edgepedia

Parks, protected areas, and geographic heritage sites

9,860 articles

Val d'Orcia (Italy)

Val d'Orcia (Valdorcia) is a Tuscan valley in the Province of Siena, Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape since 2004 under criteria (iv) and (vi), a Renaissance-designed agricultural landscape of 61,188 ha.

Val-des-Nymphes

Val-des-Nymphes (Val des Nymphes) is a spring valley at La Garde-Adhémar, Drôme, site of a Gallo-Roman nymph cult and a Benedictine priory of Tournus first mentioned in 1059; its 12th-century Provençal Romanesque Notre-Dame chapel is a classified monument (1889), restored in 1991.

Valcamonica

Valcamonica (Valle Camonica), a 90 km Alpine valley in Lombardy, Italy, holds Europe's largest open-air rock art: over 140,000 engravings from the late Palaeolithic to the Roman conquest of 16 BC, UNESCO-listed in 1979.

Valdaisky Biosphere Reserve

Valdaisky Biosphere Reserve (Валдайский биосферный резерват), a UNESCO MAB site designated in 2004 in Novgorod Oblast, Russia, around Valdai National Park (est. 1990); nearly 244,000 ha of Valdai Highlands taiga, bogs, and lakes with about 35,000 residents.

Valdés Biosphere Reserve

Valdés Biosphere Reserve, UNESCO MAB site designated 2014 in Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina; 2,015,011 ha of Patagonian steppe and Argentine Sea, incorporating Península Valdés World Heritage Site, facing grazing, waste and hydrocarbon pressures.

Valeriana

Valeriana names a Roman Danube fort at Dolni Vadin, Bulgaria (also Pedonianis), the plant genus Valeriana including valerian (V. officinalis), and a Maya city in Campeche, Mexico found by lidar in 2024.

Valle Camonica - Alto Sebino Biosphere Reserve

Valle Camonica - Alto Sebino Biosphere Reserve: UNESCO MAB reserve designated 26 July 2018 in eastern Lombardy, Italy; 135,641 ha from the Adamello Glacier to Lake Iseo across 45 municipalities, 121,082 residents, overlapping the Rock Drawings World Heritage site.

Valle del Cabriel Biosphere Reserve

Valle del Cabriel Biosphere Reserve (Reserva de la Biosfera Valle del Cabriel), UNESCO MAB site designated 19 June 2019 in the Cabriel River basin, Spain, covering about 421,766 ha and 52 municipalities across Castilla-La Mancha, Valencia, and Aragon.

Valles del Jubera, Leza, Cidacos y Alhama Biosphere Reserve

UNESCO biosphere reserve in southeastern La Rioja, Spain, designated 2003, extended 2013, rezonified 2025; 121,771 ha across the Leza, Jubera, Cidacos, and Alhama river valleys, 40 municipalities, dinosaur trackways, and Starlight dark-sky status.

Valley of adventure

Valley of adventure, a theme park and adventure sports section at Hadshi Temple in Mulshi, Pune district, Maharashtra, India; offers zipline, sky cycle, archery, ATV, rock climbing; free entry, Rs 350 activities.

Valley of Fire State Park

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada's first state park (dedicated 1934, established 1935), is a 40,000-acre park near Overton with Jurassic red Aztec Sandstone, 2,000-plus-year-old petroglyphs, and nearly one million annual visitors.

Valley of Flowers National Park (फूलों की घाटी राष्ट्रीय उद्यान)

Valley of Flowers National Park (फूलों की घाटी राष्ट्रीय उद्यान), also called VoFNP, is an 87.5 km² alpine-flower national park in Chamoli, Uttarakhand, India; a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2005 with Nanda Devi National Park.

Valley of the Fallen

Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos, now Valle de Cuelgamuros): Francoist basilica-mausoleum near Madrid, built 1940–1959 largely by thousands of forced political prisoners, dominated by a 150-metre cross, renamed and resignified by Spain's 2022 Democratic Memory Law.

Valley Temple of Khafre

Valley Temple of Khafre, at Giza, Egypt: Old Kingdom granite-and-limestone ritual gateway at the lower end of Khafre's causeway, with 23 statue niches, colossal sphinxes, and Mariette's 1860 statue finds.

