I just completed my WHS-oriented trip to Western Turkey. Saw 7 new WHS, 3 upcoming possible WHS and 8 TWHS. I had been to this region twice before so I skipped the WHS I had already been to (Bursa, Ephesus, Cappadocia, Hierapolis/Pamukkale). I did a clockwise loop by rental car in 9 days, with Izmir as the most western point and Konya as the most eastern. Then I flew/bussed to Ankara, Safranbolu and Edirne to clear all that was left!

Below are my tips for travelling to Western Turkey as a WH Traveller.

1. Beware that entrance fees have risen sharply

Despite rampant inflation, food and public transport are still inexpensive in Turkey when you come from abroad and accommodation I found good value. Entrance fees however have risen sharply over the past couple of years (you'll notice the little stickers on the tickets overriding the original prices). The most prolific sites now charge 200 TL – at about 10 EUR, this still is reasonable for a classy WHS I think. But it will add up as they charge mostly per location: Pergamon is 200 TL for the Akropolis and 180 TL for the …

Turkey has a good track record in nominating ancient sites with noteworthy remains still in situ . The more complete ones concern relatively late (20th century) and careful excavations deep in Anatolia. Gordion (nominated for 2023) is another example: it was the capital and cultural center of the Phrygian civilization. The Phrygians had come to Anatolia from what is now Bulgaria and Greece.

First: what have the Phrygians ever done for us? It would be overstating to say that they were an influential tribe: after a flowering period in the 8th century BC when they ruled over large parts of Anatolia, they were overrun by the Lydians, Persians, Alexander the Great, Celts and Romans. Still, there are two terms in modern English that remember them: the Gordian Knot and the Midas touch .

The site of Gordion lies deep in the countryside, in what looks like an impoverished area. While driving up there I noticed dozens of people poking around in the fields with sticks – were they looking for bird eggs or mushrooms?

The archaeological site doesn’t seem to draw many visitors, I only encountered three other cars on Saturday morning. The area …

Íznik is Turkey’s nomination for 2024. It rose quite quickly among the 84 candidates , apparently using Bursa ’s experience (it lies in the same province) to create a complete nomination dossier in a short time. Or, as others say, because it has an AKP mayor (no shortage of Erdogan banners in its streets anyway in late April 2023). With 2025 looking set for Izmir, the Turks in the short term seem to prefer the easy nominations backed by city tourism money and less so the more complex (in funding, in selection) thematic serial sites that also linger on the Tentative List.

There isn’t a really strong focus in Íznik’s proposed OUV. Probably they are going for another ‘multi-layered’ approach (as did Pergamon ), presenting historical continuity from prehistory til the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, there are 4 specific topics mentioned: the production of ceramic tiles, Byzantine-Ottoman architecture, the town’s interaction with the lake, and its role in the history of Christianity.

Íznik nowadays has 22,000 inhabitants and a bustling, pedestrian-friendly town center. I started with exploring its ceramic tile history, as I recently in Kuala Lumpur’s Islamic Arts Museum saw some fine examples of …

In my preparations for upcoming trips, I do like to read the AB evaluations of lesser known natural sites, and phrases like “remote and rarely visited” in there often draw my attention. Some WHS just barely receive any visitors. So I decided to try and create a connection for sites with “ 1000 visitors or fewer ”; as a counterpart to the longstanding One million visitors or more which currently has 98 entries.

Definition

As defining description I choose:

WHS core zones that have only 1,000 visitors a year or fewer.

• Total given upon inscription, as stated in the AB evaluation or the nomination file. If it is not given, reliable data sources such as IUCN Outlook and UNEP/WCMC can be used.
• Reflects the number of visitors in a ‘normal’ year, not at a temporary low (because of Covid, restoration, war, etc).
• It also excludes the sites that have never been open to tourists .

Sites may see a growth in tourism after the inscription and go beyond the 1,000 – but not excessively so or they will be delisted from this connection.

Selection

We have had a Forum topic called ‘ Aspiring to be on the Tentative List ’ already since 2008. It is filled with mentions of places around the world that have publicly announced to aspire to World Heritage status, but are not on their country’s Tentative List yet. Honestly, I never took those very seriously, as they were often proposed by locals after a few drinks without any further thought or follow-up.

But I feel something in the ‘Road to WHS’ has fundamentally changed over the past few years. Countries seem to keep their cards close to their chest longer than before. For a WH traveller, it can now be more worthwhile to be aware of these Aspiring TWHS (ATWHS) than to look at a current but aged Tentative List. On my recent short trip to Poland for example, I already added a Cluniac site (Tyniec Abbey) to the itinerary as it lies next to Krakow and it has a high chance of being nominated for WHS within the next 5 years.

What kind of ATWHS are we looking at?

