The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972. Cultural heritage consists of monuments, groups of buildings, and sites. Natural features, geological and physiographical formations, and natural sites which are important from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty, are defined as natural heritage. The Soviet Union ratified the convention on 12 October 1988. The first five sites in the Soviet Union were inscribed to the list at the 14th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, in December 1990. Of these five, three are located in the present-day Russian Federation : the monuments of Saint Petersburg, Kizhi Pogost, and Moscow Kremlin and Red Square; the other two are Itchan Kala and Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.