**United States of America**

**World Heritage Cultural Sites**

**Statements of Significance**

**June 2006**

**Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site**

Cahokia Mounds is the largest and earliest pre-Columbian settlement
north of Mexico. It was occupied primarily during the Mississippian
period (800--1350), when it covered over 1,600 hectares (3,950 acres)
and included some 120 mounds. It is the pre-eminent example of a
cultural, religious, and economic center of the Mississippian cultural
tradition, which extended throughout the Mississippi Valley and the
south-eastern United States. This agricultural society may have had a
population of 10,000--20,000 at its peak between 1050 and 1150. Cahokia
is an early and exceptional example of pre-urban structuring.

**Criteria**

\(iii\) Dating from the Mississippian period (800--1350), Cahokia Mounds
is the largest pre-Columbian archaeological site north of Mexico, and
also the earliest. It is the pre-eminent example of a cultural,
religious, and economic center of the prehistoric Mississippian cultural
tradition.

\(iv\) Cahokia graphically demonstrates the existence of a pre-urban
society in which a powerful political and economic hierarchy was
responsible for the organization of labor, communal agriculture, and
trade. This is reflected in the size and layout of the settlement and
the nature and structure of the public and private buildings.

**Chaco Culture**

The Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the associated sites at
Aztec Ruins National Monument and five Chaco Culture Archeological
Protection Sites are outstanding elements of a vast pre-Columbian
cultural complex that dominated much of the south-western United States
in the mid-9^th^ to early 13^th^ centuries. Chaco Canyon, a major center
of ancestral Pueblo culture between 850 and 1250, was a focus for
ceremonies, trade and political activity. Chaco is remarkable for its
monumental public and ceremonial buildings and its distinctive
multi-storey "greathouses" which demonstrate a sophisticated
understanding of astronomical phenomena. They are linked by an elaborate
system of carefully engineered and constructed roads. The achievements
of the Chaco Anasazi people are exceptional, given the harsh
environmental conditions and resource limitations of the region.

**Criteria**

\(iii\) The Chaco Canyon sites graphically illustrate the architectural
and engineering achievements of the Chaco Anasazi people, who overcame
the harshness of the environment of the south-western United States to
found a culture that dominated the area for more than four centuries.

**Independence Hall**

The Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776 in this fine 18th
century building in Philadelphia, to be followed in 1787 by the framing
of the Constitution of the United States of America. Although conceived
in a national framework and hence of fundamental importance to American
history, the universal principles of freedom and democracy set forth in
these documents were to have a profound impact on lawmakers and
political thinkers around the world. They became the models for similar
charters of other nations, and may justly be considered to have heralded
the modern era of government.

**Criteria**

\(vi\) The universal principles of the right to revolution and
self-government as expressed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence
(1776) and Constitution (1787), which were debated, adopted, and signed
in Independence Hall, have profoundly influenced lawmakers and
politicians around the world. The fundamental concepts, format, and even
substantive elements of the two documents have influenced governmental
charters in many nations and even the United Nations Charter.

**Mesa Verde**

The Mesa Verde landscape in the American south-west is considered to be
the type site of the prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan culture, which
lasted for some nine hundred years from *c* 450 to 1300, on this plateau
in south-west Colorado at an altitude of more than 2600 meters (8,500
feet). There is a great concentration of spectacular Pueblo Indian
dwellings. Some 600 'cliff dwellings' have been recorded within Mesa
Verde National Park, including the famous multi-storey ones such as
Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Square Tower House, built of sandstone
and mud mortar, and an additional 4100 archaeological sites have been
discovered. New discoveries are routinely made.

**Criteria**

\(iii\) The exceptional archaeological sites of the Mesa Verde landscape
provide eloquent testimony to the ancient cultural traditions of Native
American tribes. They represent a graphic link between the past and
present ways of life of the Puebloan Peoples of the American south-west.

**Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville**

Thomas Jefferson (1743--1826) was a talented architect of neo-classical
buildings, as well as author of the American Declaration of Independence
and third President of the United States. He designed Monticello
(1769--1809), his plantation home, and his ideal \'academical village\'
(1817--26), a few miles away, which is still the heart of the University
of Virginia. Jefferson\'s use of an architectural vocabulary based upon
classical antiquity symbolizes both the aspirations of the new American
republic as the inheritor of European tradition and the cultural
experimentation that could be expected as the country matured.
Monticello also shows that Jefferson was conscious of the relationship
between architecture and the natural landscape.

