The UNESCO authorities have taken note and have sanctioned the universal value of these sites and monuments, according to the fulfilling of some criteria:
(ii) 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;
The Dacian fortresses represent the unique synthesis of external cultural influences and local traditions regarding the construction techniques, as well as the ancient military architecture.
(iii) bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;
The Dacian fortresses are the material expression of the exceptional stage of development of the Dacian kingdoms civilisation at the end of the Ist millennium BC.
(iv) be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history.
The Dacian fortresses are exemplary monuments when it comes to the phenomena of the evolution from fortified centres to proto-urban settlements (oppida), characteristic for the end of the European Iron Age.
These considerations underline the place of the Dacian monuments of the Orăștie Mountains in the European context of the ancient civilisations and also their singularity as expression of an indigenous cultural environment.