From Kyoto to Machu Pichu: world's heritage at risk

(AFP PHOTO/FILES)

(AFP) -

From vanishing Kyoto merchant houses to the tourist-inundated ruins of Machu Pichu, heritage sites around the world are under pressure as never before, a New York-based preservation group said Tuesday.

The World Monuments Fund released its biannual watch list of architectural treasures deemed at risk from urban development, tourism, neglect and bad planning.

The 2010 list includes 93 sites in 47 countries, including ancient structures but also 15 built in the 20th century and now deemed endangered classics.

Some sites, like the traditional wooden houses of Kyoto in Japan, or thatched royal tombs in Uganda, may be modest from an architectural standpoint, but represent immense cultural and historical riches.

The list also includes Peru's breathtaking Machu Pichu ruins, the Gaudi-designed Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, and iconic US architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin and Taliesin West houses.

Bonnie Burnham, the fund's president, said the common factor was "places that define and enrich our lives and our environment -- and our world wouldn't be the same without them."

"They're on the watch list because they're losing ground," she said.