**Criteria**

\(i\) Both Monticello and the University of Virginia reflect Jefferson's
wide reading of classical and later works on architecture and design and
also his careful study of the architecture of late 18th century Europe.
As such they illustrate his wide diversity of interests.

\(iv\) With these buildings Thomas Jefferson made a significant
contribution to neo-classicism, the 18th century movement that adapted
the forms and details of classical architecture to contemporary
buildings.

\(vi\) Monticello and the key buildings of the University of Virginia
are directly and materially associated with the ideas and ideals of
Thomas Jefferson. Both the university buildings and Monticello were
directly inspired by principles, derived from his deep knowledge of
classical architecture and philosophy.

**La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico**

The main elements of the massive fortification of San Juan are La
Fortaleza, the three forts of San Felipe del Morro, San Cristóbal and
San Juan de la Cruz (El Cañuelo), and a large portion of the City Wall,
built between the 16th and 19th centuries to protect the city and the
Bay of San Juan. They are characteristic examples of the historic
methods of construction used in military architecture over this period,
which adapted European designs and techniques to the special conditions
of the Caribbean port cities. La Fortaleza (founded in the early 16th
century and considerably remodelled in later centuries) reflects
developments in military architecture during its service over the
centuries as a fortress, an arsenal, a prison, and residence of the
Governor-General and today the Governor of Puerto Rico.

**Criteria**

\(vi\) La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site outstandingly
illustrate the adaptation to the Caribbean context of European
developments in military architecture from the 16th to 20th centuries.
They represent the continuity of more than four centuries of
architectural, engineering, military, and political history.

**Statue of Liberty**

The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, a hollow colossus composed
of thinly pounded copper sheets over a steel framework, was designed in
Paris by the French sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, in collaboration with
the French engineer Gustave Eiffel, who was responsible for its frame,
intended as a gift from France for the centenary of American
independence in 1876. Its design and construction were recognized at the
time as one of the greatest technical achievements of the 19th century,
and, when finally dedicated a decade later, it was hailed as a bridge
between art and engineering. Atop its pedestal, designed by noted
American architect Richard Morris Hunt, on an island at the entrance to
New York Harbour, the Statue has since welcomed millions of immigrants
who arrived in the United States by sea.

**Criteria**

\(i\) This colossal statue is a masterpiece of the human spirit. The
collaboration between the sculptor Bartholdi and the engineer Eiffel
resulted in the production of a technological wonder that brings
together art and engineering in a new and powerful way.

\(vi\) The symbolic value of the Statue of Liberty lies in two basic
factors. It was presented by France with the intention of affirming the
historical alliance between the two nations. It was financed by
international subscription in recognition of the establishment of the
principles of freedom and democracy by the U.S. Declaration of
Independence, which the Statue holds in her left hand. The Statue also
soon became and has endured as a symbol of the migration of people from
many countries into the United States in the late 19th and the early
20th centuries. She endures as a highly potent symbol -- inspiring
contemplation, debate and protest -- of ideals such as liberty, peace,
human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity.

> **Pueblo de Taos**
>
> Situated in the valley of a small tributary of the Rio Grande, this
> Pueblo Indian settlement, consisting of adobe dwellings and ceremonial
> buildings, exemplifies the enduring culture of a group of the
> present-day Pueblo Indians. It is one of a group of settlements
> established in the late 13th and early 14th centuries in the valleys
> of the Rio Grande and its tributaries that have survived to the
> present day and constitutes a significant stage in the history of
> urban, community and cultural life and development in this region.
> Pueblo de Taos is similar to the settlements in the Four Corners area
> of the Anasazi, or ancient Pueblo people at such places as Chaco
> Canyon and Mesa Verde, and continues to be a thriving community with a
> living culture.
>
> **Criteria**
>
> \(iv\) Pueblo de Taos is a remarkable example of a traditional type of
> architectural ensemble from the prehispanic period of the Americas
> unique to this region and one which, because of the living culture of
> its community, has successfully retained most of its traditional forms
> up to the present day.