I love Paris. It is one of the first places that comes to my mind in the context of "there is no other place I'd rather be". We've been to …
Ilya Burlak
Member since January 2017
#305 177 30

I only started prioritizing visiting World Heritage sites a few years ago and with my limited US-based corporate-warrior time-off allocation and family obligations I can only add a handful to a dozen in any given year. Looking forward to visiting them all after I am able to retire...
Check out my website: http://www.burlaki.com
Recent Visits
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20Dec. 4, 2024Hollókö, Pannonhalma
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50May 14, 2024Arequipa, Cuzco, Lima, Machu Picchu, Qhapaq Ñan
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1700May 14, 2024Acropolis, Agrigento, Albi, Alcala de Henares, Alto Douro ...
Top 10 Missing
Completed Countries
About Ilya Burlak
- First name
- Ilya
- Member since
- January 2017
- Country of Origin
- None
Visits
- Rank
- #305
- WHS
- 177
- Tentative Sites
- 30
Website Participation
- Reviews
- 119
-
Ratings
Ratings
World Heritage Sites
- Palau de la Musica Catalana & Hospital de Sant Pau 5.0
- Venice and its Lagoon 5.0
- Kremlin and Red Square 5.0
- St. Petersburg 5.0
- Cordoba 5.0
- Granada 5.0
- Siena 5.0
- Segovia 5.0
- Works of Antoni Gaudí 5.0
- Petra 5.0
- Wadi Rum 5.0
- Vienna 5.0
- Brugge 5.0
- Amsterdam Canal Ring 5.0
- Loire Valley 5.0
- West Norwegian Fjords 5.0
- Costiera Amalfitana 5.0
- Paris, Banks of the Seine 5.0
- Florence 5.0
- Prague 5.0
- Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands 5.0
- Ravenna 5.0
- Rome 5.0
- Assisi 4.5
- Oporto 4.5
- Kraków 4.5
- Sintra 4.5
- Istanbul 4.5
- Potsdam 4.5
- Acropolis 4.5
- Versailles 4.5
- Piazza del Duomo (Pisa) 4.5
- Villa Romana del Casale 4.5
- San Gimignano 4.5
- Vatican City 4.5
- Grand Place, Brussels 4.5
- Bryggen 4.5
- Stonehenge 4.5
- Pompei 4.5
- Seville 4.5
- Toledo 4.5
- Albi 4.0
- Monastery of Alcobaça 4.0
- Monastery of Batalha 4.0
- Kinderdijk 4.0
- Rietveld Schröderhuis 4.0
- Delos 4.0
- Urbino 4.0
- Brú na Bóinne 4.0
- Tikal National Park 4.0
- Verona 4.0
- Vicenza and the Palladian Villas 4.0
- Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles 4.0
- Mount Etna 4.0
- Drottningholm 4.0
- L'viv 4.0
- Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra 4.0
- Avignon 4.0
- Roskilde Cathedral 4.0
- Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro 4.0
- Chichen-Itza 4.0
- Budapest 4.0
- Cologne Cathedral 4.0
- Upper Middle Rhine Valley 4.0
- Machu Picchu 4.0
- Edinburgh 4.0
- Giant's Causeway 4.0
- Gwynedd Castles 4.0
- Old City of Jerusalem 4.0
- Botanical Garden, Padua 4.0
- Dubrovnik 4.0
- Tower of London 4.0
- Westminster 4.0
- Split 4.0
- Mostar 4.0
- Alto Douro 4.0
- Chartres Cathedral 4.0
- Schönbrunn 4.0
- Convent of Christ in Tomar 4.0
- Tarraco 3.5
- Arles 3.5
- Pont du Gard 3.5
- El Escurial 3.5
- Fortified City of Carcassonne 3.5
- City of Bath 3.5
- Graz 3.5
- Old City of Berne 3.5
- Kronborg Castle 3.5
- Ferrara 3.5
- Pienza 3.5
- Villa d'Este 3.5
- Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines 3.5
- Trinity Sergius Lavra 3.5
- Québec 3.5
- La Fortaleza and San Juan 3.5
- Archaeological Site of Delphi 3.5
- Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios 3.5
