World Monuments Fund

A call to safeguard some of the most important monuments of our shared cultural heritage

From the fabled towers of Babylon and Angkor Wat to the colossal stone heads of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and secret gardens of Beijing’s Forbidden City, each of the sixty sites featured in this lavishly illustrated book are must-visit destinations for every cultured traveler, representing the pinnacles of human achievement over millennia and across the globe.

Yet despite their beauty, fame, and importance, these treasured places face existential challenges arising from climate change, war, financial pressures, and—increasingly—over-tourism. From its founding in 1965, World Monuments Fund (WMF) has focused the public’s attention on these dangers while developing solutions that will ensure these sites will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Primarily a visual celebration, but with incisive essays by some of today’s greatest minds putting the world on notice, this beautiful volume captures and celebrates the awe and wonder of these sixty most significant sites. Taken together, the sites safeguarded by WMF can rightly be considered the world’s great museum without walls—a collection that connects us to the past while helping us better understand the present and, ultimately, the shared legacy of all humankind.

World Monuments Fund (WMF) is the leading independent organization devoted to safeguarding the world’s most treasured places to enrich people’s lives and build mutual understanding across cultures and communities at more than 700 sites in 112 countries. Bénédicte de Montlaur is president and CEO of World Monuments Fund. André Aciman is the best-selling author of Call Me by Your Name. Andrew Solomon is the best-selling author of Far from the Tree. Brinda Somaya is an internationally recognized Mumbai-based architect, planner, educator, preservationist, and community activist.