Philipp Peterer

Switzerland \ Member since March 2010

#26 685 177

I started focusing my trips on WHS in 2008. Since I leave in Europe, I could greatly increase my count in the following years. Nowadays my yearly goal is to visit more sites than are added the same year.

My trips are usually rather spontaneous and I try to maximize the time I have available by adding as many WHS and TWHS as possible, preferably completing countries or regions in one visit. For efficiency, my preferred method of transport is the combination of airplane and rental car. I’ve been driving a car in more than 50 countries, including Lebanon or India.

A major obsession of mine is to visit WHS with good weather conditions. I move or cancel trips if the forecast is bad. I also have a “revisit needed” list and travel back to WHS, where I had, sometimes due to bad weather, an unsatisfying visit.

In the upcoming years, I will shift my focus to more exotic and harder to reach sites. I also plan to keep up travelling with those community members that became good friends. No better way to celebrate a milestone or finding a hidden TWHS after navigating your car through rice fields than with fellow enthusiasts.

My most impressive site: Machu Picchu

My proposal for a new site: Ancient Salamis (Northern Cyprus)

Recent Visits
  • 3
    0
    June 2, 2025
    Durmitor National Park, Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge, Vjetrenica Cave
  • 4
    0
    April 27, 2025
    Iguacu, Iguazu National Park, Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis, Jesuit Missions of Trinidad and Jesus
  • 5
    0
    April 14, 2025
    Baroque Churches, Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River, Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, Tubbataha Reefs, Vigan
>

About Philipp Peterer

First name
Philipp
Member since
March 2010
Country of Origin
Switzerland
Visits
Rank
#26
WHS
685
Tentative Sites
177
Website Participation
Reviews
91
Ratings

Ratings

World Heritage Sites
Tentative Sites
685 231
Photos
N/A
Locations
N/A
Zones
N/A

Reviews by Philipp Peterer

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Minoan Palatial Centres (Nominated)

Minoan Palatial Centres

I visited Knossos and Malia during my weekend on Crete. Just like any site covered by Solivagant, the info about OUV and history is already covered, so I focus on …

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Condominio theatres of Centra… (Nominated)

Condominio theatres of Central Italy

The historical theatres are currently scheduled for 2026, so it’s time for a deeper look. Here’s my “visitor” experience in 2025.

First of all, bad news for Tsunami and …

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Møns Klint (Nominated)

Møns Klint

Møns Klint claims its OUV from the glacial landscape formation and being part of one of the world's largest glaciotectonic complexes. But much more significant what is described as “scenic …

Jewish-Medieval heritage of Erfurt by Hubert

Jewish-Medieval heritage of E… (Inscribed)

Jewish-Medieval heritage of Erfurt

The site itself and its components have been covered extensively in the previous reviews. I will focus on the visitor experience in 2025.

All three components are right in …

Migratory Bird Sanctuaries China by Zoë Sheng

Migratory Bird Sanctuaries Ch… (Inscribed)

Migratory Bird Sanctuaries China

This is my second non-visit review within a few months. I really hope this is not becoming a regular thing. I tried to visit the Chongming Dongtan Bird Habitat. Strictly …

The Darb Zubaydah (Saudi) by Philipp Peterer

The Darb Zubaydah (Saudi) (On tentative list)

The Darb Zubaydah (Saudi)

Fayd is the most convenient location of this TWHS as its on route between Hail and Riyadh. Also an important one, as it’s halfway to Mecca from Kufa. So we …

Water Management in Saudi Arabia: The Ancient Dams by Philipp Peterer

Water Management in Saudi Ara… (On tentative list)

Water Management in Saudi Arabia: The Ancient Dams

The Saudi water management is mainly dams, but also a few wells. We found 2 out of 3 dams we planned to visit. The 2 locations we did not go …

The Rural Cultural Landscapes of Sarawat Mountains by Philipp Peterer

The Rural Cultural Landscapes… (On tentative list)

The Rural Cultural Landscapes of Sarawat Mountains

5 of the 7 proposed components are close to the mountain town of Abha (2270m). we covered 2 of them on the way to Rijal Almaa and of course Zee …

Prehistoric Stone Structures in Saudi Arabia by Philipp Peterer

Prehistoric Stone Structures … (On tentative list)

Prehistoric Stone Structures in Saudi Arabia

We visited the stone structures TWHS on our road trip around Saudi Arabia in 2024. We covered 2 of the 10 proposed locations and passed by several others.

Harrat …

Al-Faw by Philipp Peterer

Al-Faw (Inscribed)

Al-Faw

On our trip to Saudia Arabia we tried to visit Al-Faw in October 24 and did not succeed. The site is double fenced with the standard yellow ca. 3m fence …

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The Oil Industrial Heritage i… (On tentative list)

The Oil Industrial Heritage in Saudi Arabia

From the 5 locations proposed as Oil Heritage, only the Trans Arab Tapline is accessible. 

Well 7, KFUPM and Dhahran Camp are all within the Saudi Aramco Campus in …

Mozu-Furuichi Kofun by Philipp Peterer

Mozu-Furuichi Kofun (Inscribed)

Mozu-Furuichi Kofun

You can tick this site very easy, or you can go tryhard. The easy version would be to take the train from Osaka to Mikunigoaga station, cross the road and …

Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine by Philipp Peterer

Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine (Inscribed)

Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine

As all reviews so far have only covered Omori, which is for sure the most interesting part of this WHS, I will focus on the other components. I visited 13 …

Sado Island Gold Mines by Philipp Peterer

Sado Island Gold Mines (Inscribed)

Sado Island Gold Mines

I hadn’t planned in the Sado Mines for my trip to Japan. But then the site was inscribed during while I was in Osaka region and I could not resist …

Umm Al-Jimāl by Philipp Peterer

Umm Al-Jimāl (Inscribed)

Umm Al-Jimāl

I visited Umm al-Jimal by rental car from Amman on a trip in May 2019, that covered the northern WHS of Jordan. Access was easy, even though it is close …

Pretzien Weir by Philipp Peterer

Pretzien Weir (On tentative list)

Pretzien Weir

The Pretziener Weir is a 2 hour drive from Berlin Airport, in the middle of nowhere. There are a few WHS within reach, like Dessau, Wittenberg or Quedlinburg, so if …

Workers' Assembly Halls by Philipp Peterer

Workers' Assembly Halls (Part of Nomination)

Workers' Assembly Halls

After I had an outside view of the Worker’s Assembly Hall in Buenos Aires, I got the opportunity to visit the building with the same purpose in Copenhagen.

The …

Workers' Assembly Halls by Philipp Peterer

Workers' Assembly Halls (Part of Nomination)

Workers' Assembly Halls

I see a lot of potential in this nomination. The CTG is the biggest syndicate in Argentina, a country that loves (and is probably partially ruined by) syndicates. This topic …

ESMA Site Museum by Philipp Peterer

ESMA Site Museum (Inscribed)

ESMA Site Museum

Frederic and Joel covered the site pretty well, so I will try to add a few information from my side as the first reviewer after that visited the site after …

Saint Catherine Area by Philipp Peterer

Saint Catherine Area (Inscribed)

Saint Catherine Area

Most has been mentioned about the monastery itself, so I won’t go into details. According to their website, the monastery is closed on Friday and Sunday, so I picked Saturday …

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