World Monuments 50 Irreplaceable Sites To Discover, Explore, and Champion

A stunning tour of 50 of the world’s most extraordinary destinations selected from the World Monuments Fund’s most important sites of global heritage. In commemoration of its 50th anniversary, the World Monuments Fund has commissioned some of today’s most important writers to give voice to the organization’s work around the world over the past 50 years. Curated by the International Center of Photography, the book features striking images from renowned photographers, including Edward Burtynsky, Tiina Itkonen, Erich Lessing, Gideon Mendel, and Sebastião Salgado.

In essence, this is a bucket list for the educated traveler—armchair or otherwise. From Venice and Petra to New Orleans and Angkor, Easter Island to the Tempel Synagogue in Kraków, Poland, to the Mughal Gardens of Agra, India, to the Chancellerie d’Orléans in Paris, World Monuments presents 50 of the world’s most compelling destinations, cultural heritage sites, and significant architectural works that must be seen and preserved.

World Monuments Fund is the world’s premier nongovernmental organization that protects against the loss of the world’s architectural and cultural heritage, comprising the built environment, the artworks that embellish it, and the cultural traditions that it sustains. Since 1965, it has successfully completed approximately 600 projects in almost 100 countries around the world.