Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park World Heritage Site

From the World Heritage inscription for Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park: In 1932 Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta, Canada) was combined with the Glacier National Park (Montana, United States) to form the world’s first International Peace Park. Situated on the border between the two countries and offering outstanding scenery, the park is exceptionally rich in plant …

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Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump UNESCO World Heritage Site

From the World Heritage inscription for Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump: In southwest Alberta, the remains of marked trails and an aboriginal camp, and a tumulus where vast quantities of buffalo (American Bison) skeletons can still be found are evidence of a custom practiced by aboriginal peoples of the North American plains for nearly 6,000 years. Using …

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Dinosaur Provincial Park

Dinosaur Provincial Park UNESCO World Heritage Site, Canada

From the World Heritage inscription for Dinosaur Provincial Park: In addition to its particularly beautiful scenery, Dinosaur Provincial Park – located at the heart of the province of Alberta’s badlands – contains some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made from the ‘Age of Reptiles’, in particular about 35 species of dinosaur, dating back …

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Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks

Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks

From the World Heritage inscription for Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks: The contiguous national parks of Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho, as well as the Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Hamber provincial parks, studded with mountain peaks, glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, canyons and limestone caves, form a striking mountain landscape. The Burgess Shale fossil site, well known …

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Joggins Fossil Cliffs

Joggins Fossil Cliffs UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Canada

From the Joggins Fossil Cliffs World Heritage inscription for Joggins Fossil Cliffs: The Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a 689 ha palaeontological site along the coast of Nova Scotia (eastern Canada), has been described as the “coal age Galápagos” due to their wealth of fossils from the Carboniferous period (354 to 290 million years ago). The rocks …

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Gros Morne National Park

Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador

From the Gros Morne National Park World Heritage inscription for Gros Morne National Park: Gros Morne National Park illustrates some of the world’s best examples of the process of plate tectonics. Within a relatively small area are textbook examples of monumental earth-building and modifying forces that are unique in terms of their clarity, expression, and …

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L’Anse aux Meadows

L'Anse aux Meadows UNESCO World Heritage Site, Canada

From the World Heritage inscription for L’Anse aux Meadows: This archaeological site at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland contains the excavated remains of an 11th century Viking settlement consisting of timber-framed turf buildings (houses, workshops, etc.) that are identical with those found in Norse Greenland and Iceland at …

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Old Town Lunenburg

Old Town Lunenburg UNESCO World Heritage Site

From the Old Town Lunenburg World Heritage inscription for Old Town Lunenburg: Old Town Lunenburg is the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America. Established in 1753, it has retained its original layout and overall appearance, based on a rectangular grid pattern drawn up in the home country. The inhabitants …

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Rideau Canal

Rideau Canal UNESCO World Heritage Site, Canada

From the Rideau Canal World Heritage inscription for the Rideau Canal: The Rideau Canal, a monumental early 19th-century construction covering 202 km of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers from Ottawa south to Kingston Harbour on Lake Ontario, was built primarily for strategic military purposes at a time when Great Britain and the United States vied …

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