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Recordedyearculture

Arabian Oryx Sanctuary deleted — the first site ever removed from the World Heritage List

Oman reduced the sanctuary's protected area by about 90 per cent to permit hydrocarbon prospecting. The Committee, at its 31st session in 2007, held that this contravened the Operational Guidelines and destroyed the Outstanding Universal Value for which the property had been inscribed in 1994, and deleted it. The wild oryx population had fallen from roughly 450 in 1996 to about 65, with four breeding pairs left, as prospecting roads gave poachers access. Unlike the two deletions that followed, this one was not preceded by a period on the danger list — the State's own decision removed the basis for inscription outright.

Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.

Subjects

Evidence

Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.

Recorded on Arabian Oryx Sanctuary, Oman (delisted 2007)

  1. The first properties are inscribed on the World Heritage List
  2. Angkor inscribed on the World Heritage List and the danger list on the same day
  3. The Committee adopts the Global Strategy for a Balanced, Representative and Credible World Heritage List
  4. Angkor removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger
  5. The cultural and natural criteria are merged into a single set of ten
  6. Galápagos Islands placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger
  7. Arabian Oryx Sanctuary deleted — the first site ever removed from the World Heritage List
  8. Dresden Elbe Valley deleted — the second removal, by a vote of 14 to 5
  9. Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger
  10. Fourteen of Timbuktu's sixteen inscribed mausoleums destroyed
  11. The Temple of Bel at Palmyra destroyed
  12. Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City deleted — the third and most recent removal
  13. The Committee declines, again, to place Venice on the danger list

Related

Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.