The WHC Session of 2016 was one to remember, due to the coup attempt happening in Turkey overnight right in the middle of discussion about the new WHS. However, the Committee managed to finish that agenda item before everybody flew home again. 21 new sites were selected – a mixed bunch. Find below some aspects that warrant a closer look.

Steccí in Bosnia Herzegovina - one of the new WHS

1. Year of the architects

Long awaited were the nominations of the Works of Le Corbusier and those of Frank Lloyd Wright. The latter discussion had an unprecedented cliffhanger when it couldn’t be finished on Friday and the Saturday session was cancelled. All to no avail: the FLW sites have been referred. A third renowned architect, Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer, in all quietude walked away with a second WHS centering on his works: after Brasilia, now Pampulha .

2. The world’s largest salamander

One of Hubei Shennongjia ’s claims to fame is that it is home to the world’s largest salamander: the Chinese giant salamander. It is fully aquatic and can reach a length of 180 cm. The species is critically endangered (like the Mountain Gorilla and the Mount Kahuzi Climbing …

It has taken me 17 years, but in late June 2016 I finally ´finished´ Germany: I have now seen all 40 WHS in this country. The last one left to do was the Monastic Island of Reichenau , some 10km from the border with Switzerland. I visited it on a day trip by car from Zürich Airport. Unfortunately my camera had broken down two days before when touring the Swiss Alps, so I can only show some images taken with my smartphone.

Münster St. Maria und Markus

The Monastic Island of Reichenau originated in the 8th century, when the traveling monk Pirmin founded the first monastery on this island in Lake Constance. Some 24 other churches and chapels were added in the remainder of the early Middle Ages, and religious relics were shipped in (often gifts by pilgrims). The large Benedictine monastery developed into an important center for study and arts in the empire of Charlemagne and his successors. The island also is very suitable for agriculture (then and now), so the monks could be self-sufficient. Nowadays it’s a holiday island with only 3 churches …

When I was a child, we always went on holiday to the Allgäu Alps . Living near the German border, my parents only spoke German as a foreign language and felt the most comfortable in German-speaking countries. We went there so often that we even were designated by the local tourist organization with a special pin celebrating 10 (or 15?) visits. So I have seen my fair share of Alpine landscape and know the omnipresent sound of cowbells. Although I must confess that when I got older I skipped all the hiking and my parents often left me at the hotel with a book to read.

Starting the hike

This background might be the reason that I left it so long to visit the Swiss Alps WHS . But also the site’s inaccessibility played a part: the WHS originally encompassed only the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which is quite costly to visit and doesn’t lend itself for a short weekend break. Since 2007 however, the core zone has been extended across a wider area in the Bernese Alps. Additional access points to the east and west have …

Rjukan/Notodden Industrial Heritage Site was added to the WH List last year. It’s a niche site that very few will have visited before its designation - our visitor count currently still stands on a modest 17. It’s also one of the clearest examples of under-represented cultural properties brought forward by the Filling the Gaps study of ICOMOS (2005): a ‘developing technology’ related to ‘energy conversion and utilization’. At Rjukan/Notodden, hydro energy was created using the natural power of waterfalls and river.

Gaustatoppen, casting its shadow over Rjukan

Of course I had done my usual preparations: reading the ICOMOS review and the nomination dossier, plus some additional Googling on certain subjects. But I had difficulty to grasp what this WHS exactly involves. What will follow is a reconstruction that hopefully will provide a starting point for future WH travellers.

First of all, this is a linear WHS. It covers the flow of the water downhill via two rivers and a lake, plus the railway tracks and the land in between that run parallel to the water. The core zone is 93km in length, and …

During late April and early May I travelled for just over 2 weeks in Azerbaijan and Northern Iran. With this trip I may have definitely earned my place on the domestic security watchlist (googling my head off about Shia Islam) & given up an easy visit to the USA for 5 years (because I ticked off Iraq, Sudan and now Iran from the new Axis of Evil-list in the past 2 years). But it was all worth it: it opened up a whole new part of the world for me with its own pecularities. And that is what travel is all about.

Martyr portrait in the streets of Iran

1. Be prepared for some serious personality cults

In Azerbaijan this veneration is limited to one person: Heydar Aliyev , founding father of the current independent republic and Soviet Politburo member before that. His son has been in power for the last 13 years, but he is much less charismatic and seldom portrayed. Iran’s streets on the other hand show a whole pantheon of depicted persons. The combined pictures of Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei are the most frequently seen. But the main streets of all towns are also aligned with endless …

Golestan Palace is the most recent construction on the timeline of Iranian WHS, dating from the 19th century Qajar dynasty. It also is possibly the only real attraction of Tehran - a metropolis of 10 to 15 million inhabitants. Because of its location in the capital’s city center, it is the most visited Iranian WHS among our community after the ones in Esfahan. Still this results in only a meagre 696th spot overall.

Edifice of the Sun

Despite its relative fame, the palace is not so easy to find for an individual visitor. It lies just off a main boulevard, and is completely surrounded by much higher government buildings from the 1960s and 70s. The construction thereof by the government of the last Shah was made at the expense of older buildings belonging to the Golestan Palace (such as a theater).

When you finally find yourself at the entrance gate, there’s a big decision to make: how many of the 8 buildings/museums warrant a visit? Because on top of the 2x 150,000 Rial entrance fee to the grounds and the main buildings, there …