# Tanzania's UNESCO World Heritage Sites > All seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Tanzania: Ngorongoro, Kilwa, the Serengeti, Selous, Kilimanjaro, Stone Town and the Kondoa rock art. Why each is listed, which are in danger, and the sites on Tanzania's Tentative List. Canonical: https://seeyoutanzania.com/world-heritage Last updated: 2026-09-19 Seven places in Tanzania are on UNESCO's World Heritage List: the migration plains, Africa's highest mountain, a caldera holding four million years of human history, two medieval port cities, a Swahili old town and rock paintings still used in ritual today. - **7 Sites inscribed:** Since 1979, most recently 2006 - **3 Natural:** Serengeti, Selous, Kilimanjaro - **3 Cultural:** Kilwa, Stone Town, Kondoa - **1 Mixed:** Ngorongoro, for nature and culture ## What the listing means A World Heritage Site is a place UNESCO's World Heritage Committee judges to be of **outstanding universal value**: important to humanity as a whole, not only to the country it is in. Each site is listed under one or more of ten criteria, six cultural and four natural, and the country agrees to protect it. Each site below links to our full page on it, where you will find the UNESCO detail alongside the practical guide. ## The seven sites ### [Ngorongoro Conservation Area](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/ngorongoro) Mixed · inscribed 1979 · Arusha Region · 8,094 km² Listed first for nature: the crater, the year-round density of wildlife, black rhino, and the migration crossing its northern plains. In 2010 it was also recognised for culture, for the evidence of human evolution found at Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli. It is one of the few places on the list recognised for both. [Ngorongoro Conservation Area](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/ngorongoro) · [UNESCO listing](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/39/) ### [Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kilwa) Cultural · inscribed 1981 · Lindi Region The remains of two Swahili port cities on neighbouring islands, which controlled much of the Indian Ocean trade from about the 13th to the 16th century. They show how Swahili culture, Islam and long-distance trade spread along the East African coast. [Kilwa](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kilwa) · [UNESCO listing](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/144/) ### [Serengeti National Park](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/serengeti) Natural · inscribed 1981 · Mara, Simiyu and Arusha regions · 14,763 km² For the largest unaltered animal migration left in the world, set on the 'endless plains', and for holding one of the greatest concentrations of large predators and grazing animals on earth. [Serengeti National Park](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/serengeti) · [UNESCO listing](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/156/) ### [Selous Game Reserve](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/nyerere) Natural · inscribed 1982 · In danger · Pwani, Morogoro, Lindi, Mtwara and Ruvuma regions · 51,200 km² One of the largest remaining wilderness areas in Africa, and a globally important example of miombo woodland. UNESCO lists it for the scale of its wildlife and the unusual range of its habitats. [Nyerere National Park](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/nyerere) · [UNESCO listing](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/199/) ### [Kilimanjaro National Park](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/kilimanjaro) Natural · inscribed 1987 · Kilimanjaro Region · 756 km² For the mountain itself: the highest in Africa and the largest free-standing volcanic mass in the world, snow-capped and standing alone above the plains. [Kilimanjaro National Park](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/kilimanjaro) · [UNESCO listing](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/403/) ### [Stone Town of Zanzibar](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/zanzibar-stone-town) Cultural · inscribed 2000 · Zanzibar · 96 hectares An outstanding example of a Swahili trading town, its streets and buildings almost intact, mixing African, Arab, Indian and European traditions built up over more than a thousand years. It is also listed for its place in the ending of the slave trade. [Stone Town](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/zanzibar-stone-town) · [UNESCO listing](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/173/) ### [Kondoa Rock-Art Sites](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kondoa) Cultural · inscribed 2006 · Dodoma Region · 2,336 km² Painted rock shelters made over at least two thousand years by hunter-gatherer and later farming and herding peoples. Some are still used by local communities for rainmaking, divining and healing, which ties the paintings to living tradition. [Kondoa](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kondoa) · [UNESCO listing](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1183/) ## World Heritage in Danger UNESCO moves a site to its danger list when the qualities it was listed for are under serious threat. Three Tanzanian sites have been on it; two have since been taken off. - **1984–1989, [Ngorongoro](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/ngorongoro):** Listed for poaching and encroachment by farming; removed in 1989. - **2004–2014, [Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kilwa):** Listed for decay, with parts of the ruins collapsing; removed in 2014. - **2014–now, [Selous](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/nyerere):** Listed for poaching, which cut elephant and rhino numbers by almost 90% since 1982; in 2018 the Committee added the logging and dam works for the Julius Nyerere hydropower project. The World Heritage Committee kept it on the danger list at its 2025 session. ## The Tentative List: put forward, not yet inscribed A country's Tentative List names the places it may nominate in future. Being on it is not World Heritage status, and some entries wait decades. ### Oldonyo Murwak (Cultural, submitted 1997) A hill in Hai District, near Kilimanjaro International Airport, where Maasai age sets receive their name and