Last Tuesday, Yemen’s new tentative list was published on the UNESCO website. It contained no less than 31 new entries. This was a remarkable event as (a) we rarely see such large updates, and (b) Yemen is a country at war, with a struggling central government, and all its current WHS, except for the archipelago of Socotra, are In Danger.

The New List in numbers

We could have seen this New List coming, as in December 2024, UNESCO reported on a series of online workshops that were held to revise Yemen’s World Heritage Tentative List.

These workshops resulted in 37 new proposals, of which almost all (31) have now been added to the Tentative List. Four out of nine sites from the old Tentative List also remain active. Four of the new sites were replacements for existing ones (one of those is still double-listed on the UNESCO website). Additionally, two FTWHS were incorporated into the newly listed selection.

The Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention do not put a limit on the number of sites on a State’s Tentative List, but speak of an “important planning tool .. as they provide an indication of future nominations” and that they “should be established selectively”. But in my opinion, Yemen went a bit overboard with its high number of TWHS; probably, they did not want to disappoint anyone who participated at this stage. With 36 entries, Yemen now has the 5th biggest Tentative List of all countries. Also, as we see in other large countries, a wider geographical spread of sites across the country has been achieved than in the past.

Common themes

While reading through all descriptions of the new tentative sites, two common themes stand out:

1. Vernacular architecture in a mountain setting is the Yemeni thing. At least twelve of its TWHS are or include mountainside villages with interesting architecture. Some are built of adobe, others of brick or stone, depending on what material is available locally.
2. Second would be the Incense trade. Yemen was a great producer of frankincense (and myrrh), and these aromatic products were transported over land to its seaports on the Red Sea and Arabian Sea. The trade stimulated the growth of urban centers and the exchange of cultures and ideas. The 12 components of the Old Incense Trade Routes link them all together, including some double entries such as the already inscribed Marib and the TWHS of Shabwa.

Highlights

If I were to get a free ticket to a peaceful Yemen, I would put these new TWHS on my list:

• The historic southern city of Aden got its first two sites. One for its long history of serving as a commercial port, and another for its wetlands that are crucial for birds.
• The sites of the Ma’in Old Kingdom and those of the Kingdom of Qataban include temples of indigenous pagan, pre-Islamic religions.
• The natural site of Erf Mountain, a forested area with juniper trees, leopards and wolves.

Have you visited any of the “new” sites in the past? If you have photos, reviews, or other remarks to share, please do!

I visited in June 2025 the roças of Sundy, Água-Izé and Monte Café that are part of this nomination.

The first visit was at the Roça Sundy on the island of Príncipe. Sundy is now owned by the HBD Príncipe hotel group and the roça's main buildings have been renovated to cater as luxury hotel facilities. For this reason this was the most pleasant visit of all the roças. We stayed at one of the HBD's hotels on the island so visit to Roça Sundy was easy to organize (there are basically no public transportation or taxis on Príncipe). Sundy is the biggest roça on Príncipe. The roça originally produced coffee but these days its only product is chocolate, and the production is very small scale. The main building, that used to be the owner's house, has a beautiful entrance hall with a restaurant at the back which is open for anyone. From the restaurant's balcony opens amazing view to the sea and over the lush forests as the roça is located quite high up on a hill. Next to the main building is a small monument to the British astronomer Arthur Eddington who proved here in 1919 that Einstein's theory of relativity to be correct. Bit further away from the main building there is a massive wall that looks like a fortress. This wall is the only thing left of the horse stables of the roça. Next to the wall is the former chapel of the roça. The chapel is in very bad condition and seems that it has not been in use for decades. Next to the chapel and the horse stables you can see the abandoned sanzalas, the workers' houses. These are now abandoned but still few years ago they housed hundreds of people that have been now moved to live elsewhere on the island. You can still see old railway tracks all around the property. Just outside the gates of the roça is the former hospital, that seems abandoned but part of the building still had windows and there were electric lights inside, so it seems to be in some kind of use. During our visit it was raining heavily so we didn't walk around the roça as much as we wanted. If you come to Príncipe, I highly recommend visiting Roça Sundy, or even staying in the hotel. The staff were very friendly and the food was delicious, we had lunch here before going back to our hotel. We didn't have guide with us and there were no information signs, these would have made the visit better for sure and open more of the history of the roça.

