Da Nang is preparing a nomination dossier to seek UNESCO World Heritage status for the Marble Mountains, Báo Đà Nẵng reported. The city is still deciding whether to nominate the site as cultural heritage or as a mixed cultural and natural site.

On May 12, the People's Committee sent Official Dispatch 3896/UBND-SVHTTDL to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism asking for approval and guidance. On September 27 in Hanoi, vice chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Anh Thi presented the plan to Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, and asked for help with the scientific basis, links to international experts and guidance on global comparative analysis.

The planned steps are to build the scientific case through workshops with domestic and international experts, decide the nomination category, submit the dossier to the National Council for Cultural Heritage for consultation, and seek inclusion on UNESCO's Tentative List. The area under the research and planning framework is about 120 hectares.

The report recalls the site's existing recognition: Special National Relic status since 2018, and UNESCO's 2022 listing of the 78 Hán and Nôm "ma nhai" cliff inscriptions in the Memory of the World programme for Asia and the Pacific. It cites six limestone and marble peaks linked to the Cổ Cò river, the coast and a cave network, a major Buddhist centre of the 16th to 19th centuries with 13 old pagodas, the Non Nước stone-carving village and the Quan Thế Âm festival. Nguyễn Hòa, chairman of the Ngũ Hành Sơn ward People's Committee, said the plan has stirred pride and hope locally and that heritage status could help link conservation with sustainable development.

What is still unknown: The report gives no timetable. Tentative List entry is only the first stage; a full nomination would follow later, and neither UNESCO nor the ministry has approved the plan according to the report.

Sources

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