Tip Sheet.(brief items)(Bibliography)

Byline: Liat Radcliffe, David Roos, Ginanne Brownell

Travel: Catch Them While You Can

By Liat Radcliffe

Last month, China's state news agency reported that two thirds of the Great Wall had been destroyed by tourists, commercial development and local pillaging. Other historical and cultural monuments are also in danger, says the World Monument Fund (wmf.org ). The top five heritage sites you should see--while you still can:

Dampier Rock Art Complex: An estimated 200,000 rock carvings of animals and human figures were etched on this Western Australian archipelago over 10,000 years by the now nearly extinct Yaburara tribe. Industrial development has destroyed about a quarter of the art already and petrochemical pollutants threaten to erode the rest.

Nineveh and Nimrud: Located near Mosul in northern Iraq, these two ancient royal capitals date back to Assyrian times nearly 3,000 years ago. Looting and vandalism have deprived the sites of many irreplaceable cultural relics.

Bandiagara Escarpment: This sandstone ridge in southern Mali has been home to the Dogon people since the 15th century. Inspired by a unique mythology, each Dogon village is laid out along a north-south axis in the shape of a human body--that of the great ancestor Nommo. The Dogon's traditional culture and natural environment is being threatened by the encroachment of tourists and modern ways of life.