(Communicated by the MFA Spokesperson)

On Friday, 29 June 2012, the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO voted to list the Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Site of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel in northern Israel consists of a group of prehistoric caves where early man lived continuously for hundreds of thousands of years. The phenomenon of human living in this type of cave is very rare in the world.

Nahal Me'arot joins six other World Heritage sites that are located in Israel. The other sites are: the Bahá'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee; Biblical Tels - Megiddo, Hazor and Beer Sheba; the Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Negev; Masada; the Old City of Acre; and the White City of Tel-Aviv.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs worked alongside the Hof HaCarmel regional council and in partnership with the University of Haifa to get the site listed by the World Heritage Committee.