In April 1959, the Egyptian Minister of Culture contacted the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Egypt needed help. In order to promote and accelerate its industrialization and the modernization of its economy, it needed to harness the power of the Nile River. Unfortunately, the plan to build what is now known as the Aswan High Dam would result in the creation of a vast lake. A lake which would assure the obliteration of 3,000 year-old temples and monuments – footprints of an ancient civilization known as Nubia. In October of that same year, the Sudan sent a similar plea to UNESCO. Neither country had the money or the capability to protect these historic sites.
The response was swift. UNESCO spearheaded a global international effort to rescue the Nubian heritage that its Director- General knew humanity could not afford to lose.
It became the greatest archaeological rescue operation of all time. More than US$80 million was raised from 50 UNESCO-member nations and a number of private entities from around the globe. International panels of experts from five continents convened to develop and then implement strategies to save 22 temples and architectural complexes – some of them relocated brick by brick. In short, the international community came together to save treasures they recognized belonged, not just to Egypt or the Sudan, but to humanity as a whole. In the words of UNESCO Director-General Amadou-Mahter M’Bow, the International Rescue Nubia Campaign “will be numbered among the few major attempts made in our lifetime by the nations to assume their common responsibility towards the past so as to move forward in a spirit of brotherhood towards the future.”
And it didn’t end there. Other campaigns to save monuments of universal value followed including, among others, Venice and its Lagoon in Italy, the Archaeological Ruins of Moenjodaro in Pakistan and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. More important, the Nubia Campaign created the foundation for an international convention on world heritage – a convention that builds and strengthens what the Honorable Russell E. Train, who has been called the “father of World Heritage,” identified as “a sense of kinship with one another as part of a single, global community.”
The World Heritage Convention has been a tremendous success, with 193 member States. That’s 193 nations who understand we need to preserve our history and our humanity so that we may learn from past mistakes, build upon past success, and, most importantly, recognize our human unity.
As humankind stretches its reach into space, we must assure these values accompany our technology. Our future depends on it. We submit that now is the Nubia moment for human heritage in outer space.
(Photo credit: generalmills.com)