The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin is a well preserved coal mining area in Northern France. Coal has been mined from here for over three centuries from the 1700s to the 1900s. The UNESCO area consists of 109 separate entities spread over 120,000 ha and includes villages of workers' housing, schools, religious buildings, health facilities, owners residences, managers's houses, town halls as well as coal transport infrastructure, mining pits, lift infrastructures, slag heaps and railway stations. UNESCO notes The site bears testimony to the quest to create model workers' cities from the mid 19th century to the 1960s and further illustrates a significant period in the history of industrial Europe. It documents the living conditions of workers and the solidarity to which it gave rise. - AsNotedIn