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WHC 2016: Ani Cultural Landscape

Site – November 13, 2015 by Els Slots
Turkey has nominated Ani Cultural Landscape as one of its two candidates for the 2016 WHC session, which it will host in Istanbul next July. Ani comprises the ruins of a medieval Armenian city. It lies in the far east of Turkey, right at the border with Armenia. Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the Bagratid Armenian kingdom that covered much of present-day Armenia and eastern Turkey.
The church of St Gregory of Tigran Honents in Ani, in the year 1992
Considering the history between Turkey and Armenia, this is a controversial nomination. I won’t go into detail here about the current Turkish political scene and its complicated opinions on what happened in 1915 (you can have a look at Erdogan’s shifting points of view here ). But behind the scenes the acceptance of Ani as an important part of the heritage of this region has been in the making for almost 20 years. The site finally entered Turkey’s Tentative List in 2012. In their study US Cultural Diplomacy and Archaeology: Soft Power, Hard Heritage , Christina Luke and Morag M. Kersel argue that the placement …
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Sonian Forest’s Beech Cathedral

Site – November 7, 2015 by Els Slots

The Sonian Forest near Brussels is proposed as an extension to the Primeval Beech Forests of The Carpathians and ancient beech forests of Germany . If all goes well, this is scheduled to materialize in 2017. The extension proposal is a trans-border series consisting of 33 components, located in 11 State Parties: Albania, Slovenia, Romania, Italy, Poland, Austria (in the lead), Croatia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Spain and Belgium. This in addition to the current WHS that already covers 15 beech forests in Slovakia, Ukraine and Germany.

Creative welcome at Hoeilaart

The listed Primeval Beech Forests represent pure and mixed stands of European Beech in various environmental conditions. One wonders if so many more examples are really necessary. The nominating countries are serious about it though, and have developed a classification system defining Beech Forests of Regions (BFR) in Europe. Each BFR is characterized by specific climatic conditions and flora, and demonstrates an individual piece of history of the beech forests.

The Sonian Forest is the only remaining beech forest in the Atlantic climate zone. It marks the western limit of the species range in Europe. 74% of the forest area is covered with beech, part of the scattered remains of the …

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Tips for Travelling to Myanmar

Country – October 31, 2015 by Els Slots

In September and October I spent 2 weeks travelling around Myanmar. This destination was a last minute decision, as the group tour to Azerbaijan & Iran that I had planned for that time frame was cancelled. Somehow I had never been that interested in going to Myanmar: with only one WHS so far, the ‘return on investment’ didn’t seem worth it. Also finding the right season was always a puzzle: too many tourists during the high season (November-February), too hot or too wet outside that period. In the end it was a rewarding trip. Weather-wise it was fine, only maybe a bit too cloudy for excellent photos. Find below my Top Tips for Travelling to Myanmar as a World Heritage Traveller.

Slow train to Hsipaw

1. Allow as much time as you can

Myanmar isn’t a small country: it is larger than Italy & Germany combined (or for readers from the US: slightly smaller than Texas). Most roads aren’t in a great condition and you’ll have to share them with motorbikes, oxcarts and pedestrians. So any travel will be slow. The e-Visa that is available to most tourists will allow 28 days in the country. If you have that much …

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Ancient cities of Upper Myanmar

Site – October 24, 2015 by Els Slots
The impressively titled TWHS Ancient cities of Upper Myanmar comprises the former royal residences of Innwa, Amarapura, Sagaing, Mingun and Mandalay. They're located near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city. Except for Mingun, the cities served also as state capitals for periods between the 14th and 19th century after the demise of Bagan . The Burmese seem to be especially fond of switching their capitals , using over 20 of them since the year 849. The current one (since 2005) is the greenfield site of Naypyidaw .
Reconstruction of Mandalay Royal Palace
I stayed in Mandalay for 4 nights, and - though admittedly I edged out a day for visiting the Pyu City of Halin - that was even not enough to see these 'Ancient cities' properly. I spent one day cycling around Mandalay proper. It’s a bit of a mystery what would be included in a future nomination here. The Royal Palace is the major landmark of the city, but it is (a) a complete reconstruction and (b) used as a military base. The army probably is still convinced of the strategic value of the fortress walls and moat surrounding …
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Bagan Archaeological Zone

Site – October 17, 2015 by Els Slots
Bagan was a powerful kingdom from the 11th to the late 13th century: the empire stretched over almost all of what now is Myanmar. The remains of its ancient capital city comprise over 2,000 temples, monasteries and pagodas. They were constructed in a religious construction frenzy by Bagan’s rulers and wealthy subjects. Bagan at this time also became a center for religious study, attracting devotees from afar. Although it lost its prominence in the 14th century, the site was never abandoned and has stayed a pilgrimage destination throughout.
View from Dhamma-ya-za-ka Zedi
Nowadays Bagan is Myanmar’s tourist central, and it delivers proof that even the gentle Burmese can turn into annoying souvenir sellers & touts given a steady influx of wealthy tourists. I stayed in Bagan for 4 nights, using it also as a base for a side-trip to the wooden monasteries of Pakhangyi and Pakhannge . It was the end of the rainy season, and I experienced mostly partly cloudy weather during the day and a daily heavy downpour around 3.30 p.m.. I ‘did’ two longer trips of exploration among the monuments, once by mountainbike and the other …
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Konbaung Wooden Monasteries

