World Heritage Protected Areas in the Order They Were First Protected, From Banff in 1885 to the Phoenix Islands in 2008

Set up in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park after hot springs were found near the present Banff townsite, this is Canada's first national park, and it anchors the larger Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. It is the earliest date on this path.

The land was gifted to the nation in 1887 by the Ngati Tuwharetoa chief Horonuku Te Heuheu Tukino IV and the park was formally established in 1894. It was listed as World Heritage under natural criteria and later again under cultural criteria for its spiritual meaning to Maori.

Protected as a reserve forest in 1905 and made a national park in 1974, this Assam floodplain on the Brahmaputra holds the largest population of the greater one-horned rhinoceros. UNESCO listed it in 1985 for its wildlife.

Created in 1925 under Belgian colonial rule as Africa's first national park, originally to protect the mountain gorilla, it runs from volcanoes and glaciated peaks down to savanna. It was inscribed in 1979 and has been on the World Heritage in Danger list since 1994 because of armed conflict and poaching.

The park protects the site of the Althing, Iceland's parliament, which met here from 930 until 1798, beside the rift valley that marks the boundary between two tectonic plates. It was listed in 2004 for its historical, cultural and geological significance.

Established in 1937 in Argentine Patagonia, it protects part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and its glaciers, including Perito Moreno, which stays in relative equilibrium and periodically dams and ruptures the lake beside it. It was inscribed in 1981.

Established on 23 January 1958 in the Northern Territory, it protects the sandstone monolith Uluru and the rock domes of Kata Tjuta. Listed in 1987 for both natural and cultural value, it has been jointly managed since 1985 by Parks Australia and the Anangu, the traditional owners.

Ecuador's first national park was established in 1959 but did not begin active operation until 1968. It shelters the giant tortoise, marine iguanas and the finches whose variation among the islands helped inspire Darwin's theory of natural selection.

On Borneo in Sabah, the park protects Mount Kinabalu, the island's highest peak, and became Malaysia's first World Heritage Site when it was inscribed in December 2000. UNESCO recognized it as a centre of plant diversity, noted for pitcher plants such as Nepenthes rajah.

Established in 1976 around Mount Everest in the Khumbu region of Nepal, the park also protects the villages, monasteries and mountaineering culture of the Sherpa people alongside snow leopard and Himalayan tahr. It was inscribed in 1979.

Protected as a reserve since 1978, this is the last extensive tract of primary rainforest in Sri Lanka, with over 60 percent of its trees endemic to the island and 19 of the country's 20 endemic bird species. UNESCO inscribed it in 1988.

Established in January 2008 in the central Pacific, it is a marine protected area around a few small islands in Kiribati, one of the largest oceanic coral archipelagos left intact. Listed in 2010, it was described then as the largest and deepest World Heritage Site yet inscribed.