The Great Wall of China, the Egyptian pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and now Gracehill.

What connects them all together?

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has granted the Moravian settlement in County Antrim special status, allowing it to become one of the world's cultural sites.

The village, which dates back 264 years, is the location of Ireland's first fully established Moravian community.

It is now the first location in Northern Ireland to be recognized as a World Heritage Cultural Site.

Since 1986, the County Antrim granite feature known as the Giant's Causeway has been recognized as a natural World Heritage site.

Following a 40-year struggle, Scotland's 2,000 square kilometer blanket bog system was also designated as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

One of the earliest Protestant denominations to arrive in the United Kingdom and Ireland was the Moravian Church, which left central Europe early in the eighteenth century.

Gracehill still has a thriving Moravian community, complete with a bishop.

The town now joins the ranks of Moravian sites in Germany, Denmark, and the United States as a transnational UNESCO site.

At the announcement by Unesco's World Heritage Committee in New Delhi, India's capital, officials from the US, Denmark, Germany, the UK, and David Johnston, chairman of Gracehill Trust, were present.

"The prize of a cultural World Heritage listing is a huge good news story for Northern Ireland as a whole, something that everyone can share in and be proud of," he said.

Achieving this cultural status has been a process that has taken more than two decades for residents of Gracehill.

"The community have been quietly focused on working with partners, local national and international, to highlight the important heritage that exists in Gracehill," Dr Johnston added.

"It has been a real journey both physically and metaphorically but clearly hugely worthwhile. We really consider this listing as a gift to everyone in Northern Ireland."