Highest World Heritage Site

The highest World Heritage Site to have been inscribed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is Sagarmāthā National Park in Nepal. Home to the world’s highest mountain, Everest (aka Sagarmāthā; Chomolungma), the park tops out at 8,848.8 m (29,031 ft) above sea level (the summit of Everest) with an elevation range of 6,000 m (19,685 ft). It was recognized as a Natural site of importance by the prestigious body in 1979.

With this project, UNESCO aims to “encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.”

The first World Heritage Sites (comprising 12 sites, beginning with Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands) were officially inscribed by UNESCO in 1978.

By contrast, the deepest UNESCO World Heritage Site is the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (inducted in 2010) in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, which plummets to 6,147 m (20,167 ft) below sea level.