- Mycenae and Tiryns 3.5
- Guimarães 3.5
- Kotor 3.5
- Bom Jesus do Monte 3.5
- Arab-Norman Palermo 3.5
- Val di Noto 3.5
- Su Nuraxi di Barumini 3.5
- Bursa and Cumalikizik 3.5
- Cuzco 3.5
- Belfries 3.0
- Maritime Greenwich 3.0
- Odesa 3.0
- Kew Gardens 3.0
- Belem 3.0
- Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin 3.0
- Vézère Valley 3.0
- Evora 3.0
- Masada 3.0
- Arequipa 3.0
- Great Spa Towns of Europe 3.0
- The Porticoes of Bologna 3.0
- Reims 3.0
- Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings 3.0
- Hollókö 3.0
- Alcala de Henares 3.0
- Agrigento 3.0
- Syracuse 3.0
- San Marino and Mount Titano 3.0
- University of Coimbra 3.0
- Lima 3.0
- Statue of Liberty 3.0
- Mantua and Sabbioneta 3.0
- Medici Villas and Gardens 3.0
- Canterbury 3.0
- Trogir 3.0
- Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal 3.0
- Strasbourg 3.0
- Modena 3.0
- Fortifications of Vauban 3.0
- Incense Route of the Negev 3.0
- Val d'Orcia 3.0
- Skogskyrkogarden 2.5
- Belize Barrier Reef 2.5
- Residences of the Royal House of Savoy 2.5
- Santa Maria delle Grazie 2.5
- Venetian Works of Defence 2.5
- Beemster Polder 2.5
- Major Town Houses 2.5
- Semmering Railway 2.5
- Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley 2.5
- Independence Hall 2.5
- New Lanark 2.5
- Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik 2.5
- Biblical Tells 2.5
- Old City of Acre 2.5
- Wadden Sea 2.5
- Necropolis of Bet She'arim 2.5
- Bethlehem 2.5
- Poblet Monastery 2.5
- Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France 2.5
- Panamá 2.5
- Novodevichy Convent 2.5
- Neolithic Orkney 2.5
- Pannonhalma 2.5
- Forth Bridge 2.5
- The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier 2.5
- Schokland 2.5
- Dutch Water Defence Lines 2.0
- Stećci 2.0
- The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales 2.0
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire 2.0
- Nice 2.0
- Canal du Midi 2.0
- White City of Tel-Aviv 2.0
- Van Nellefabriek 1.5
- Bahá’i Holy Places 1.5
- Mount Carmel Caves 1.0
- Stoclet House 1.0
- Qhapaq Ñan 1.0
- Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin 1.0
Tentative Sites
- Centre ancien de Sarlat
- Minoan Palatial Centres
- Volterra
- The Palaces of King Ludwig II
- Zadar - Episcopal complex
- Orvieto
- Ellis Island
- Central Park
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Jerusalem
- Nuruosmaniye Complex
- Early Synagogues in the Galilee
- Nuragic monuments of Sardinia
- Íznik
- Salt Mines of Maras
- Ripa Pannonica in Hungary
- Degania & Nahalal
- The Crusader Fortresses
- Royal Seats in Esztergom, Visegrád
- Ödön Lechner's independent pre-modern architecture
- Amalienborg and its district
- The Karlstejn Castle
- Les villes antiques de la Narbonnaise
- Stolac
- The archeological site of Tanais
- Pombaline Lisbon
- The network of fortresses of the seneschalty of Ca
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece
- Ancient Greek Theatres
- Mamayev Kurgan Memorial Complex
- Early Chicago Skyscrapers
- Caves of the Buda Thermal Karst System
- Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade
- Caesarea
- Civil Rights Movement Sites
- Makhteshim Country
- Ein Karem
- 177 37
- Photos
- N/A
- Locations
- N/A
- Zones
- N/A
Reviews by Ilya Burlak


