Sunken City of Port Royal proposed for World Heritage Site

Port Royal Could Become The Third Official Sunken City

The government of Jamaica is on a quest to obtain a World Heritage inscription for the famed underwater 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 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.

An Iconic History

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

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

At the height of Port Royal's glittering wealth, it was destroyed on June 7, 1692, when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the island followed by a tsunami.