encourage crafts, popular art and folk-lore as adjuncts to
cultural tourism.
‘Make representations to universities to establish a special chair
for the matters with which this resolution is concerned.
‘Include the study of educational travel for schools, national and
international, in their programmes and suggest schemes
accordingly to their governments.’
63
Cultural tourism
Necessity of an infrastructure
As we have seen, for some countries, international tourism can

be one of the chief sources of foreign exchange, with a capacity
for development superior to that of the majority of those
countries’ other gainful activities. Tourism can also be indirectly
an economic stimulant, especially when it is integrated in
economic development plans : the hotel and restaurant industries,
retail trade, and road transport will have to be expanded and
modernized ; agricultural production will find a new market;
folk-lore will be stimulated and crafts encouraged.
Tourism thus becomes a factor for social progress. Revenues
from tourism raise the purchasing power of the community.
The expansion of related industries leads to the creation of new
jobs and of a need for manpower, which can be met from the
local population or by emigration, permanent or seasonal, from
over-populated or depressed regions. In regions threatened by
over-rapid urbanization, tourism can help towards the stabiliz-
ation of the local communities by the openings which it offers.
A prerequisite for any cultural tourism programme, however,
is a range of preparatory measures by governments or local
authorities for the preparation of the region’s monuments and
tourist facilities.
The first task is to prepare a complete inventory of the
monuments and sites in the region which are of historical or
aesthetic interest. A thorough examination of each monument is
then advisable, to assess its state of preservation and to decide
upon the measures necessary to repair it, restore it or re-create
its original appearance. Concurrently it is essential to provide
for the reordering of the setting, natural or urban, into which the
monument fits for the twin purposes of showing off the latter
to the best advantage and providing easy access to it.
Monuments judged to be of interest need to be made the
subject of protective legislation, and an authority (civil service
department, municipality, owner or private body . . .) appointed
in each case to be permanently responsible for maintenance and
safeguarding.
Simply luring a tourist clientele is not enough; its needs,
which are multifarious, must also be catered for. As a first priority
it is essential to install a transportation network (roads and road
64
Cultural tourism
transportation, railway connexions, airline links) and elementary

reception services (attendants and guide, information office,
restaurants).
Thereafter, it is desirable to hold the tourist clientele-to
encourage tourists, if possible, to make a stay and repeat their
visits. To this end provision is needed for their accommodation
(hotels, youth hostels, camping grounds) ; for health and hospital
facilities, telephone and telegraph services and a shopping centre.
To the extent that the tourism catered for is cultural, it is
also obviously necessary to start a permanent museum, a library
or documentation centre, an exhibition hall and a ‘theatre’ usable
for folk-lore productions, festivals and lecture series.
Aid by Unesco
I n pursuance of the General Conference resolution, Member

States may request Unesco’s technical aid for a preliminary study
of their cultural heritage, or of certain monuments and sites,
with a view to their development for touristic purposes; for the
preparation of detailed cultural tourism programmes, integrated
in the general plans for national development. States may also
request financial aid, through Unesco, for the same purposes from
the United Nations Development Programme or from other
international financing bodies, in accordance with the resolution
of the Economic and Social Council (fortieth session, January
1966), which invites the United Nations bodies and Specialized
Agencies ‘to give favourable consideration to requests for
providing increased technical and financial assistance to the
developing countries in order to speed the development of their
tourist resources’.
Since 1966, about thirty Member States have sought Unesco’s
aid in this domain. As Chapter IV showed, the majority of the
‘expert missions for monuments’ organized by Unesco since that
date have had as their primary purpose the preliminary study
for or the finalizing of cultural-tourism programmes. Below, to
conclude this brochure, will be found a description of six groups
of monuments of exceptional interest threatened with destruction
or abandonment, and which it should be possible to save through
the application of modern scientific techniques.
65
VIII Six projects
for cultural tourism
Iran
Iran is the first country to have put a cultural tourism programme

