The World Heritage Committee on Friday granted Italy’s Mount Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, World Heritage Site status.
Committee member states, meeting in Cambodia, called Mount Etna an “iconic property.” “This is the result of many years of work and two decades of technical meetings,” said Italy’s UNESCO Ambassador Maurizio Enrico Luigi Serra after the decision.
He said the volcano, which is the largest active volcano in Europe and the Mediterranean, would be “a never-ending source of geological data.” Eruptions from the volcano located in north-eastern Sicily have been observed since the Greek and Roman classical era.