The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, meeting in New Delhi, India, has decided to inscribe the site 'The Monastery of Saint Hilarion/Tell Umm Amer’ in Palestine simultaneously on the World Heritage List and on the List of World Heritage in Danger. This decision recognizes both the site's value and the need to protect it from danger.
The monastery of Saint Hilarion/Tell Umm Amer, one of the oldest sites in the Middle East, was founded by Saint Hilarion and was home to the first monastic community in the Holy Land. Situated at the crossroads of the main routes of trade and exchange between Asia and Africa, it was a centre for religious, cultural and economic exchanges, illustrating the prosperity of desert monastic sites in the Byzantine period.