On Monday, the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, recommended that the tombs of royal traditional leaders in Uganda, which were almost completely destroyed by fire over a decade ago, should be removed from its list of endangered cultural heritage sites.
Located on a hillside in the Kampala region, the Buganda Kings' Tombs at Kasubi cover an area of nearly 30 hectares. At the center of the site, on a hilltop, is the former palace of the Kabakas of Buganda, which was built in 1882 and converted into a royal burial ground in 1884. It was destroyed by the fire in March 2010.
Since the 2010 blaze, the Buganda Kings' Tombs, housed in grass-thatched buildings on the hillside, have been rebuilt with the help of international funding.
UNESCO's recommendations to remove the site from the endangered list, following a June mission to the tombs, will be presented to the 21 member states of the World Heritage Committee at its meeting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on September 10-25.
The tombs at Kasubi are an important example of traditional architecture, a spiritual and historical site for the Ganda people. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 2001, when it was described as "one of the most remarkable buildings using purely vegetal materials in the entire region of sub-Saharan Africa."
Have a look at Sputnik's gallery of the reconstructed traditional site that reflects the intangible values of faith, spirituality and continuity!