The World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed three new cultural sites on the World Heritage List at the committee's 28th session, according to a press release issued by the committee in Suzhou Wednesday night.

Following is a brief introduction of the three cultural sites:

-- Tomb of Askia of Mali. The dramatic 17-m pyramidal structure of Le Tombeau des Askia was built by Askia Mohamed, the Emperor of Songhai, in 1495 in his capital Gao. It bears testimony to the power and riches of the Empire that flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries through its control of the trans Saharan trade, notably in salt and gold. It is also a fine example of the monumental mud-building traditions of the West African Sahel. The complex, including the pyramidal tomb, two flat roofed mosque buildings, the mosque cemetery, and the open air assembly ground, was built when Gao became the capital of the Songhai Empire and after Askia Mohamed had returned from Mecca and made Islam the official religion of the Empire.

-- Portuguese City of Mazagan (El Jadida) of Morocco. The Portuguese fortification of Mazagan, now part of the city of El Jadida, 90km southwest of Casablanca, was built as a fortified colony on the Atlantic coast in the early 16th century. It was taken over by the Moroccans in 1769. The fortification with its bastions and ramparts is an early example of Renaissance military design. The surviving Portuguese buildings include the cistern and the Church of the Assumption, built in the Manueline style of late Gothic architecture. The Portuguese City of Mazagan -- one of the early settlements of the Portuguese explorers in West Africa on the route to India -- is an outstanding example of the interchange of influences between European and Moroccan cultures, well reflected in architecture, technology, and town planning.

-- Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba of Togo. The Koutammakou landscape in northeastern Togo, which extends into neighbouring Benin, is home to the Batammariba whose remarkable mud tower-houses have come to be seen as a symbol of Togo. In this landscape, nature is strongly associated with the rituals and beliefs of society. The 50,000-ha cultural landscape is remarkable due to the architecture of its Takienta tower-houses which are a reflection of social structure; its farmland and forest; and the associations between people and landscape. Many of the buildings are two stories high and those with granaries feature an almost spherical form above a cylindrical base. Some of the buildings have flat roofs, others have conical thatched roofs. They are grouped in villages, which also include ceremonial spaces, springs, rocks and sites reserved for initiation ceremonies.
 
(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2004)