DUSHANBE, June 22, 2013, Asia-Plus -- The World Heritage Committee has inscribed natural sites from Tajikistan, Italy, and Mexico on the World Heritage List.

The Mountains of the Pamirs in Tajikistan have been inscribed by UNESCO, the United Nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization, on the World Heritage List alongside Mount Etna (Italy) and El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar (Mexico).  

The World Heritage List catalogues sites determined to be of significant cultural or physical importance to humanity.

UNESCO added the Mountains of the Pamirs to the World Heritage List at its meeting that took place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on June 21.

Tajikistan National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs) covers more than 2.5 million hectares in the east of Tajikistan, at the center of the so-called “Pamir Knot”, a meeting point of the highest mountain ranges on the Eurasian continent.  It consists of high plateau in the east and, to the west, rugged peaks, some of them over 7,000 meters high, and features extreme seasonal variations of temperature.  The longest valley glacier outside the Polar region is located among the 1,085 glaciers inventoried in the site, which also numbers 170 rivers and more than 400 lakes.  Rich flora species of both the south-western and central Asian floristic regions grow in the Park which shelters nationally rare and threatened birds and mammals (Marco Polo Argali sheep, Snow Leopards and Siberian Ibex and more).  Subject to frequent strong earthquakes, the Park is sparsely inhabited, and virtually unaffected by agriculture and permanent human settlements.  It offers a unique opportunity for the study of plate tectonics and subduction phenomena.

The Mountains of the Pamirs, a natural wonder that contains the longest valley glacier outside the Polar region, are Tajikistan''s first natural World Heritage site.