Rising seas pose imminent threat of historical sites across the Mediterranean

The old town of Rhodes and Corfu, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the waterlogged canals of Venice and Croatia’s Old City of Dubrovnik are among the 49 Unesco World Heritage sites identified along the Mediterranean’s coasts that face imminent flooding or erosion risks triggered by rising global sea levels, according to a research that leading Professor at Kiel University in Germany, Nassos Vafeidis.

Το Πυθαγόρειο και το Ηραίο της Σάμου, η Δήλος, η παλιά πόλη της Κέρκυρας, αλλά και η μεσαιωνική πόλη της Ρόδου, βρίσκονται ανάμεσα στα μνημεία που απειλούνται Source: Supplied

The study used the database of UNESCO World Heritage sites and projections of future sea level to arrive at its conclusions.

It found that out of 49 total such sites along the coasts of the Mediterranean, 37 are already vulnerable to a 100-year storm surge event.

The largest number of vulnerable sites, the study found, were located in present day Italy. Croatia, Greece and Tunisia also have a large number of sites within their present borders.

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