The visit to this WHS left me with mixed impressions and I was unsure how to rate this WHS. The Palmeral has an impressive size, with the core zone covering 144 hectares. It is unique in Europe and "a remarkable example of the transference of a characteristic landscape from one culture and continent to another" (quoted from the justification criterion ii). However, the original layout as an agricultural landscape is no longer visible in large parts of the inscribed area.

The palm groves (huertos) were planted in the 10th century when the region, named Al-Andalus, was under Muslim rule. The Palmeral saw its greatest extension at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. Since then, the economic importance of date cultivation has declined, industrialisation and increasing urban sprawl have severely affected the agricultural landscape. New roads and railway lines have dissected the formerly contiguous area. Hotels, residential buildings, schools and other public facilities have been built in some of the abandoned huertos. Even a railway station with its large car park is part of the core zone. As a result, the original alignment of the palm trees in a grid-pattern along the irrigation canals has often been destroyed. The intention was to preserve the palm trees, not the agrosystem of the huertos. 
This can best be seen in the Municipal Park. A beautiful park with all the usual facilities and of course full of palm trees, but that is the only difference to similar parks in other cities. The botanical garden Huerto del Cura is also beautiful and worth a visit. But neither has anything to do with the layout of the original agricultural landscape, which, together with the irrigation system, makes up the OUV of this site. Plans to preserve and reconstruct the original state only began at the end of the 20th century, especially after the inscription in 2000.

But of course there are also huertos that have been preserved in such a way that you can recognise their agricultural function. The best examples can be found along the Camino Almanzana in the southern part of the core zone: Huerto de Almazara, Huerto de Los Pontos and Huerto de Rogeta. The Huerto de Almanzana was recently renovated, the walls have been renewed and the irrigation canals are working. In the neighbouring Huerto de los Pontos, restoration work is still underway but was almost completed when I visited in March 2024. A typical rural farmhouse built in 1900 can be visited there (open on  weekends, free entry). The Huerto de Rogeta is still waiting for some maintenance. Unfortunately, many corners here are dirty, with beer cans and plastic rubbish lying around, and not just recently. More regular cleaning would certainly be advisable here. In this neighbourhood you will also find some special palm trees, such as the almost horizontally leaning La Pipa Real (in the Huerto de Almanzana) or La Pipa de Sempere (in the homonymous huerto, photo).
The Huerto de la Torre in the north of the city is also largely preserved in its original layout. The Torre de Vaillo there is open to visitors at weekends. And I would also recommend a visit to the Palm Grove Museum. The tools and clothing of the palm workers are on display, but the museum mainly consists of information boards from which you can learn all about the history of the palmeral, date cultivation and date harvest.

Despite my critical comments, I really enjoyed my visit to the Palmeral of Elche. I hope that the restoration of the preserved huertos will continue and that more of the privately owned properties can be made accessible to the public. If larger areas were preserved in their original agricultural layout, my rating would certainly be higher.