List of World Heritage Sites in El Salvador

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972. Cultural heritage consists of monuments (such as architectural works, monumental sculptures, or inscriptions), groups of buildings, and sites (including archaeological sites). Natural features (consisting of physical and biological formations), geological and physiographical formations (including habitats of threatened species of animals and plants), and natural sites which are important from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty, are defined as natural heritage. El Salvador accepted the convention on October 8, 1991, making its historical sites eligible for inclusion on the list. As of 2024, El Salvador has only one World Heritage Site, Joya de Cerén, which was inscribed in 1993.

World Heritage Sites UNESCO lists sites under ten criteria; each entry must meet at least one of the criteria. Criteria i through vi are cultural, and vii through x are natural.

+ Site Image Location (department) Year listed DescriptionJoya de Cerén Archaeological SiteLa Libertad Departmentiii, iv (cultural)1993Joya de Cerén was a pre-Hispanic farming community that, like Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, was buried under an eruption of the Laguna Caldera volcano c. AD 600. Because of the exceptional condition of the remains, they provide an insight into the daily lives of the Central American populations who worked the land at that time. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO (CC BY 3.0 IGO) license.

Tentative list In addition to sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, member states can maintain a list of tentative sites that they may consider for nomination. Nominations for the World Heritage List are only accepted if the site was previously listed on the tentative list. , El Salvador has listed six properties on its tentative list.

+ Site Image Location (department) Year listed UNESCO criteria Description Gulf of Fonseca La Unión Department1992(mixed)Cara Sucia / El ImposibleAhuachapán Department1992(mixed)ChalchuapaSanta Ana Department1992ii, iii (cultural)Ciudad Vieja / La BermudaCuscatlán Department1992(cultural)Lake GüijaSanta Ana Department1992(mixed)CacaoperaMorazán Department1992iii, iv (cultural)

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