Heritage with Related Tags
Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes (Mons)
The Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes, covering more than 100 hectares, are the largest and oldest concentration of ancient mines in Europe. They are also remarkable for the diversity of their mining techniques and for their direct relationship to settlements of the same period.
Sewell Mining Town
Located 2,000 meters above sea level in the Andes Mountains, 60 kilometers east of Rancagua, in an extreme environment, the mining town of Sevier was built in 1905 by the Braden Copper Company to house workers for what would become the world's largest underground copper mine, El Teniente. It is an outstanding example of company towns that emerged in many remote parts of the world by fusing local labor with the resources of industrialized countries to mine and process high-value natural resources. The town was built on terrain too steep for wheeled vehicles and is organized around a large central staircase that rises from the train station. Irregularly shaped formal plazas along the way, complete with ornamental trees and plants, form the town's main public space or plaza. The buildings that line the streets are of wood, often painted in bright green, yellow, red and blue. In its heyday, Sevier had 15,000 residents, but was mostly abandoned in the 1970s.
Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining
The site consists of 23 components, mainly located in southwestern Japan. It bears witness to the country's rapid industrialization from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century through the development of the steel industry, shipbuilding, and coal mining. The site shows how feudal Japan sought to transfer technology from Europe and the United States from the mid-19th century onwards, and how these technologies were adapted to the country's needs and social traditions. The site bears witness to what is considered the first successful transfer of Western industrialization to a non-Western country.
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto
Located in an inaccessible part of Sumatra, this industrial estate was developed by the Dutch East Indies government during a globally significant period of industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine, process and transport high-quality coal. The workforce was recruited from the local Minangkabau people and supplemented by Javanese and Chinese contract workers, as well as convict labour from areas under Dutch control. It included mining areas and company towns, coal storage facilities at the port of Emahavn, and a railway network linking the mines to coastal facilities. The Umbrian Coal Mine Heritage Site is an integrated system that allows for efficient deep-hole mining, processing, transport and shipment of coal. It is also an outstanding testimony to the exchange and integration of local knowledge and practices with European technology.
Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin
The site is a striking landscape, the product of three centuries of coal mining from the 18th to the 20th century, and consists of 109 separate parts covering 120,000 hectares. The site features mining pits (the oldest of which date back to 1850) and lift infrastructure, slag heaps (some covering 90 hectares and reaching heights of over 140 metres), coal transport infrastructure, railway stations, workers’ estates and mining villages, including social settlements, schools, religious buildings, health and community facilities, company premises, houses for owners and managers, a town hall, etc. The site bears witness to the quest to create a model workers’ city from the mid-19th century to the 1960s, and further illustrates an important period in the history of European industrialisation. It documents the living conditions of workers and the worker solidarity it aroused.
Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
The rock salt mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia have been mined since the 13th century. This large industrial enterprise enjoys royal status and is the oldest salt mine in Europe. The site is a continuous heritage site that includes the Wieliczka and Bochnia Salt Mines and the Wieliczka Saltworks Castle. The Royal Salt Mines of Wieliczka and Bochnia show the historical stages of the development of mining technology in Europe from the 13th to the 20th century: both mines have hundreds of kilometers of galleries with artworks, underground churches and statues carved out of salt that make you feel like you are immersed in a fascinating history. The administration and technology of the salt mines are managed by the Wieliczka Saltworks Castle, which dates back to the Middle Ages and has been rebuilt many times in the course of its history.
Roșia Montană Mining Landscape
Located in the metalliferous zone of the Apuseni Mountains in western Romania, Monte Rosia hosts the most important, extensive and technologically diverse underground Roman gold mining area known from the time of inscriptional records. As Albernus Major, it was the site of large-scale gold mining during the Roman Empire. Over a period of 166 years, starting in 106 AD, the Romans extracted approximately 500 tonnes of gold from the site, developing highly engineered works, tunnels of different types totalling 7 kilometres and multiple waterwheels at four underground high-grade ore sources. Waxed wooden writing tablets provide detailed legal, socio-economic, demographic and linguistic information on Roman mining activities, not only at Albernus Major but also in the wider province of Dacia. The site demonstrates a fusion of imported Roman mining techniques with locally developed ones, unknown elsewhere at such an early date. Mining was also carried out at the site from the Middle Ages to the modern era, albeit on a smaller scale. Late-stage extractive works surround and cross Roman galleries. The entire complex is set in an agro-pastoral landscape and largely reflects the community structure that supported the mines from the 18th to the early 20th centuries.
Sado Gold Mine
The Sado Gold Mine complex is located on Sado Island, approximately 35 km west of the coast of Niigata Prefecture, and includes several sections that showcase different non-mechanized mining methods. Sado Island is a volcanic island with two parallel mountain ranges running from southwest to northeast, connected by the alluvial plain, the Kuninaka Plain. The gold and silver deposits on the island were formed when hydrothermal fluids rose to the surface to form veins, then sank to the seafloor due to tectonic movements and then rose to the surface again. The Nishi-Mi-Kawa area, northwest of the Kosado Mountains, was once a placer gold mining site, while in the Aikawa-Tsuruko area, at the southern end of the Osado Mountains, veins that were once mined underground have been exposed by the weathering of volcanic rocks. Most of the material heritage on the island that records mining activities, as well as social and labor organization, has been preserved as archaeological finds, both in terms of above-ground and underground remains and landscape features.