Whc Unesco Org

UNESCO World Heritage Centre Access Skill

Access the UNESCO World Heritage Convention database to retrieve information about World Heritage Sites, States Parties statistics, and more.

Overview

This skill provides programmatic access to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (whc.unesco.org) database, including:

• World Heritage List: All 1,200+ properties on the World Heritage List
• Sites in Danger: Properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger
• States Parties: Country-level statistics and convention participation
• Search: Full-text search across site names

Available Functions

list_sites

List World Heritage sites with optional filters.

Parameters:

• country_code (optional): ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g., 'us', 'fr', 'jp')
• category (optional): 'cultural', 'natural', or 'mixed'
• in_danger (optional): Boolean to filter sites in danger
• limit (optional): Maximum results (default: 100)

Example:

function: list_sites
country_code: us
category: natural

get_site

Get details for a specific World Heritage site.

Parameters:

• site_id (required): UNESCO site ID number

Example:

function: get_site
site_id: 1466

get_country_stats

Get World Heritage statistics for a specific country.

Parameters:

• country_code (required): ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code

Example:

function: get_country_stats
country_code: fr

Returns:

• properties_inscribed: Number of World Heritage properties
• mandates: Times served on World Heritage Committee
• conservation_reports: State of Conservation reports
• assistance_requests: International assistance requests approved
• ratification_date: Date of convention ratification

get_statistics

Get overall World Heritage statistics.

Returns:

• Total sites worldwide
• Sites by category (Cultural, Natural, Mixed)
• Total sites in danger
• Number of countries with sites

search_sites

Search World Heritage sites by name.

Parameters:

• query (required): Search term
• country_code (optional): Filter by country
• limit (optional): Maximum results (default: 50)

Example:

function: search_sites
query: pyramid

Data Sources

The skill uses the following API endpoints discovered on the site:

1. GeoJSON API: GET /en/list/?mode=geojson

   • Returns all sites with coordinates and metadata
   • Supports filtering by country, category, region, danger status, and search term

2. RSS Feed: GET /en/list/rss

   • Alternative site listing in XML format

3. States Parties Pages: GET /en/statesparties/{country_code}

   • Country statistics scraped from HTML

Site Data Structure

Each site returned includes:

{
  "id": 1466,
  "title": "San Antonio Missions",
  "category": "Cultural",
  "category_id": 1,
  "in_danger": false,
  "country": "United States of America",
  "geometry_type": "Point",
  "coordinates": [-98.46, 29.3280555556],
  "components": [
    {"name": "Mission Espada", "country": "United States of America"}
  ]
}

Categories

• Cultural (cat_id: 1): Cultural heritage sites
• Natural (cat_id: 2): Natural heritage sites
• Mixed (cat_id: 3): Sites with both cultural and natural significance

Country Codes

Use ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes:

• us - United States
• fr - France
• jp - Japan
• cn - China
• de - Germany
• it - Italy
• es - Spain
• etc.

Examples

List all sites in France

result = await execute({
    "function": "list_sites",
    "country_code": "fr"
})

Find natural sites in danger

result = await execute({
    "function": "list_sites",
    "category": "natural",
    "in_danger": true
})

Search for pyramid-related sites

result = await execute({
    "function": "search_sites",
    "query": "pyramid"
})

Get statistics for Japan

result = await execute({
    "function": "get_country_stats",
    "country_code": "jp"
})

Limitations

• Individual site detail pages are protected by Cloudflare, so detailed descriptions are not available through this API
• GeoJSON data provides basic site information only
• Some serial properties have multiple component locations

Rate Limiting

Please be respectful of UNESCO's servers. The skill implements conservative rate limits:

• 2 requests per second
• 30 requests per minute