pass into elderhood. [Kilimanjaro Region](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kilimanjaro) · [UNESCO entry](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/848/) ### Gombe National Park (Natural, submitted 1997) The forest above Lake Tanganyika where Jane Goodall's chimpanzee research began in 1960. [Gombe](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/gombe) · [UNESCO entry](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/849/) ### Jozani–Chwaka Bay Conservation Area (Natural, submitted 1997) Zanzibar's last large indigenous forest and its mangroves, home of the Zanzibar red colobus. [Jozani Chwaka Bay](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/jozani-chwaka-bay) · [UNESCO entry](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/850/) ### Eastern Arc Mountains Forests of Tanzania (Natural, submitted 2006) The ancient forested ranges from the Usambara to the Udzungwa, with plants and animals found nowhere else. [Udzungwa Mountains](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/udzungwa-mountains) · [UNESCO entry](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/2085/) ### The Central Slave and Ivory Trade Route (Cultural, submitted 2006) The caravan road of about 1,200 km from Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika to Bagamoyo on the coast. [Bagamoyo](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/bagamoyo) · [UNESCO entry](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/2095/) ### Tendaguru Palaeontological Site (Natural, submitted 2022) The Late Jurassic dinosaur beds near Lindi, excavated by a German expedition from 1909 to 1913. [Lindi Region](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/lindi) · [UNESCO entry](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6615/) ### Geometric rock art in the Lake Victoria Region (Cultural, submitted 2024) A joint nomination with Kenya and Uganda for the geometric rock paintings around Lake Victoria. [UNESCO entry](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6739/) ## Common questions ### How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites does Tanzania have? Seven: three natural (Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and the Selous Game Reserve), three cultural (Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara, Stone Town of Zanzibar, and the Kondoa rock art) and one mixed, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. ### Which was Tanzania's first World Heritage Site? The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, inscribed in 1979. The ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara and the Serengeti followed in 1981. ### Is Zanzibar a UNESCO World Heritage Site? Stone Town is, not the whole island. The listed area is the 96-hectare old town on the western shore of Unguja, inscribed in 2000. ### Is Mount Kilimanjaro a World Heritage Site? Yes. Kilimanjaro National Park was inscribed in 1987 as a natural site, for the mountain: the highest in Africa and the largest free-standing volcanic mass in the world. ### Are any Tanzanian sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger? The Selous Game Reserve has been on the danger list since 2014, first because of poaching and, from 2018, also because of the Julius Nyerere hydropower dam; the World Heritage Committee kept it there at its 2025 session. Ngorongoro (1984–1989) and Kilwa (2004–2014) were listed in the past and later removed. ## Checked against - [United Republic of Tanzania — properties inscribed and Tentative List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/tz), UNESCO World Heritage Centre - [The criteria for selection](https://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/), UNESCO World Heritage Centre - [Ngorongoro Conservation Area — World Heritage List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/39/), UNESCO - [Ngorongoro Conservation Area — World Heritage datasheet](http://world-heritage-datasheets.unep-wcmc.org/datasheet/output/site/ngorongoro-conservation-area/), UNEP-WCMC - [Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara — World Heritage List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/144/), UNESCO - [Serengeti National Park — World Heritage List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/156/), UNESCO - [Selous Game Reserve — World Heritage List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/199/), UNESCO - [Poaching puts Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve on List of World Heritage in Danger (2014)](https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1150/), UNESCO World Heritage Centre - [UNESCO reiterates its grave concern over planned dam construction within Selous Game Reserve (2018)](https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1920/), UNESCO World Heritage Centre - [State of conservation of properties on the Danger List — Selous retained (47 COM, 2025)](https://whc.unesco.org/document/221042), UNESCO World Heritage Committee - [Kilimanjaro National Park — World Heritage List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/403/), UNESCO - [Stone Town of Zanzibar — World Heritage List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/173/), UNESCO - [Kondoa Rock-Art Sites — World Heritage List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1183/), UNESCO - [Oldonyo Murwak — Tentative List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/848/), UNESCO - [Gombe National Park — Tentative List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/849/), UNESCO - [Jozani–Chwaka Bay Conservation Area — Tentative List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/850/), UNESCO - [Eastern Arc Mountains Forests of Tanzania — Tentative List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/2085/), UNESCO - [The Central Slave and Ivory Trade Route — Tentative List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/2095/), UNESCO - [Tendaguru Palaeontological Site — Tentative List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6615/), UNESCO - [Geometric rock art in the Lake Victoria Region — Tentative List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6739/), UNESCO ## Related - [All national parks](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks) - [Know Tanzania](https://seeyoutanzania.com/know)