Germany's Naumberg Cathedral, the Caliphate City of Medina Azahara in Spain and the Sansa Buddhist Mountain Monasteries of Korea are among the 18 new additions inscribed to Unesco's World Heritage list this year.

Unesco is currently holding its 42nd session of the World Heritage Committee, which continues until 4 July. At the session, new World Heritage Sites are selected each year.

Naumburg is one of two German inscriptions, with the historic cathedral dating back to 1028. It is joined by the Archaeological Border Complex of Hedeby and the Danevirke, which the site of a former trading town from the first and early second millennia.

Located in the central part of West Greenland, a new World Heritage site has been named for Denmark, with the Aasivissuit-Nipisat, Inuit Hunting Ground between Ice and Sea containing the remains of more than 4,200 years of human history.

In Colombia, Chiribiquete National Park – “The Maloca of the Jaguar” is the largest protected area in the country. The park's tepuis – tabletop mountains – have more than 75,000 paintings, spanning more than 20,000 years to the present. Believed to be linked to the worship of the jaguar, the paintings depict hunting scenes, battles, dances and ceremonies. The National Park becomes the country's ninth World Heritage site following its inscription.

Called the "Originary Habitat of Mesoamerica", Mexico's Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley also joins the World Heritage list. Part of the Mesoamerican region of Mexico, the site has what is considered to be the richest biodiversity in all of North America. The site is also known for its history, with archaeological remains demonstrating technological developments and the early domestication of crops.

Moving to Asia, the Republic of Korea gains a new addition to the list – the Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Sansa. Located throughout the southern provinces of the Korean Peninsula, the seven temples that comprise the site were established from the 7th to 9th centuries. The protected sites are considered sacred places, and have survived as living centres of faith and daily religious practice to the present day.

Spain's Caliphate City of Medina Azahara also joins the selection, with the 10th century site built by the Umayyad dynasty offering in-depth knowledge of the now vanished Western Islamic civilization of Al-Andalus. After prospering for a number of years, the city was destroyed during the civil war that put an end to the Caliphate in 1009-10. The remains of the city were lost for nearly a millennium until their rediscovery in the early 20th century.

The 18 new sites are:

• Archaeological Border Complex of Hedeby and the Danevirke (Germany)

• Naumburg Cathedral (Germany)• Chaîne des Puys–Limagne fault tectonic area (France)

• Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th century (Italy)• Caliphate City of Medina Azahara (Spain)

• Göbekli Tepe (Turkey)• Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars region (Islamic Republic of Iran)

• Al-Ahsa Oasis, an evolving Cultural Landscape (Saudi Arabia)• Ancient City of Qalhat (Oman)

• Aasivissuit-Nipisat, Inuit Hunting Ground between Ice and Sea (Denmark)• Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai (India)

• Sansa, Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Korea (Republic of Korea)• Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region (Japan)

• Fanjingshan (China)• Chiribiquete National Park – “The Maloca of the Jaguar” (Colombia)

• Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: Originary Habitat of Mesoamerica (Mexico) • Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains (South Africa)

• Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site (Kenya)• Pimachiowin Aki (Canada) – Pimachiowin Aki (“The Land That Gives Life”)