Next we visited the Roça Água-Izé on the island of São Tomé. It takes only about 20 minutes to drive from the city of São Tomé to Água-Izé and the main road to the south of the island goes right through the roça. The roça is quite large and it's still a living village for the descendants of the slaves (or "contract workers") that were brought here mostly from Angola. I highly recommend you organize a guided tour to Água-Izé beforehand, especially if you don't speak Portuguese, to have the best experience. We arrived to the roça with our rented car and were immediately surrounded by local young men that introduced themselves as official guides of the roça. After a short negotiation we settled to pay them 10 euros for their services (they first asked for 20 euros). Our guide's English wasn't the best but good enough for a short tour. Without the guide it would have been intimidating to walk through the living quarters of the roça where people are living their daily lives (and drinking palm wine, a common activity on the islands). The roça has only very small scale production these days, but it was originally producing coffee, cocoa and palm oil. The highlight of the roça is the former hospital building that was said to be the best one in West Africa when it was opened in 1928. The hospital is located on a hill over the village. The hospital is now used as squatting housing for the locals and without the guide it's not advised to go inside. The architecture of the hospital is quite genius with different operation rooms being satellites of the main building and how it was kept cool in the tropical heat. From the roof you have great view over the roça and to the sea. You can also see the remains of the first hospital that is slowly disappearing into the jungle. Generally everything in Roça Água-Izé is rundown and many buildings are abandoned, but at the same time the lively atmosphere with the locals makes it an exciting place to visit. After our tour the guide asked 2 euros per person to give "for the community" which was not mentioned when we negotiated of the entry price. The site needs better management with these local guides, we saw few other tourists turning around with their cars after they were surrounded by the guides. Our guide was very friendly and locals seemed very relaxed and friendly towards visitors also, so it's sad that for many visitors the first experience on arrival to the roça is intimidation, and this needs to change with clear pricing.

Our last roça visit was Roça Monte Café. As the name suggest, coffee is the main star here and it has been a coffee plantation since it was established. Coffee is still produced at Monte Café and you can buy their coffee from every supermarket in São Tomé city. Monte Café is only 15 minute drive away uphill from São Tomé city. Just like Água-Izé, Monte Café is also a lively village with locals going on with their daily activities around the property. We visited the Coffee Museum which is a located in a big white building. The entrance fee is 3 euros and it includes a small cup of local coffee. The museum has only Portuguese-speaking guides (at least on the day we visited) so we toured around the museum by ourselves. The information panels are very few and only in Portuguese but with Google Translate we got the main points of the history of the roça. The roça was established in 1858 and on its heydays had thousands of workers. The machinery in the museum didn't have information panels so we just guessed what they were used for in the coffee production process. The building has a balcony with once again amazing views over the roça and all the way to São Tomé city and the sea. As the roça is located 500 meters above the sea level, the clouds were hanging low here and air was a lot cooler than down on the coast. Before leaving the museum we had our coffee and it does taste very delicious. We bought few bags of it to take home. After having a quick look around the rest of the roça, we headed to see the nearby São Nicolau waterfall.

Besides Sundy, Água-Izé and Monte Café there are plenty of other roças to visit, which are in very different states of preservation, and some are located at the end of roads that are barely usable anymore. We drove past the Roça Diogo Vaz, which is now a major cocoa and chocolate producer on the islands. You can visit the roça with a guided tour and you can book the tour through Diogo Vaz's 2 shops in São Tomé city. We learned about this on our last day on the island, otherwise we probably would have booked a tour. We also shortly stopped at Roça São João. The roça is located at the edge of the town of São João dos Angolares. The main building is now a hotel and hosts an upscale restaurant on a giant balcony with amazing views to the sea. We stopped here just see the views and learn about the restaurant but just based on this short visit I would recommend coming here for dinner if you're staying around Angolares.