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Matobo Hills (Zimbabwe)

Document type
Decision
Reference number
8C.38
Date
Jun 29, 2003
Source
UNEP, InforMEA
Status
Active
Subject
Wild species & ecosystems
Treaty
Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (Nov 23, 1972)
Meeting
27e session du Comité
Website
whc.unesco.org
Abstract

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Inscribes the Matobo Hills, Zimbabwe, on the World Heritage List on the basis of cultural criteria (iii), (v) and (vi):

Criterion (iii): The Matobo Hills has one of the highest concentrations of rock art in southern Africa. The rich evidence from archaeology and from the rock paintings at Matobo provide a very full picture of the lives of foraging societies in the Stone Age and the way agricultural societies came to replace them.

Criterion (v): The interaction between communities and the landscape, manifested in the rock art and also in the long standing religious traditions still associated with the rocks, are community responses to a landscape.

Criterion (vi): The Mwari religion, centred on Matobo, which may date back to the Iron Age, is the most powerful oracular tradition in southern Africa.

2. Requests the State Party, by the time of the 28th session of the Committee in 2004, to establish an effective management committee composed of all the key stakeholders;  and complete the development of a management system designed according to the capacity of the World Heritage property in  its cultural and natural context.