Vallis Alba

Vallis Alba, Latin for "white valley," was a Roman fortified post in Syria, identified with Khan al-Manqura on the northern Palmyra–Damascus road and recorded as the base of the cohors prima Iulia lectorum.

Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site

Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site (Cais do Valongo), Rio de Janeiro: 1811 stone wharf where an estimated 900,000 enslaved Africans landed; rediscovered 2011, UNESCO World Heritage Site 2017, criterion (vi).

Valvata

Valvata (Valuata, Balbatum) was a Roman road station on the via Quinctia between Pisa and Florence, 8 miles from Pisa, identified with Cascina or Fornacette in Tuscany.

Vandalism of monuments

Vandalism of monuments is the willful defacement, damage, destruction, or unauthorized removal of statues and memorials, criminalized in the United States by federal statutes and state laws.

Vani

Vani is an archaeological site on Akhvlediani Hill in western Georgia (ancient Colchis), occupied from the 8th to 1st centuries BCE as a cultic centre, elite administrative centre, and temple city, destroyed in the 1st century BC.

Vapheio Tholos Tomb

Vapheio tholos tomb (Vafeio, Lakonia): early Mycenaean beehive tomb, LH IIB ca. 1450–1400 BCE, excavated 1888 by Tsountas; yielded the gold Vapheio cups, 42 seal stones, and Minoan-type weights.

Variana

Variana: Roman fort on the Danube in Moesia near modern Orjahovo, Bulgaria, identified with Leshkovets; also Marsigli's "Silauna". Distinct from Vicus Varianus, an Italian Antonine Itinerary station near Vigarano Pieve.

Varignano Vecchio

Varignano Vecchio (Villa del Varignano) is a Roman maritime-production villa at Le Grazie, Portovenere, Liguria, occupied from the late 2nd century BC to the 6th century AD, with Liguria's oldest oil mill, a 570,000-litre cistern, and an on-site museum.

Varirata National Park

Varirata National Park is Papua New Guinea's first national park, a 1,063-hectare tract of lowland rainforest on the Sogeri Plateau east of Port Moresby, declared in 1969.

Varna Necropolis (Варненски некропол)

Varna Necropolis (Варненски некропол), a Bulgarian Copper Age cemetery found in 1972, holds the world's earliest large-scale gold assemblage: over 3,000 objects, about 6 kg, dated 4600–4350 BC, with elite Grave 43 and cenotaphs.

Varnava Tower

Varnava Tower (πύργος του Βαρνάβα): two stone towers near Varnavas village, Marathon, East Attica, Greece. A 5th-century BC dry-built square tower and, 500 m away, a Frankish 13th-14th century tower, 5.40 x 9.46 m, at least 11 m high.

Varnenum Temple Complex

Varnenum (Gallo-Roman temple precinct, Kornelimünster, Aachen, Germany): sanctuary of the deities Varnenus and Sunuxsal, in use from around the turn of the era to the mid-3rd century AD; foundations rebuilt to one metre in 1989.

Varpelev

Varpelev, Zealand, Denmark: village on Stevns with an Iron Age princely cemetery (excavated 1876–77 by Engelhardt), the Bronze Age Varpelev log boat, and medieval Ranestedet remains.

Vasquez Rocks

Vasquez Rocks is a Los Angeles County natural area park in Agua Dulce, California, with 25-million-year-old tilted sandstone formations, named for bandit Tiburcio Vasquez, and famous as a Star Trek and Western filming location.

Vasse-Wonnerup System

Vasse-Wonnerup System, a 1,109-hectare Ramsar wetland near Busselton, Western Australia, listed 7 June 1990. Two floodgate-managed lagoons supporting over 33,000 waterbirds and the largest black swan colony in south-western Australia.

Vasyl Makar Bird Park

Vasyl Makar Bird Park (Птахопарк Василя Макара) is a private zoo in Kolochava, Khust Raion, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine, where Vasyl Makar keeps nearly 2,000 parrots and pigeons as a non-profit hobby.