Heritage is what we inherit from the past, live in the present, and pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage sustains our livelihoods. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation encourages the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world that is considered to have outstanding universal value. World Heritage belongs to everyone around the world no matter where it is located.

The 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage sets out the duties of States Parties in identifying potential sites and their role in protecting and preserving them. By signing the Convention, each country pledges to conserve not only the World Heritage sites situated on its territory, but also to protect its national heritage.

The definition of cultural heritage, according to the Convention, refers to monuments, groups of buildings, and sites. Natural heritage refers to natural features, geological and physiographical formations and natural sites.

Namibia has two world heritage sites listed on the World Heritage List, Twyfelfontein World Heritage Site and Namib Sand Sea World Heritage Site. There are eight (8) sites on the Tentative List.

Twyelfontein /Ui-//aes World Heritage Site

The Twyfelfontein /Ui-//aes World Heritage Site was inscribed on the World Heritage List on 29 June 2007.

The Site is located approximately 70km west of the town of Khorixas, in the Kunene Region, an area formerly known as Damaraland. About 2000 engravings have been recorded so far which are estimated to be about 6000 years old, depicting hunter-gatherer ritual practices.

Twyfelfontein was known by its earliest inhabitants as /Ui-//Aes, which means “a place among stones” in the Damara-Nama language. In the late nineteenth century, it acquired the name “Twyfelfontein”, which means doubtful fountain because it only has water periodically.

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Namib Sand Sea World Heritage Site

The Namib Sand Sea World Heritage Site was inscribed on the World Heritage List on 21 June 2013.

The Site lies wholly within the Namib Naukluft Park. It is the only coastal desert in the world that includes extensive dune fields influenced by fog. Covering an area of over three million hectares and a buffer zone of 899,500 hectares, the site is composed of two dune systems, an ancient semi-consolidated one overlain by a younger active one. The desert dunes are formed by the transportation of materials thousands of kilometres from the hinterland, that are carried by river, ocean current and wind. It features gravel plains, coastal flats, rocky hills, inselbergs within the sand sea, a coastal lagoon and ephemeral rivers, resulting in a landscape of exceptional beauty. Fog is the primary source of water in the site, accounting for a unique environment in which endemic invertebrates, reptiles and mammals adapt to an ever-changing variety of microhabitats and ecological niches.