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Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu
Site number:
972
Type of site: Cultural
Date: 12-17th century
Date of Inscription: 2000
Location: Asia, Japan, Okinawa Prefecture
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Description: This group of sites and monuments represents five hundred years of Ryukyuan history, stretching from the 12th to the 17th century. The castle ruins, sitting on striking elevated sites, are proof of the social structure of most of that period; the sacred sites bear silent testimony to the uncommon survival of an ancient form of religion into the modern age. The period’s wide-ranging economic and cultural contacts of the Ryukyu Islands lead to a unique culture. --WHMNet paraphrase from the description at WHC Site, where additional information is available.
  Gusuku is the Okinawan word for "castle" or "fortress." It is written with the kanji for castle, 城, which in mainland Japanese is pronounced shiro. Many gusuku and related cultural remains in the Ryūkyū Islands have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site --Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/972
Reference: 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center, Site Page.
 
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