into operation with Unesco’s aid. This programme is part of the
fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (1968-72) and
will be receiving appropriations amounting to at least $4 million
under the plan. An agreement was concluded in April 1968 by an
exchange of letters between Mr. Hoveyda, Prime Minister of Iran
and Mr. Ren6 Maheu, Director-General of Unesco, on the terms
and conditions of the co-operation between Iran and Unesco.
The Iranian Government has the entire responsibility for the
execution of the programme, which consists of an array of
operations partly for installing tourist facilities and amenities,
and partly for the preservation, restoration and display of the
sites and monuments. Unesco undertakes to provide the necessary
technical advisers to direct these works and to train Iranian
specialists. In addition it is aiding the government to effect the
general co-ordination of the programme.
Four priority areas have been chosen for the development of
cultural tourism. They present a wide variety of landscapes and
contain large numbers of sites and monuments illustrating the
different periods of the history of Iran and the main aspects
of Iranian culture.
The first area, extending from Teheran to the Turkish frontier
along the road which is destined to be the main traffic axis of
southern Asia, includes cities such as Tabriz and Qazvin, rich
in historical associations, in Mongol buildings and in churches and
mosques. Two monuments in the region are of particular interest:
the eleventh-century Black Church (Qara Kilissieh), a masterpiece
of Armenian art, and the funerary mosque of the Mongol Sultan
Oljaitu Khodabendeh at Soltanieh.
66
Six projects for cultural tourism
Teheran and its environs form the second area. As an inter-

national air staging point and central road junction, Teheran is an
obligatory stop-over for the tourist visiting Iran. The capital
contains a number of palaces which can provide a magnificent
introduction to a visit to the country. In the neighbourhood are
relics of the Sassanian, ancient Islamic and Mongol periods.
Isfahan on its own constitutes the third area. The town which
Shah Abbas made his capital in the sixteenth century remains
one of the most beautiful in the world. It has 160 mosques,
thousands of period buildings and retains almost intact the
art treasures of the great Safawid period. The Royal Square, a
masterpiece of urban architecture, surrounded with palaces and
mosques, will soon be restored in all its splendour. Work is also
proceeding on the famous Juma Mosque.
The fourth area, the richest in hi,storical associations, lies in
the ancient province of Fars, around the city of Shiraz, of which
the poets Saadi and Hafiz sang. Apart from Shiraz itself, famous
for its gardens and palaces, it includes the sites of Pasargadae,
the city of Cyrus the Great; of Persepolis, capital of the ancient
Persian Empire of the lines of Darius and Xerxes; and of Firou-
zabad, the Sassanian capital. All this region abounds in archae-
ological remains of world-wide interest.
Peru
The Peruvian Plan for Economic and Social Development gives

tourism a very important place and includes measures directed
notably to improving the road system, filling the gaps as regards
hotel facilities, promoting handicrafts and protecting and
displaying the national cultural heritage. According to a survey
carried out by Unesco at the government’s request, these mea.sures
are likely to require capital investments of the order of
$45 million, which could be expected to yield a return at an
early date. To raise this sum aid could be sought from the United
Nations Development Programme and from the Inter-American
Development Bank.
Following a number of study missions, it was decided, as an
immediate step, to start on the touristic development of the
Andean region between Machu Picchu and Puno on Lake
Titicaca, which was the cradle of the Inca Empire, taking in
68
Cuzco. This region is served by a highway, reinforced between

Cuzco and Puno by a railway. It is linked, via Puno and Arequipa,
with the main Pan-American coast road and by a more difficult
road, but also by numerous air services, to Lima.
The whole of the High Plateau of the Andes is clotted with
evidences of the pre-Inca and Inca civilizations in an excellent
state of preservation. It also abounds in representative monuments
of Spanish. colonial art, in the form of churches and palaces. The
two archaeological high spots of the region are the Inca citadel
of Machu Picchu, discovered in 1911 on a high ridge of the
Cordillera in a magnificent landscape of peaks and ravines, and
the ancient city of Cuzco, capital of the Inca Empire and later
a centre of Spanish culture; a museum town whose buildings
marry the most remarkable characteristics of the two forms of
architecture.
Turkey
The western and southern provinces of Turkey, on the Aegean

