ALGIERS — The UNESCO World Heritage Centre announced Tuesday on its official website the update of Algeria’s tentative world heritage list, which now includes eleven cultural, natural and mixed sites, the Ministry of Culture and Arts said in a press release.

This update serves as “a strategic step mirroring the richness of Algerian heritage and its geographical, environmental and civilizational diversity,” while “also paving the way for developing nomination dossiers for the World Heritage list,” according to the same source.

The source said that this update “represents a key cultural achievement that crowns a complementary scientific and technical effort led by the National Scientific Committee, established by the Minister of Culture and Arts, Zouhir Ballalou in December 2024 as part of the commitment to the revival of this vital file, placed at the heart of the priorities of the national strategy of the Ministry of Culture and Arts aimed at enriching Algeria’s world heritage list.” 

This achievement also embodies “the genuine political commitment of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to promote Algeria’s civilizational and natural assets through a comprehensive and sustainable cultural vision that positions heritage as a cornerstone of national identity, a tool for cultural influence and a driver of sustainable development,” the same source said.

The methodology adopted by the ministry’s services, under the supervision of an elite of Algerian experts, enabled the development of a “balanced list in line with the guiding principles of the 1972 Convention concerning the protection of world cultural and natural heritage, both for geographical diversity and for types of heritage,” the ministry said.