世界遗产是全人类共同继承的文化及自然遗产 ,体现了地球上文化、自然遗产的丰富性、多样性和珍贵性。列入世界遗产名录中的古城则凝聚了人类文明史中最辉煌一页的精华。非凡的历史、艺术和科学价值使它们成为城市研究的活化石。截止 2 0 0 0年 1月 ,在联合国教科文组织公布的《世界遗产名录》中 ,古城已达 94座 ,约占世界遗产总项目的 1/ 7,并分布在世界四大洲 5 6个国家内。本文在分析了这些古城的研究意义之后 ,探讨性地建立了一套研究体系 ,提出了具体的研究方法和主要的研究内容 ,并进一步以世界文化遗产之一———中国的丽江古城为例进行了剖析。

World Heritage belongs to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are living. The World Heritage List draws attention to the wealth and diversity of the Earth's cultural and natural heritage. Historic Cities in World Heritage List agglomerate the elite of the noblest stage in human civilization history, whose outstanding history, artistic and scientific values make them the living fossils of urban historic study. To the end of January 2000, the total number of ancient cities in World Heritage List is 94. They are 1/7 of the total world heritage sites. These ancient cities are distributed in 56 countries of the four continents. Of which 42 cities of 24 countries are in Europe, 22 cities of 11 countries are in Africa and Arabian region, 16 cities of 11 countries are in Asia and Pacific region,and 14 cities of 10 countries are in America. The paper firstly analyses the study significance of these ancient cities, then exploringly sets up a suit of research system including research methods and main contents. The research methods are demonstration method, holistic and systematic method, dynamic and evaluative method, as well as comparative method. These methods are the main ways in studying the ancient cities in World Heritage List. At the same time, the main research contents of these cities include the value study of many sides, the protection study and the development study. Finally the paper takes the world cultural heritage-the Chinese ancient city of Lijiang as an example to reveal its special research value and significance covered mainly in the three aspects.