Sea and the Mediterranean, have attracted growing numbers of
tourists of recent years. This is partly due to their climate, their
beaches and their still unspoilt scenery, but also and to a notable
degree to their wealth of monuments of the Hittite, Greek,
Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations. The cities of
Miletus, Ephesus, Heraclea and Hierapolis were in this region
and their remains are still visible. Recent operations have made
it possible to clear the site of Aphrodisias, in the valley of the
Meander, with the Roman stadium for 30,000 spectators, one of
the best preserved in existence. All over the area, easily restored
theatres of antiquity are ideal for the organization of festivals.
With Unesco’s co-operation, the Turkish Government has
undertaken the elaboration of a programme to develop tourism
in the regions of Izmir, Urgiip (the ancient Cappadocia, famous
for its cave churches) and Antalya. This last province-the
ancient Pamphylia, facing the Island of Cyprus-has no fewer
than 91 recognized archaeological sites. It is to the development
of this area that priority is given in the programme in prep-
aration.
Currently work is proceeding on the restoration of the Graeco-
Roman theatre at Side, one of the most impressive known with
70
its 30.metre-high double colonnade, and on beautifying the site,

on a rocky promontory on the Mediterranean coast.
Indonesia
Buddhism, born in India, reached its apex artistically in the

eastern and south-eastern countries of Asia at the very time when
its decline was accelerating in its country of origin. In the islands
of the Southern Seas towards the end of the eighth century, the
powerful Sailendra Empire created one of the most majestic and
representative monumental groups of the bright moontide of
Buddhist art in the sanctuary of Borobudur, standing in deep
jungle in the Island of Java and rediscovered in the nineteenth
century.
From a base 117 metres square, four successive terraces ascend
to form a stepped pyramid. The whole surface of the supporting
walls of base and terraces is carved in high relief. Round the
base is depicted the world of ‘desires and pleasures’, partly hidden
by a later abutment left unfinished. The terrace walls trace the
lives of Gautama Buddha and of other sages. The balustrade of
the walk which surrounds each terrace is decorated with sculptures
and crowned by niches sheltering Buddhas. Above the pyramid
are three circular terraces one above the other which carry 72
fretted stupas containing Buddhas in meditation. At the top is
a great central stupa, 40 metres in height and empty. In all, there
are 504 Buddhas and 2,500 square metres cawed in relief running
over a distance of six kilometres.
Twice restored since it was discovered, Borobudur today
is threatened by irremediable and rapid destruction. The struc-
ture’s fill is simply compacted earth, ‘while the walls and the
flagging of the terraces are built of blocks of stone which form
perfect joins but are totally innocent of mortar. Through the
joins, rain-water infiltrates and washes away the earth; the walls
settle, and the load on them increases inversely with the level.
At ground level, the lowest terrace is on the verge of collapse.
Again, the volcanic stone used for the construction is excep-
tionally porous, and its absorption of water leads to the growth
of mosses, lichens and algae which hasten the process of disinte-
gration. The sculptures in particular are suffering and already
whole sets of bas-reliefs are seriously damaged.
71
After several study missions, it has become clear that the only
solution is to dismantle the structure and to rebuild it stone by
stone. This will be done round a supporting structure of re-
inforced concrete, designed to distribute the weight evenly and
to prevent infiltration. A drainage system will channel away the
rain-water. The protection of the sculptures can thus be under-
taken in the best conditions.
This project, technically impeccable, will cost about $4,500,000.
Its execution is envisaged as part of a tourism development plan
that is in course of preparation with aid from Unesco.
Pakistan
The site of Mohenjo-Daro, in the Indus Valley, covers an area of

about 100 hectares. Discovered by chance in 1922, these ruins
have revealed the existence of a major pre-Aryan civilization,
contemporary with Sumer and the Old Kingdom of Egypt
(approximately 4000-2000 B.C.). A succession of archaeological
digs-notably those run by Sir Mortimer Wheeler-served to
unearth large sections of an ancient city, wholly brick-built,
with narrow streets and large squares, houses of several storeys,
shops and theatres. This apparently very busy city was equipped
with a remarkable water supply and sewerage system and, well
before Rome, had large public baths. It was protected against
the Indus floods by ditches and an embankment. One day, these
defences proved inadequate and the river covered everything
with water and mud. . . .
In January 1964, a mission of specialists from Unesco examined
the state of the ruins that had been cleared. At first sight the
area recalled a snow-covered field: in this very arid climate, the
floods of the Indus leave behind a considerable quantity of saline
deposits which penetrate and eat away the bricks. After two days
of sunshine following a shower, ‘glassy needles a centimetre in
length sprouted from shady walls and, where the ground was
rough and exposed to the direct action of the sun, the salts formed
a white cushion like masses pressing upwards as in a vegetable
garden well stocked with cauliflowers’.
The only way of getting rid of these saline accumulations is
to redissolve them by repeated leachings with fresh water and
to evacuate the liquid, possibly by reactivating the ancient canal
72
and sewer system. An additional difficulty i,s the gradual raising

