UNESCO included the Engelhardt Astronomical Observatories of the Kazan Federal University (KFU) on the World Heritage List. The new facility was added to the list at an expanded committee session in Saudi Arabia. TASS reported this.
The Kazan observatories have been on the preliminary list since 2020. The Engelhardt Observatory was opened in 1901, after astronomer Vasily Engelhardt donated unique equipment from his private observatory in Dresden to the university.
In the 1980s, the observatory studied Halley’s Comet. In 1989, it was ranked 20th in the world in comet-watching activity. In 2013, a planetarium appeared on the base of the observatory. And in 2014, Engelhardt was buried again on the territory of the complex.
It was previously reported that UNESCO wants to recognize the Kamchatka volcanoes as a threatened World Heritage Site. The 45th session of the committee will be held in September in Riyadh. We talk in more detail here.
