The candidacy of the megaliths of Carnac and the banks of Morbihan as a UNESCO World Heritage Site was accepted during the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Paris on July 12, 2025. This decision marked the outcome of a process initiated in 2011, when the first steps were undertaken to register this vast megalithic set on the World Heritage List. In 2013, the Landscapes of Mégaliths association, created on the initiative of the Morbihan Departmental Council, took charge of the project coordination. As of 2017, the declaration of exceptional universal value (DVUE) was validated by UNESCO, opening the way to an international comparative analysis relating to 54 megalithic sites around the world. The year 2020 marks a decisive step with the favorable hearing of the French World Heritage Committee, followed by the validation of the final perimeter by the Ministry of Culture in 2021. The management plan was drawn up between 2022 and 2023, then the file, which also includes a commitment charter and the definition of a landscape protective buffer zone, is officially deposited at the UNESCO World Heritage Center on January 15, 2024. Led by ICOMOS (International Council of Monuments and Sites) in the fall of 2024, acting as a scientific council for the UN Committee, the final decision was rendered on July 12.
The project mobilized a wide range of players and more than 70 partners. The Association landscapes de Mégaliths, chaired by Olivier Lepick, mayor of Carnac (with former minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as honorary president since 2022) was supported by the 28 municipalities concerned as well as the Departmental Council of Morbihan, the Brittany region, the Drac Bretagne, the Prefecture of Morbihan, the Center for National Monuments and the Conservatory of the Littoral. On the scientific level, the international committee was chaired until 2022 by the paleontologist Yves Coppens (1943-2022).
Megalithic alignments in Kermario near Carnac
The Carnac menhirs, dated 6,000 to 7,000 years ago during the Neolithic (5,000 – 2,000 BC), constitute the highest concentration of megalithic monuments in the world, with more than 3,000 menhirs in the municipality of Carnac alone and more than 550 sites identified in a territory of 1,000 km². The registered property includes 180 monuments in Carnac and 400 in all 18 municipalities in the UNESCO perimeter. These sites are distinguished by the exceptional density of dolmens, tumulus, parietal engravings and adornment objects. The tumulus Saint-Michel, anterior 2,700 years old at the Pyramids of Egypt, illustrates the seniority and the singularity of this set.
The registration project, however, aroused debates within the scientific community and the local population. Some archaeologists have expressed reservations about governance and balance between tourism valuation and archaeological preservation, judging the file sometimes too oriented towards economic issues. Tensions have also appeared around development projects, in particular truckers, and compatibility between the UNESCO ranking and the development of an industrial wind area in co-visibility with certain major sites. Finally, the question of surcourism and the management of visitors’ flows remains a central issue to guarantee the preservation of the site in the long term.
The tumulus Saint-Michel in Carnac.
