8 amazing UNESCO sites in Asia

You don’t need to travel across the world to see its most majestic tourist sites. All the sites in the next few pages can be found within Southeast Asia, having been granted the ultimate tourist accolade: World Heritage status by the international body UNESCO. These sites have special cultural and historical significance: they’re considered to be massively important to humanity itself, thus the need for special preservation.

What UNESCO World Heritage Sites can you find in your own backyard (give or take a time zone or two)? Proceed to the next page to start your journey. By Mike Aquino for Yahoo Southeast Asia.



Melaka, Malaysia

The old town at the core of Melaka, Malaysia is all that remains of the European presence that eliminated a once-thriving empire. Believing they could simply supplant the Melaka sultanate that dominated trade in the region, the Portuguese invaded the city and found themselves in the middle of a power struggle that eventually saw the British come out on top.

Melaka’s legacy of conquest can still be seen in the preserved colonial buildings within the oldest parts of the city: from the grand houses of the Chinese quarter to the gardens in the Portuguese quarter to the majestic Dutch Square and the Stadhuys, the oldest Dutch building in Asia. (Image © Tourism Malaysia)



Angkor Temples, Cambodia

The Angkor temples near the present-day city of Siem Reap are all that’s left of what was once a massive Khmer empire, laid low by environmental damage and successive invasion from neighbouring empires. Even in its relatively ruined state, the collective Angkor temples are a sight to behold, particularly Angkor Wat: a huge temple complex of both massive height and breadth, delineated by a square moat.

Angkor Wat was built as a stand-in for the Khmer conception of the Universe: the towers are representative of Mount Meru where the Hindu gods reside, while the moat stands for the oceans surrounding the earth. Its visitors, mostly unaware of the temple’s cosmological meaning, stand transfixed at the sheer grace and power of this massive temple complex in the midst of Cambodian countryside. (Photo by Thinkstock)



Prambanan, Indonesia

Candi Prambanan, a Hindu temple complex near Yogyakarta in Central Java, Indonesia, is a work in progress: several earthquakes over the past century have felled the temples more than once, and even now the Indonesian government is trying to put the pieces together.

The temple was first built in 856 and over a thousand years since it first saw light, Prambanan is still quite a sight to behold, even in its half-reassembled state: three sharp spires set off the low-slung jumble of temples in the vicinity. Visitors are permitted to climb the temple of Shiva in the center, where they’ll discover statues of the Hindu god and his entourage peering impassively at intruders.

Come after dark and you’ll see the temple spires illuminated with floodlights and a live performance of the Hindu epic Ramayana being performed at a nearby concert hall. (Image © Mike Aquino)

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