The moon is one of 25 sites that should be of concern this year, according to a leading organization dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage.
That organization is the World Monuments Fund, which today announced the 25 sites that made the annual World Monuments Watch list. These sites were selected from more than 200 nominations that went through two rounds of review before being chosen by an independent panel of experts. The Moon stands apart from others as a cultural heritage site that does not exist on Earth.
“For the first time, the Moon is included in the Watch program to reflect the urgent need to recognize and preserve artifacts that testify to humanity’s first steps beyond Earth – a defining moment in our shared history,” said Benedict de Montfort, President and CEO of the Foundation, in a press release.
“Items such as the camera that captured the television broadcast of the moon landing, the memorial disk left behind by astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin, and hundreds of other objects are emblematic of this legacy,” de Montlor added. “However, they face increasing risks as lunar activity accelerates and is carried out without proper preservation protocols.”
There are more than 90 historical sites on the moon where spacecraft have come into contact with the lunar surface, the release notes. One of the most famous artifacts is the first astronaut footprints outside the Earth, left by the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969.
“As we enter a new era of space exploration, we must ensure that the traces of these extraordinary milestones in human history – the first lunar landings – are preserved,” the press release says. “The inclusion of the Moon in Watch 2025 advocates for international agreements and protection of lunar heritage sites, and invites a broader public discussion about what this new space age could mean for the cultural and natural landscape of the Moon,” the statement said.
The inclusion of the Moon in the list is a reasonable step, as humanity intends to return to the Moon and stay there for a long time. NASA’s Artemis mission plans to land a crew on the lunar surface by mid-2027 – although this is later than the space agency had planned. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as there are numerous private missions planned for the coming months and years, many of which are funded by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. For example, this morning, SpaceX launched two landers to the Moon, namely the Blue Ghost by Firefly Aerospace and Resilience by ispace.
SpaceX’s Starship has not been left out either – chosen by NASA for Artemis missions, but ultimately a private ship that could one day take tourists to the Moon and its many historical sites.
There are also plans to extract various resources on the Moon, including water ice, helium-3, and rare earth elements (REEs). Some private enterprises also hope to use the Moon as a kind of cemetery, where the remains of loved ones will be buried on the dusty surface. It is clear that the Moon will never be the same again, and this has led the World Monuments Fund to express its concern.
Indeed, there is neither wind nor water on the lunar surface, so natural degradation of lunar artifacts has not been a problem. In fact, the lunar surface is impeccably preserved. But “exploitative visitation, souvenirs, and looting by future missions and private lunar exploration could ultimately jeopardize this truly unique cultural heritage by removing artifacts and permanently erasing iconic prints and footprints from the lunar surface,” the foundation warns on its lunar landing page.
Other sites on the World Monuments Fund’s list this year include those affected by conflicts and natural disasters, such as the historic city of Antakya (ancient Antioch) in Turkey, which was destroyed by earthquakes in 2023, and the historic urban development of Gaza, which is subject to constant Israeli air strikes.
Among the sites on the list threatened by climate change are Africa’s Swahili Coast and Maine’s historic lighthouses. Other sites include monasteries in Albania’s Drino Valley that are under pressure from excessive tourism, the French Sorbonne Chapel in Paris, which has been closed for years, and historic buildings on the Musi River in India, which suffers from widespread pollution.
Cultural heritage needs to be protected from a range of threats, both natural and anthropogenic. In 2023, Greenpeace experts discovered that 4th-century Buddhist frescoes in China were being damaged by heavy rain and humidity. Last year, a team of researchers from the University of Virginia found evidence that the Russian military was damaging Ukrainian archaeological sites during its occupation of the country.
The full list of the World Monuments Fund of 25 sites for 2025 can be found on the organization’s website, but it is (obviously) not exhaustive. Although we have already said goodbye to 2024, many of the sites on last year’s list remain at risk, many for the same reasons that threaten this year’s sites.
