# Damascus World Heritage listing covers the urban setting of Saladin’s tomb

Date: 1979

## The fact

In 1979 UNESCO listed the Ancient City of Damascus, the urban setting of the tomb later associated with [Saladin](/people/saladin) beside the Umayyad Mosque. The listing is a conservation-access instrument. He died in 1193 in the received chronology; he did not file 1979.

## Context

War damage in the twenty-first century is a later harm to the same city, not this listing.

Saladin is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official heritage, encyclopedia, or edition pages and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: UNESCO — Ancient City of Damascus (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/20/; UNESCO World Heritage Centre).

## Significance

A World Heritage polygon is not a saint’s relic authentication.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.
Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The attached driver is [humanitarian-access](/drivers/humanitarian-access). The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here. Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The attached driver is humanitarian-access. The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

## People

- Saladin: https://factrail.ai/people/saladin

## Drivers

- Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access

## Sources

- https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/20/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saladin

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/sa-damascus-tomb-as-heritage