List of World Heritage Sites in Mauritius

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972.^[1] Mauritius accepted the convention, making its historical sites eligible for inclusion on the list. As of 2023, Mauritius has two World Heritage Sites.^[2]

Location of sites

Aapravasi Ghat

Le Morne Cultural Landscape

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Location of World Heritage Sites in  Mauritius

List of sites

Name	Image	Location	Criteria	Year	Description
Aapravasi Ghat		Port Louis District 20°09′31″S 57°30′11″E / 20.158611°S 57.503056°E / -20.158611; 57.503056 (Aapravasi Ghat)	Cultural (vi)	2006	In the district of Port Louis, lies the 1,640 m2 site where the modern indentured labour diaspora began. In 1834, the British Government selected the island of Mauritius to be the first site for what it called ‘the great experiment’ in the use of ‘free’ labour to replace slaves. Between 1834 and 1920, almost half a million indentured labourers arrived from India at Aapravasi Ghat to work in the sugar plantations of Mauritius, or to be transferred to Reunion Island, Australia, southern and eastern Africa or the Caribbean. The buildings of Aapravasi Ghat are among the earliest explicit manifestations of what was to become a global economic system and one of the greatest migrations in history.[3]
Le Morne Cultural Landscape		Rivière Noire District 20°27′07″S 57°19′42″E / 20.451944°S 57.328333°E / -20.451944; 57.328333 (Le Morne Cultural Landscape)	Cultural (iii) (vi)	2011	Le Morne Cultural Landscape, a rugged mountain that juts into the Indian Ocean in the southwest of Mauritius was used as a shelter by runaway slaves, maroons, through the 18th and early years of the 19th centuries. Protected by the mountain’s isolated, wooded and almost inaccessible cliffs, the escaped slaves formed small settlements in the caves and on the summit of Le Morne. The oral traditions associated with the maroons, have made Le Morne a symbol of the slaves’ fight for freedom, their suffering, and their sacrifice, all of which have relevance to the countries from which the slaves came - the African mainland, Madagascar, India, and South-east Asia. Indeed, Mauritius, an important stopover in the eastern slave trade, also came to be known as the “Maroon republic” because of the large number of escaped slaves who lived on Le Morne Mountain.[4]

Tentative List

Site	Image	Location	Criteria	Area ha (acre)	Year of submission	Description
Black River Gorges National Park		Plaines Wilhems District, Rivière Noire District, Savanne District 20°25′00″S 57°25′00″E / 20.416667°S 57.416667°E / -20.416667; 57.416667 (Black River Gorges National Park)	Natural (vii) (ix) (x)		2006	[5]

References