Westminster (Inscribed)
Westminster
I've been to the Westminster Abbey for the first time as far back as 2000, and then at least a couple of times while living in London in the later …

Tower of London (Inscribed)
Tower of London
The Tower is awfully expensive and terribly overcrowded. There is hardly a better indicator of the worth of a tourist attraction visit than the economics of exorbitant entrance fees not …

Hollókö (Inscribed)
Hollókö
Visited in November of 2024. Something that is 300 years old and deliberately well-preserved always piques my interest, even if it has a reconstructed-for-museum-purposes feel. In any case, Hollókő is …

Royal Seats in Esztergom, Vis… (On tentative list)
Royal Seats in Esztergom, Visegrád
I visited Esztergom and its castle in November of 2024 on a day trip from Budapest by car. The direct driving distance between Budapest and Esztergom is a little bit …

Pannonhalma (Inscribed)
Pannonhalma
I visited Pannonhalma in November of 2024 by car from Budapest - the drive is about an hour and a half long. The only other visitors that I eventually saw …

Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (On tentative list)
Ripa Pannonica in Hungary
While in Budapest in November of 2024, I stopped by two of the locations of this serial submission.
Aquincum archaeological site marks the location of the capital of the …

Caves of the Buda Thermal Kar… (On tentative list)
Caves of the Buda Thermal Karst System
I visited Pál-völgyi Cave during my stay in Budapest in November 2024. I did not plan to see more than one cave in this serial submission, and based on my …

Ödön Lechner's independent pr… (On tentative list)
Ödön Lechner's independent pre-modern architecture
All of my research ahead of the trip to Budapest last November suggested that you cannot visit either the Postal Saving Bank or the State Geological Institute. The Museum of …

Budapest (Inscribed)
Budapest
Visited in November 2024, fifteen years-plus since the first visit.
I love how impressive examples of Art Nouveau and Art Deco are found on practically every block in Central …

Qhapaq Ñan (Inscribed)
Qhapaq Ñan
This hardly qualifies as a review, since my experience with Qhapaq Ñan is limited to the central Cuzco in May of 2024. But since this experience contains a couple of …

Cuzco (Inscribed)
Cuzco
I visited Cuzco in May of 2024. Echoing the previous reviewers, it is a lovely living town with a visible exceptional blend of pre-Columbian and Colonial design, boasting a number …

Salt Mines of Maras (On tentative list)
Salt Mines of Maras
Possibly because I have never toured a salt flats site before, Maras saltineras impressed me a lot. The deceptive simplicity of the process, coupled with the visuals of hundreds - …

Machu Picchu (Inscribed)
Machu Picchu
I visited Machu Picchu in May of 2024. I suspect it is one of the most obvious bucket-list destinations for anyone who's ever been bitten by the travel bug, so …

Arequipa (Inscribed)
Arequipa
I visited Arequipa in May of 2024, possibly very close to the time that Dennis was there as well, and truth be told, I have little to add to his …

Lima (Inscribed)
Lima
My trip to Peru in May 2024 had two full-day bookends in Lima, which gave me plenty of time to explore the historic center. I share the opinion that you …

Belize Barrier Reef (Inscribed)
Belize Barrier Reef
I visited the South Water Caye component in December of 2023. In line with most of the reviews below, I am not a diver, not an underwater photographer, and at …

Tikal National Park (Inscribed)
Tikal National Park
I visited Tikal in December of 2023 on a day trip from Western Belize. Echoing the past reviewers, the huge site well deserves various superlatives. The Grand Plaza is the …

Trading Posts and Fortificati… (On tentative list)
Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade
Only Yoros Castle and Galata Tower were included on my itinerary of Istanbul and Marmara in October of 2023. Furthermore, although I stayed literally around the corner from Galata Tower, …

Bursa and Cumalikizik (Inscribed)
Bursa and Cumalikizik
In October of 2023, on a brief road trip from Istanbul, I spent an afternoon and stayed overnight in Bursa, while also visiting Cumalıkızık the next morning.
My time …