UNESCO adds Normandy's D-Day landing beaches to World Heritage List

A blockhaus is seen on the "Pointe du Hoc", a clifftop in Cricqueville-en-Bessin, on the French western Norman coast, on March 24, 2009. © Mychele Daniau, AFP

The D-Day landing beaches in Normandy were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List Sunday. The 80-kilometre stretch of coastline in northwest France served as the site for Allied forces' landing in Europe in June 1944, marking a decisive moment in the war against Nazi Germany and its fascist allies in Europe.

World War II’s D-Day landing beaches in northern France were among the sites added to the World Heritage List on Sunday at a UN committee meeting in South Korea reviewing dozens of nominations.