Churches, Cinemas — and Moon Artifacts — Top List of Endangered Monuments 2025: Aerial bombardment has caused severe damage to monuments across the Gaza Strip, including the roughly 1000-year-old church of St Porphyrius, partly destroyed by a bomb in October 2023 that also killed 16-18 civilians.

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Churches, Cinemas — and Moon Artifacts — Top List of Endangered Monuments

The 2025 World Monument Watch list features a non-terrestrial site for the first time.

A baroque church, a modernist cinema, irrigation systems and indigenous trading paths all feature on a new list of world heritage sites in danger.

Published every two years by the World Monuments Fund (WMF), the 2025 World Monument Watch list also breaks entirely new ground by including in its 25-entry list a site at risk that isn’t even on Earth: the Moon, or more specifically the remnants of early landings left on its surface by astronauts.

The Moon’s listing reflects the need to “recognize and preserve the artifacts that testify to humanity’s first steps beyond Earth,” said WMF President and Chief Executive Officer Bénédicte de Montlaur in a statement.

“Items such as the camera that captured the televised Moon landing; a memorial disk left by astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin; and hundreds of other objects are emblematic of this legacy. Yet, they face mounting risks amidst accelerating lunar activities, undertaken without adequate preservation protocols.” 

Back on Earth, a striking number of sites at risk are in relatively affluent countries or in the heart of major cities. Two entries on the list are in the US: the historic lighthouses of Maine, threatened with climate change-related coastal erosion and extreme weather, and the Great Trading Path, a southeastern trail used by indigenous peoples to trade across the Carolinas and beyond.   ... READ MORE https://getpocket.com/explore/item/churches-cinemas-and-moon-artifacts-top-list-of-endangered-monuments?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

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