Edinburgh Old Town and New Town were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. Edinburgh shares the distinction with New Lanark, Liverpool (Maritime Mercantile Centre) and Bath, among others.

The selection criteria which Edinburgh fulfilled was twofold:

"to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design"

and

"to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history"

Edinburgh is listed as ref. 728 on the World Heritage Site.