The decision was made Sunday morning (Vietnam time) during a 10-day meeting in Brasilia where the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization revised its list of environmentally or culturally unique sites.

“This is an invaluable and meaningful gift for Vietnamese and the people of Hanoi just ahead of the millennium anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi,” the statement said.

The Thang Long Royal Citadel met three out of six selection criteria, including exhibiting an important interchange of human values over a span of time; bearing a unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization; and being associated with events or living traditions.

Nearly 900 environmentally or culturally unique sites have been named in the World Heritage list so far.

Vietnamese entries in the list prior to the latest recognition are: the Complex of Monuments in the old imperial capital of Hue; Ha Long Bay; Hoi An Town; My Son Sanctuary and Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park.