The 35th session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Committee that starts Monday in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia will discuss Al-Turaif area in Al-Dir'iya on its World Heritage List, a global collection of 890 sites recognized for having outstanding universal value. Al-Turaif is the only Arab site to be discussed in the session, which extends to August 3 and will involve more than 2,000 archeologists and experts from around the world and ambassadors and officials from UNESCO member countries. The World Heritage Committee will review several issues and agreements in the field of conserving world heritage and enhancing the culture of cultural and heritage diversity in addition to studying proposals from some member countries to include new locations on the World Heritage List. The International Council on Monuments and Sites had shown technical reservations about Al-Dir'iya, but the Saudi permanent representative is continuing his efforts to have Al-Dir'iya included. The Kingdom's Ambassador to UNESCO, Dr. Ziyad Al-Durais, has had several visits and meetings with his counterparts to gain support for the Saudi dossier, which was prepared by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. Chairman of the SCTA Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz has been following up the technical and diplomatic details of preparing the dossier to ensure it reflects archeologists' work, the site's cultural value and its historic significance as a model of mud construction. During the session the committee will announce its decisions regarding 42 sites submitted by member countries. Last year in Seville, Spain, it only approved 12 sites out of 37 submitted. The Kingdom entered the World Heritage List for the first time in 2008 when Madain Saleh was registered. The International Council on Monuments and Sites is now studying the third Saudi site, historic Jeddah, which will be discussed during the next World Heritage Committee meeting in July 2011 in Bahrain.