Site – October 9, 2015 by Els Slots
The Konbaung Dynasty was the last Burmese monarchy before British colonial rule started in 1885. With their expansionist agenda they set the current borders for Myanmar. Since 1996 a group of 7 Wooden Monasteries from the Konbaung Period has been on Myanmar’s Tentative List. They are located in Ohn Don, Sala, Pakhangyi, Pakhannge, Legaing, Sagu and Mandalay – scattered roughly in the area between Mandalay and Bagan. In contrast to the earlier brick architecture of the Pyu and Bagan civilizations, these monasteries owe more to pre-Buddhist Southeast Asian house-building practices and beliefs than to Indian prototypes.
Shwe-Kyaung in Mandalay
Shwe-Kyaung in Mandalay was my first encounter with these teak wood monasteries. I had been cycling around town all morning without seeing many tourists, but this is a major sight well on the beaten track of every tour guide. There’s an entrance fee to this and all other landmarks of Mandalay (valid for 5 days), costing 10,000 kyat / 7 EUR. The building originally belonged to the royal palace and was intended as sleeping quarters for the king. After he died, the building was donated to a Buddhist monastery …
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WHS #587: Pyu City of Halin

Site – October 3, 2015 by Els Slots

Myanmar’s very first WHS came as a surprise in 2014: few will have visited one of the Pyu Ancient Cities before its inscription. History wise, it is not an illogical choice however. The Pyu were the first of the civilizations that settled along the Ayeyarwady River, in what is the heartland of current Myanmar. They started building city-states here from the 2nd century BC on. They came from the north (the Tibeto-Burman plateau or India) and brought Buddhism with them.

I'm a sucker for these kind of signs

None of the three Pyu cities Halin, Beikthano and Sri Ksetra lie close to the main tourist destinations in Myanmar. While I was staying in Mandalay, I hired a car plus driver and guide for the day and went for Halin. Though only 95 km, the trip took us 2.5 hours. We found our way out of the busy streets of Mandalay, and then passed the lovely Sagaing with its numerous gilded stupas. Afterwards it’s a long haul northwards in the direction of Shwebo. The guide had been there once before, but they do not make it …

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One of our Missing: Shwedagon Pagoda

Website – September 27, 2015 by Els Slots
When we were compiling our List of Missing Sites in 2014, two sites from Myanmar made it into the Top 20: Bagan and the Shwedagon Pagoda. The history of Bagan is known and it will be submitted again without a doubt in the coming years, but why isn’t the Shwedagon Pagoda even on Myanmar’s Tentative List? Could it be because it is an active religious site and they want to keep it sacred? Or is it too strongly connected with political activities such as the August 1988 call for democracy by Aung San Suu Kyi addressing 500,000 people there, or the uprise from monks in September 2007?
Glitzy model
I scheduled a visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda on my very first afternoon in Myanmar. I had arrived a bit later from Bangkok than anticipated, so I headed out there only at 4.30 p.m.. The site supposedly is on its best at dusk anyway. I entered via the western gate, after paying the 8000 kyat entrance fee for foreigners (about 5,60 EUR). This gate comes with escalator stairs, not a very usual sight in a temple complex but quite handy …
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WHS #586: Wachau

Site – September 19, 2015 by Els Slots
The Wachau is a riverine landscape in Northeast Austria. Here the Danube flows for 36km through a fertile valley, that has been used since the Middle Ages for growing apricots and grapes - yes, this is another viticulture WHS . Fortunately they have thrown in a number of palaces, castles and picturesque historic town centres to enhance the visitor experience. A wealth of individual monuments and places has been highlighted in the nomination file.
Schloss Schönbühel
I visited on a Sunday, and thought it would be a nice idea to start the day with a hike enjoying the river views. I parked my rental car in Schönbühel, a small town east of Melk. An oversized palace dominates its town center. It provided a tantalizing start, though you cannot get in because it's in private use. Just as in Neusiedl , which I visited the day before, cycling is very popular here: one can traverse the entire Danube valley on a smooth bike path. Unfortunately there is no separate trail for hikers, and there’s a lot of noise from car traffic on the parallel road. Hiking by far turned out …
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WHS #585: Neusiedlersee

Site – September 13, 2015 by Els Slots
The Neusiedlersee ( Fertö tó in Hungarian) is a saline lake about an hour east of Vienna. It’s on the WH List as a cultural landscape. “A combination of stockraising and fishing with viticulture beside a lake” seems to be its core value. This is a fairly well-visited site among WH travellers, and the general public also knows how to find it as shown by an annual visitor count of over 700,000. In preparation of my visit I tried to find some things to see or do that haven’t been described on this website before. I will leave the omnipresent vineyards for what they are, but focus on the reed and vernacular architecture.
Layers of reed, with some lake in between
I started my visit in the town of Mörbisch, at the west bank of the lake. The nomination file applauds its “characteristic oblong farmsteads and narrow lanes leading down to the Lake”. My car navigation however delivered me at a huge parking lot at the "Seebad" (Lakeside Resort), without anything particularly interesting to see en route. I had chosen this town mostly for its transport link to the …
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