Winterkjm last year already gave a great non-exhaustive summary of sites in the running. …

In the series “Revisiting the great cities of Europe”, I present Krakow . My first visit to Krakow was in early February 2005, and in the few pictures that I have left the buildings look gloomy and there’s a layer of snow on the ground. So I planned this return trip for April, confident in catching a few warm and sunny Spring days. Oh, how wrong I was! It was freezing. But I came prepared with a list of things to see gathered from previous reviews and other sources. And I read the original nomination file (1978), which has become available since it was attached to the 2010 minor boundary modification .

On my first afternoon, I joined a Free Walking Tour covering Kazimierz. No less than 36 foreign tourists showed up, which confirms Krakow as a popular city trip destination. The tour still milks the success of the Schindler’s List movie which dates from 1993. Fortunately, the group was split in 2 with a guide each. We walked a lot, also to the former ghetto across the river (outside of the WHS core zone). Several 16th and 17th-century synagogues and a cemetery have survived in …

During my recent visit to Gunung Mulu , I enjoyed an early morning walk on what they claim to be the world’s longest tree-based canopy walkway. It indeed is a truly adventurous one consisting of 15 long and narrow rope bridges connecting the trees. Only two people are allowed on each stretch at the same time. Another good one that I visited on the same trip was at the Rainforest Discovery Centre in Sandakan; this is a more accessible skywalk with unobstructed views, and it is excellent for birds . The guide told me that on the hardcore birding tours they stay here for 5 hours, between 6 and 11 a.m.

The Definition

Canopy Walkways are structures that provide pedestrian access to a forest canopy. Sometimes they are also identified as skywalks or elevated walkways. For their construction, a lot of high trees obviously are needed, as well as a feel for adventure tourism and an expectation of a high number of visitors to get a return on the considerable investment. China seems to mostly have gone for the Glass floored Skywalks which are more like viewing platforms. Zip Lines are also similar, but …

This is the second fairly recent book about WHS in China, after Chinese Heritage Sites and their Audiences by Rouran Zhang (2020) which I reviewed earlier. ' World Heritage Craze in China ' was originally published in 2018 and is written by Haiming Yan - born in China, got his Ph.D. in Sociology from a university in the USA, and now is the director of the secretariat of ICOMOS China. The central question he tries to answer in this book is: Why is World Heritage so important for the Chinese ?

The role of the State

The author mostly focuses on the role the central government plays in the nomination and management of World Heritage in China. He clearly is comfortable with Chinese laws, governmental organizations, and bureaucracy. Like Zhang, he underlines the importance of China having integrally adopted the World Heritage model of heritage conservation (as a framework with its tools and vocabulary), as it did not have one of its own before. They don't feel awkward about this copying, as a Chinese saying says " a stone from other hills may serve to polish the jade of this one" . Also, because …

A visit to ‘ The Archaeological Heritage of Niah National Park’s Caves ’ nowadays has to start in Kuching, where in the wonderful Borneo Cultures Museum they have ‘Deep Skull’ on display. The museum’s fourth floor holds an intriguing exposition about the findings in Niah.

When I arrived at Niah National Park itself, I was surprised to see banners all around stating ‘Niah National Park Toward UNESCO World Heritage Site’. As the nomination is only up in 2024, this is a bit premature and just shy of failing Commandment #7 ! The facilities, including a large car park, cafeteria, and tourist bungalows, already are set up for high numbers of visitors. On a weekday in March 2023 though, there were only a handful of other people.

There still is no bridge however to enter the park, so two young guys were ferrying the visitors across (1 ringgit, 1 minute). On the other side, the 3km long trail to the caves starts. I had read reports beforehand about how slippery the walkway is, even dangerous. To make things worse, it had rained heavily all night and was just starting to clear up when I arrived at …

Gunung Mulu National Park scores in superlatives. Mulu has the Second Biggest Cave Chamber in the world (Sarawak Chamber), the Largest Cave Passage (Deer Cave), and one of the Largest interconnected cave systems (Clearwater Cave System). It has among the highest number of palm tree species anywhere ánd even the longest canopy walkway . It has been inscribed as a WHS on all 4 natural criteria. Even on our website, it ranks 30th of all 1157 WHS, with an average score of 4.5.

Despite knowing all these accolades, it blows you away on arrival. Its rainforest setting is stunning, it is much prettier than pictures can convey. I found it especially hard to take good photos here, I took over 500 and kept only 90 or so. I tried all kinds of settings, both on my large zoom camera and my phone, to no avail (others had more success with their latest generation high-end iPhones). The rainforest and the cave interiors are very dark, and pouring rain doesn’t help either. Animals are either very skittish or tiny. Trees, cave entrances (photo 2) and stick insects (photo 3) are the best bets!

The park is …