New UNESCO World Heritage Sites for 2019

This year welcomed a new slate of UNESCO World Heritage sites that can help you plan your travels for 2020 and the years to come. Below are just a few of the 29 new sites that debuted on the world-renowned list in 2019.

A train ride north from Porto, Portugal, sits the medieval city of Braga, where travelers can climb the 600 steps to the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte for views of the city. On the island of Grand Canaria in Spain, the archeological site of Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains encompasses cliffs and volcanic rock as well as two temples. Elsewhere in Europe, Iceland’s Vatnajökull National Park features 10 volcanoes, eight located below the glaciers that cover 14 percent of Iceland, and two of which are the island nation’s most active.

In Asia, Laos’s “Plain of Jars” includes 2,100 jar-shaped stones that served as tombstones during the Iron Age. Jaipur City in Rajasthan, India, is also known as the “Pink City” due to its abundance of pink stone buildings. Hindu, modern Mughal and Western cultures combined to create the town’s unique architecture.

The Milk River Valley in Alberta, Canada, is home to Áísínai’pi, or “Writing-on-Stone,” where sandstone walls have carved messages and drawings from the Blackfoot tribe.