Cultural Preservation

Now ancient Famagusta, tucked into a modern city of 35,000 people, is largely forgotten, except, perhaps, as the setting for Shakespeare's Othello.

Endangered Site: Famagusta Walled City, Cyprus

Once located in the midst of high-volume shipping lanes, a forgotten city with multiple European influences could be lost forever without an intervention

In 1908, the whaling industry collapsed and Herschel Island was deserted.

Endangered Site: Herschel Island, Canada

An abandoned island off the coast of the Yukon Territory holds a unique place in the history of the Pacific whaling industry

Coro is a "unique example of a well-conserved urban area with Spanish, Antillean, Dutch and indigenous architectural influences," says Venezuelan architect Maria Eugenia Bacci.

Endangered Site: Port City of Coro, Venezuela

One of South America's best preserved towns, this Spanish colonial port city now faces deteriorating conditions

Mohamed Mahmoud on the roof of his Al-Hamoni family library, of which he is curator, in Chinguetti, Mauritania.

Endangered Site: Chinguetti, Mauritania

The rapidly expanding Sahara Desert threatens a medieval trading center that also carries importance for Sunni Muslims

The 103-year-old Centennial Baptist Church was built by a black architect and was pastored by Rev. Elias Camp Morris, the first president of the National Baptist Convention.

Endangered Site: Centennial Baptist Church

Built by a self-taught black architect, the Arkansas church has hosted leaders in the black community for over a century

View of Jaisalmer Fort, built in 1156 by Rawal Jaisal, which has 99 bastions around its circumference.

Endangered Site: Jaisalmer Fort, India

The famed fort has withstood earthquakes and sandstorms for a millenia, but now shifts and crumbles

14th-century Visoki Decani Monastery in Kosovo and Metohija, Serbia.

Endangered Site: Visoki Decani Monastery, Kosovo

The fate of the 14th-century abbey has been darkened by ethnic violence in the Balkans

The 2,400-mile-highway "took us to places that we needed to be, not in a literal sense, but a more philosophical sense," says curator Roger White.

Endangered Site: Historic Route 66, U.S.A.

The 2,400-mile highway was eclipsed by interstate highways that bypassed neon signs of roadside diners

A 65-foot statue of Buddha within one of 130 caves in northwest China is threatened by erosion and earthquakes.

Endangered Site: Xumishan Grottoes, China

This collection of ancient Buddhist cave temples date back to the fifth and tenth centuries, A.D.

Hasankeyf is home to thousands of human-made caves, hundreds of medieval monuments and a rich-ecosystem.

Endangered Site: The City of Hasankeyf, Turkey

A new hydroelectric dam threatens the ancient city, home to thousands of human-made caves

Once the capital of an empire, Chan Chan was the largest adobe city on earth.

Endangered Site: Chan Chan, Peru

About 600 years ago, this city on the Pacific coast was the largest city in the Americas

At the Church of the Nativity, three rival Christian groups use their caretaking duties to maintain their claims to the basiilica.

Endangered Site: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

The basilica believed to mark the birthplace of Jesus Christ has survived invasions, rebellions and earthquakes

Not for nothing is Italy's Fenestrelle Fortress know as "Great Wall of the Alps." Covering 320 acres, it is one of the largest fortified structures in Europe.

Endangered Site: Fenestrelle Fortress, Italy

The "Great Wall of the Alps" covers 320 acres and is one of the largest fortified structures in Europe

Circular earthworks mark the center of the 510-foot-high "spiritual heart of Ireland," now threatened by a seemingly unstoppable four-lane highway.

Ireland’s Endangered Cultural Site

A new tollway threatens the archaeologically rich Hill of Tara that is the spiritual heart of the country

A mysterious bird etched in stone at the ancient aboriginal rock art site in Western Australia.

Dampier Rock Art Complex, Australia

On the northwestern coast of Australia, over 500,000 rock carvings face destruction by industrial development

Pulitzer Prize-winning author N. Scott Momaday operates the Buffalo Trust, a nonprofit organization working to preserve Native cultures.

N. Scott Momaday and the Buffalo Trust

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Kiowa Indian N. Scott Momaday runs a nonprofit organization working to preserve Native cultures

A boy peeks through a doorway that serves as the main entrance of a house.

Save the Casbah

In Algiers, preservationists race to rescue the storied quarter. But is it too late?

The Gullah Geechee perform an ancestral ceremony on Sullivan's Island.

Summertime for Gershwin

In the South, the Gullah struggle to keep their traditions alive

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Lads Without Plaids

Kiltless in Scotland: An Action Plan

A 30-foot-high communal meetinghouse, or mudheef, is constructed entirely of the region's ubiquitous marsh reeds, which, woven into majestic arches, support even its elegantly curved roof. "If you go back 4,000 years," one villager told the author, "you'll find exactly the same design."

Return to the Marsh

The effort to restore the Marsh Arabs' traditional way of life in southern Iraq—virtually eradicated by Saddam Hussein —faces new threats

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