Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture: the back story

About Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ibiza Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

On 4 December 1999 UNESCO inscribed “Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture” on the World Heritage List (turismo.eivissa.es). It is a mixed natural and cultural site of 9,020 hectares, mostly sea (whc.unesco.org), and it has four parts: the fortified upper town of Dalt Vila, the Phoenician settlement of Sa Caleta, the Punic necropolis of Puig des Molins, and the Posidonia seagrass meadows between Ibiza and Formentera.

Dalt Vila

The walls were built between 1554 and 1585 to designs by the Italian engineers Giovanni Battista Calvi and Jacobo Paleazzo Fratin, and UNESCO notes their influence on the fortified towns of the Spanish New World (whc.unesco.org). The fortress has seven bastions and a perimeter of 1,800 metres, around ten hectares of the Puig de Vila (turismo.eivissa.es).

Sa Caleta

On the south coast, Sa Caleta preserves the first Phoenician settlement on the island, from the eighth century BC. At the start of the sixth century BC its people moved to the hill where Dalt Vila now stands (whc.unesco.org).

UNESCO calls the Posidonia meadows here the best preserved in the Mediterranean.

Puig des Molins

The Punic necropolis on the hill of windmills west of Dalt Vila covers more than five hectares and holds more than 5,000 graves from the Punic, Roman and Islamic eras (whc.unesco.org).

The Posidonia

Posidonia oceanica is a seagrass found only in the Mediterranean. UNESCO describes the meadows here as the best preserved in the Mediterranean, and they are the reason the water is so clear. Anchoring on them is banned (caib.es).

Our advice: walk the walls in the morning, then see the Posidonia for yourself with a mask and snorkel at Ses Salines.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture: the back story before you go.