Friesland province has put in a request for its 11 historic cities to be considered for inclusion on Unesco’s world heritage list.

The province must first convince culture minister Ronald Plasterk that the cities are worthy of inclusion in a preliminary list. Only then can they be considered for full listing in several years time, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.
The 11 cities of Friesland gave their name to the grueling 200km skating race over natural ice. Some can trace back their history to the 8th century AD. The smallest is Sloten, with a population of just 760.
Amsterdam’s historic canal rings and the prison village of Veenhuizen in Drenthe province are also up for consideration, the paper said.
Last week, the Dutch and German parts of the Wadden Sea were given full heritage status.