UNESCO World Heritage Site

Like Versailles in France, the Acropolis in Greece and Machu Picchu in Peru, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) considers the Rideau Canal to have outstanding universal value. It is one of Canada’s 20 World Heritage Sites, and one of two in Ontario.

The Rideau Canal is North America’s best-preserved “slackwater” canal, and the only canal from the great 19th-century canal-building era that still operates along its original route and with most of its original structures intact. This engineering marvel and the fortifications built at Kingston to protect it were constructed at a time when Great Britain and the United States vied for control.

Important links

• World Heritage Sites in Canada - Rideau Canal
• UNESCO World Heritage list - Rideau Canal

Documents