of the river-bed with a corresponding rise of the water table; the
soil being saturated with water, drainage can no longer take
place in the usual way. Lowering the water table is not impossible,
and detailed studies have been begun of contours, slopes and
natural water trajectories towards the installation of a compre-
hensive pumping and drainage system. When the water has
been evacuated, it will still be necessary to remove the salt from
the soil by leachings in depth. . . . Obviously this will be a long
and exacting task but only at this price will it be possible to
preserve the incomparable relics of the ancient civilization of the
Indus.
With Unesco’s help, a comprehensive work programme is being
prepared. Concurrently the Pakistan Government is proceeding
with the site’s ‘touristic’ development: having constructed an
airfield, an access road, paved pathways to facilitate walking
among the ruins, a hostel and a small museum.
Brazil
Several Unesco missions have participated in the studies under-

taken by Brazilian specialists for the development of the country’s
cultural heritage and the expansion of its tourist industry. There
is no autochthonous architectural tradition in Brazil, but it is the
meeting-place for European, Indian and African influences in
an exuberant tropical setting and highly original forms of baroque
art have flourished there. The colonial towns present harmonious
monumental groups which are masterpieces of urban architecture.
Still in perfect condition half a century ago, today they are in
process of rapid deterioration : over-inhabited, deserted or
threatened with modernization. For the town of Salvador de
Bahia, in particular, a comprehensive restoration and development
plan has been prepared with Unesco’s aid.
73

1970 - Protection of Mankind's Cultural Heritage Sites and Monuments

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1970 - Protection of Mankind's Cultural Heritage Sites and Monuments

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Protection of

Sites and monuments .

0 Unesco 1970 Printed in France COM.69/11.28/A

Teachers for the schools of tomorrow

The right to education

In partnership with youth

Four statements on the race question

Protection of mankind’s cultural

Article I. Purposes and functions

Historic monuments are the adornments with which Man has

conventions and recommendations directed to instituting a world-

The juridical system which Unesco aims at instituting for the

The International Convention on the Protection of Cultural

This convention was adopted on 14 May 1954 by an intergovern-

fifty-nine States had deposed instruments of ratification of or

1. Albania, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Byelorussian S.S.R.,

whether cultural property had been destroyed, in violation of the

The recommendations to Member States adopted by the General

create museums in order to exhibit the archaeological finds to

industrialization, improvement programmes-not only threatens

--- _-.-- ._.-..

Monuments also need to be protected against dangers which

and consultative relations’ with Unesco since 1962. The union’s

organize international meetings and exchanges and to help

From research to results

As a result of the studies pursued for the last twenty years by

Property, Unesco ha,s recently published a manual on the preser-

1. The Conservation of Cultural Property with Special Reference to Tropical

In launching the International Campaign for Monuments on

The meaning of the campaign

Inaugurating the campaign, the Director-General of Unesco,

Echoes of the campaign

For the purposes of the International Campaign for Monuments,

from destruction. This film wa,s distributed in the Member States

The reconstruction of historical monuments in Poland 1

After the last war, a devastated Poland faced an immense task in

1. By Stanislaw Lorentz, Director of the National Museum, Warsaw.

Polish landscape with its palaces and manor-houses in their parks,

The preservation of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic monuments1

A land of many cultures of common origin but as diverse as the great

1. By Romzin Pitia Chin, Curator at the Mexican National Museum of

Excavations have been followed by extensive restoration work.

Any general dispositions taken at national level for the protection

Monuments all over the world which ne&d saving

Below will be found a summarized description of the most

The classification of countries by regions is that used by Unesco

Cameroon. Restoration of the Sultan Njoya Palace, at Foumban

Ethiopia. Development plan for six touristic zones: Addis Ababa

1. The dates in parentheses are those of the Unesco missions.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Bolivia. Restoration and development of archaeological sites (pre-

Colombia. Plan for the restoration and development of the

urgent measures had to be taken for their preservation. Several

Dominican Republic. Conservation plan for the historic monu-

AZgeria. Programme for restoration of Roman monuments (theatre

Iraq. Study of preservation measures at Baghdad, Nineveh, Hatra,

Jordan. Preservation of Classical, Islamic and mediaeval monu-

Lebanon. Preservation and display of the ruins of Baalbek and

Libya. Archaeological excavations on the Islamic sites of Sultan