Over the last 26 years, UNESCO has designated six World Heritage sites in this tiny country, a testament to Israel’s importance as a cultural crossroad and to its incredible historical heritage.

In 1981, UNESCO named the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls as a World Heritage site, citing—among its 220 historic monuments—the 7th century Dome of the Rock with its beautiful geometric and floral motifs and the fact that it’s recognized by all three religions as the site of Abraham’s sacrifice. It also cited the West Wall as the symbolic boundary of the quarters of the different religious communities, as well as the Resurrection rotunda in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which houses Christ’s tomb.

Twenty years later in 2001, UNESCO named Masada—the majestic fortress in the midst of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea—citing it as a symbol of the ancient kingdom of Israel and as the site of the last stand of the Jewish patriots in the face of the Roman Army in A.D. 73. UNESCO also noted that the camps, fortifications and attack ramp that encircle the Masada monument constitute the most complete Roman siege works surviving to the present-day.

That same year, UNESCO named the Old City of Acre, or Akko, a World Heritage site—not only because this historic, walled port-city has enjoyed continuous settlement from the Phoenician period, but also because the remains of the Crusader town, dating from 1104 to 1291, lie almost intact both above and below today’s street level, providing an exceptional picture of the layout and structures of the capital of the medieval Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem. At the same time, the present city is characteristic of a fortified town dating from the Ottoman 18th and 19th centuries, with typical urban components such as the citadel, mosques, khans and baths.

In 2003, UNESCO named still another important Israeli cultural icon as a heritage site—the White City of Tel Aviv, a section of the city that was constructed from the early 1930s till 1948, reflecting modern organic planning principles.

Next up in 2005, UNESCO named the Biblical Tels of Megiddo, Hazor and Beersheva to its list of World Heritage sites. Tels, or pre-historic settlement mounds, are characteristic of the flatter lands of the eastern Mediterranean, particularly Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Eastern Turkey. UNESCO says that of the more than 200 tels in Israel, Megiddo, Hazor and Beersheva are representative of tels that contain substantial remains of cities with Biblical connections. The three tels also present some of the best examples in the Levant or elaborate Iron Age and underground water collecting systems, created to serve dense urban communities.

Finally in 2005, UNESCO named The Incense Route and the Desert Cities in the Negev as Israel’s sixth World Heritage site. The four Nabatean towns of Haluza, Mamshit, Avdat and Shivta, along with associated fortresses and agricultural landscapes in the Negev Desert, are spread along routes linking them to the Mediterranean end of the Incense and Spice route. Together, UNESCO says, they reflect the hugely profitable trade in frankincense and myrrh from south Arabia to the Mediterranean, which flourished from the 3rd century B.C. until the 2nd century.