The inscription of the property as a World Heritage Site under both cultural and natural criteria is supported by evidence that the property’s dynamic topography has resulted in an equally dynamic and evolving local culture. Furthermore, the property is one of the few in Southeast Asia with substantial evidence spanning a broad timeframe to demonstrate this cultural development. The property has exceptional inherent worth as a site of impressive aesthetic value, geomorphological interest, and social heritage.
Country
Vietnam
Name
Trang An Landscape Complex
Outstanding Universal Value Declaration
At the time of inscription, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee adopted the following Statement of Outstanding Universal Value:
Synthesis in a Nutshell
The Trang An Landscape Complex (Trang An) is a mixed cultural and natural property located in Ninh Binh Province of North Vietnam, at the southern edge of the Red River delta about 90 kilometers southeast of Hanoi. It is mostly contained within three protected areas, the Hoa Lu Ancient Capital and the Trang An-Tam Coc-Bich Dong Scenic Area, both of which have been designated as special national monuments, and the Hoa Lu Special-Use Primary Forest. The property encompasses 6,172 ha within the Trang An limestone massif and is surrounded by a buffer zone of 6,628 ha, the majority of which is paddy rice fields.
Trang An is managed by the Trang An Landscape Complex Management Board and administered by the Ninh Binh Provincial People’s Committee on behalf of the Government of Vietnam. Even though there are approximately 14,000 residents, primarily sustenance farmers’ families, much of the estate is completely uninhabitable and in a natural state, with no adverse effects on natural or cultural values from human activities, and approximately 21,000 residents in the buffer zone.
Trang An is a worldwide geologically significant humid tropical tower karst scenery in the late stages of geomorphological evolution. It is made up of a diverse range of classical karst landforms, including spectacular cones and towers of various types surrounded by a network of closed depressions and valleys with extensive wetlands linked by an intricate network of subterranean waterways. The area is unique in that it has been decided to invade and re – worked by the sea numerous times in the geologically active past but is now observable on land, based on the interactions of certain larger global tectonic structures.
Landform development over more than 5 million years has generated a picturesque scenery of exquisite beauty with outstanding aesthetic appeal – a meld of soaring crevasse mountains swathed in pure tropical rainforest, full of large and deeply deployed inside basins whose clear and quietly flowing waters are connected through a plethora of subsurface channels and catacombs, most of which are passable by small delivered an exceptional carrying visitors. The enfolding wilderness offers a better sense of quietude, tranquility, and safety to the many visitors. Rich archeological sites reserves in cave systems expose a common values continuous sequence of inhabitation and consumption of the effectively participate and over than 30,000 years.
There is compelling proof of how these ancient human groups adjusted to the evolving scenery of the massif and neighboring lowland areas from the altitude during the last glaciation and through the turbulent transformations at the end of the glacial maximum – some of the most extraordinary climatic and topographic changes in the planet’s recent times. Trang An is thus an outstanding in situ archive of changing environmental conditions and people’s responses to that change stretching back into the distant past.
Criteria (v)
Tràngang An offers an extremely obvious window into the communication of human and nature in Southeast Asia encompassing and over 30,000 years, from of the Late Pleistocene to a Holocene. Comprehensive archeological evidence and asked to indicate the extent rebuilding have revealed a continuous sequence of early human action and cultural production that is strongly linked to the geologically active evolvement of the limestone karst massif, which now has changed radically between peninsula, parochial, and coastline settings.
Trang An is thus exceptionally and demonstrably well placed as an in situ repository of information about human response to changing environmental conditions during some of the most tumultuous climatic and topographic modifications in Earth’s recent history, particularly those occurring at the end of and immediately following the late glacial period. It is a time capsule of interpersonal interaction and one of the few in Southeast Asia that has retained its original character and has not been significantly altered by later human, animal, or other agency.
Criteria (vii)
Trang An’s tower karst landscape is one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring places on the planet. A spectacular array of 200m-high, cliff-bounded limestone rock towers and conical hills dominates the landscape. Sharp ridges enclose deep depressions and valleys filled with waterways that are interconnected by a plethora of subterranean streams and caverns, some of which are navigable by small boats.
Water-borne tourists passing through this backcountry have an immediate relationship with the eco system and a sense of quietude and safety. Trang An’s dramatic mountain ranges, mystical caves, docile waters, and sacred sites have enthralled and influenced people for generations. It is a place where nature and culture are inextricably linked, where culture encounters and is transformed by the natural world’s wonder, mystery, and magnificence.
Criteria (viii)
The Trang An Landscape Complex is unique among the world’s limestone tower karst landscapes, demonstrating the final stages of karst evolution under a humid tropical climate. Trang An is world-renowned for displaying a wide range of typical humid tropical limestone karst landforms, such as cones, towers, enclosed depressions (cockpits), interior draining valleys (poljes), karren, swamp notches, foot-caves, subterranean rivers, and caves with speleothems.
Impartiality
The Trang An property is large and broad enough to include all of its exceptional cultural and natural values and standards. The border, which primarily chooses to follow natural elements, incorporates a complete limestone massif with an entire array of traditional landmasses and affiliated geomorphologic procedures that demonstrate the geological evolution of tower karst landscapes in remarkable detail. All caves and archeological sites significant sites are included. There have been no constructions or other man-made aspects impeding the landscapes or diverting attention from the area’s aesthetic value.
A bigger buffer zone encloses the shortlisted property, effectively protecting it from any external disruption or negative impacts. Although the buffer zone and the property itself have some populated areas, these are mostly small villages and farms and gardens tended by locals who also get their food from the many rivers. Some cement industries and stone craft villages are located outside the buffer zone at the southern end of the property, but they are well separated from the property boundary and their impacts are recognized and carefully mitigated. The area has a long history of protection, and the majority of the property is still essentially in its natural state.
The very sturdy mountainous terrain has isolated a large portion of the area from human occupation and exploitation, and it has remained relatively unknown until recently, with the exception of the Hoa Lu ancient capital and the Tam Coc – Bich Dong tourist area. The Trang An Scenic Area and the Hoa Lu Special Use Primary Forest were largely unexplored until about ten years ago, when they were thoroughly evaluated and assigned for safeguard and viable use. The majority of the property is surrounded by three secure and officially designated protected areas, two of which have been designated as national monuments.
