Mt. Fuji, Mt. Etna Among 19 New UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Japan's Mount Fuji, the Namib Sand Sea in Namibia, North Korea's ancient capital in Kaesong, Italy's Mount Etna volcano and the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany are some of the latest UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The UNESCO committee named 19 sites to the prestigious World Heritage list at its annual meeting, which is taking place in Cambodia this year. The organization annually honors places of historic or cultural significance by enshrining them with World Heritage status. To be included on the World Heritage List, sites "must be of outstanding universal value" to humanity and meet at least one of these 10 selection criteria.

Thursday will conclude the annual UNESCO conference, which began June 16 in Phomn Penh with the ceremonial return to Cambodia of two important Khmer Pandava statues from the 10th century. The statues were handed back to Cambodia from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In addition to naming the new World Heritage Sites (full list below) the UNESCO group also took time to review the conservation of properties already named as World Heritage Sites, particularly the sites in Mali that were damaged during the occupation of the country's north, as well as the sites within Syria that have reportedly been damaged in civil war.

The inclusion this year of Mt. Fuji in particular has been widely reported, as Japan has been trying to get its highest mountain accepted on the List for at least a decade. In an attempt to offset the environmental degradation the anticipated increase of visitors to the mountain will cause, a $10 fee will be charged to all summit-bound climbers during the peak seasons. The funds will be used for various environmental protection measures, according to NBC World News.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site List now numbers 981 sites in 160 nations.

2013 additions to the UNESCO World Heritage Site List:

1. Xinjiang Tianshan, China

2. Mount Etna, Italy

3. El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

4. Namib Sand Sea, Namibia

5. Tajik National Park, Tajikstan

6. Red Bay Basque Whaling Station, Canada

7. Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, China

8. Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong, North Korea

9. Levuka Historical Port Town, Fiji

10. Bergpark Wilhelmshohe, Germany