REGIONAL: Jamaica seeks to have sunken city of Port Royal listed as World Heritage site

SOURCE: CMC- The government of Jamaica is  on a quest to obtain a World Heritage inscription for the sunken city of Port Royal.

According to Culture Minister, Olivia Grange, if this is achieved, Port Royal will be one of only three such sites in the world. The others are in Alexandria, Greece and in Bahia, Italy.

“The Sunken City of Port Royal will have a tremendous impact on our heritage tourism product for destination Jamaica as we prepare our nomination for UNESCO designation of it as a World Heritage Site,” Grange said in a recent statement.

“Mexico and Japan are assisting Jamaica with the Heritage Impact Assessment Study of the Port Royal Sunken City in our effort to obtain the UNESCO World Heritage Designation,” she stated.

Commonly referred to as “the most wickedest city on the world”, Port Royal in the 1600s was one of the most famous English cities on the planet, famous the world over for its booze known as ‘Kill Devil Rum’, and its pirates, among other things.

The city was ruled by the notorious pirate, Captain Henry Morgan.

At the height of its glittering wealth, on June 7, 1692, Port Royal was destroyed when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the island and the city was devastated by a tsunami.