LONDON (AP) — They're the wonders of the world. The Taj Mahal, the Pyramids — and the Welsh mining town of Blaenavon.
The community in south Wales' coal-mining valleys was awarded the status of World Heritage site Thursday by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
One of the gritty pit towns that helped drive Britain's 19th-century industrialization, Blaenavon was home to the Big Pit colliery and a huge ironworks. The mine closed in 1980 and is now a museum, while the ironworks is being restored.
"This is a tribute to the thousands of people who worked so hard in this area," said Sue Essex, a member of the Welsh Assembly. "We can only imagine the kind of hardship and toil that those people must have gone through."
UNESCO's World Heritage Convention protects 630 sites of "outstanding universal value" in 118 countries. They range from architectural gems to natural sites such as the Great Barrier Reef and historical monuments including South Africa's Robben Island prison — which housed Nelson Mandela — and the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Blaenavon joins 18 other World Heritage Sites in Britain, including Hadrian's Wall, the city of Edinburgh, Stonehenge and the Tower of London.