It wasn’t much to look at. Some concrete pillars, some buckled girders, some plastic sheeting. Beyond it, the compound was scruffy and dilapidated. Old women in trances lay on the …
Squiffy
Member since February 2018
#None 0 0
I can't believe I only discovered this site in 2018. I discovered the World Heritage List back in 2004 and it formed a major focus of my free time for a good decade or so. I never knew that there was such an active community of fellow like-minded nerds out here.
My visits have pretty much fallen off a cliff since 2015 as I have discovered there is a limit to what is responsible or feasible with a young family. Since my honeymoon I've only managed to visit three or four new sites (the 'maybe four' being Pont d'Arc where I visited the replica cave but didn't sneak into the actual inscribed area). So my reviews will be limited to newly-visited sites or ones I have previously visited but are lacking in reviews on the site.
And as my family grows up, hopefully I'll be able to drag them along as I recommence my quest ("Hey kids! Who wants to go and see some German Modernist housing estates?")
My most impressive site: Petra. Not very imaginative I know, but I just love ancient sites
My proposal for a new site: I definitely believe there is scope for a transnational serial nomination of Brutalist buildings.
Recent Visits
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01Jan. 1, 2020Trakai Historical National Park
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02Jan. 1, 2020La Moneda Palace, Torres del Paine and Bernardo O'Higgins National P
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02Jan. 1, 2020Extension of Prague WHS, The Karlstejn Castle
Top 10 Missing
Completed Countries
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About Squiffy
- First name
- Squiffy
- Member since
- February 2018
- Country of Origin
- None
Visits
- Rank
- #None
- WHS
- 0
- Tentative Sites
- 0
Website Participation
- Reviews
- 37
-
Ratings
Ratings
World Heritage Sites
- Petra 5.0
- Bwindi Impenetrable National Park 5.0
- Damascus 5.0
- Palmyra 4.5
- Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles 4.5
- Medina of Fez 4.5
- Serengeti 4.5
- Te Wahipounamu 4.5
- Iguazu National Park 4.5
- Ironbridge Gorge 4.0
- Wadi Rum 4.0
- Hierapolis-Pamukkale 4.0
- Los Glaciares 4.0
- Göreme NP and Cappadocia 4.0
- Nasca Lines 4.0
- Aleppo 4.0
- Decorated cave of Pont d'Arc 4.0
- Archaeological Site of Delphi 4.0
- Himeji-jo 4.0
- Crac des Chevaliers 4.0
- Ngorongoro 4.0
- Edinburgh 4.0
- Iguacu 3.5
- Saint Catherine Area 3.5
- Stone Town of Zanzibar 3.5
- Derwent Valley Mills 3.5
- Vicenza and the Palladian Villas 3.0
- Kew Gardens 3.0
- Bosra 3.0
- Novgorod 3.0
- Tiwanaku 3.0
- Valparaiso 3.0
- Kii Mountain Range 3.0
- Epidaurus 3.0
- Monticello 3.0
- Gwynedd Castles 3.0
- Amphitheater of El Jem 3.0
- Painted Churches in the Troödos Region 3.0
- Studley Royal Park 3.0
- Arequipa 3.0
- Itsukushima Shrine 3.0
- Orange 3.0
- Blenheim Palace 3.0
- Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios 2.5
- Kunta Kinteh Island 2.5
- Blaenavon Industrial Landscape 2.5
- Ksar of Aït Ben Haddou 2.5
- Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal 2.5
- Dorset and East Devon Coast 2.5
- Kilimanjaro National Park 2.5
- Um er-Rasas 2.5
- Qhapaq Ñan 2.5
- Quseir Amra 2.5
- Paphos 2.5
- Nessebar 2.5
- Villa d'Este 2.5
- Pienza 2.5
- Villa Adriana (Tivoli) 2.5
- Medina of Essaouira 2.5
- Volubilis 2.5
- Forth Bridge 2.5
- Carthage 2.0
- Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape 2.0
- Saltaire 2.0
- Curonian Spit 2.0
- Tombs of Buganda Kings 2.0
- Choirokoitia 2.0
- Kalwaria Zebrzydowska 2.0
- Horyu-ji Area 2.0
- Meknes 2.0
- Val d'Orcia 2.0
- Colonia del Sacramento 2.0
- Genbaku Dome 2.0
- Jodrell Bank Observatory 2.0
- Holasovice 2.0
- Corfu 2.0
- Durham Castle and Cathedral 2.0
- The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales 2.0
- New Lanark 1.5
- Kernavė 1.5
- Saloum Delta 1.0
- Mazagan 1.0
- Lower German Limes 0.5
Tentative Sites
- City of York
- Pharaonic temples in Upper Egypt
- D-Day Landing Beaches, Normandy, 1944
- Ellis Island
- Torres del Paine and Bernardo O'Higgins National P
- Minoan Palatial Centres
- Lake Titicaca
- Massif du Mont Blanc
- Dahshour
- Gorge of Samaria National Park
- The Karlstejn Castle
- Central Park
- Birkenhead Park
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece
- Sarajevo
- Trakai Historical National Park
- La Moneda Palace
- Knights Fortifications around the Harbours of Malt
- Dahab
- Mount Vernon
- East Atlantic Flyway
- Balaton Uplands Cultural Landscape
- Fortress of Spinalonga
- Les passages de Bruxelles
- Casablanca
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Pombaline Lisbon
- Ancient Greek Theatres
- 83 28
- Photos
- N/A
- Locations
- N/A
- Zones
- N/A
Reviews by Squiffy
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Bwindi Impenetrable National … (Inscribed)
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
There’s a reason the film wasn’t called Gorillas in the Dazzling Sunshine. My first view of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest was of a wall of foliage climbing the valley wall …
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Squiffy 07/09/19
Stone Town of Zanzibar (Inscribed)
Stone Town of Zanzibar
We arrived in Zanzibar late at night. Exhausted, I set the alarm, assuming that – unlike on the savannah – there would be no dawn chorus. Incorrect. It just would …
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Squiffy 26/08/19
Kilimanjaro National Park (Inscribed)
Kilimanjaro National Park
The white-necked raven eyed us beadily. It was not an attractive bird. Its feathers were scruffy and its heavy beak was all too obviously designed for scavenging on carcasses. All …
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Squiffy 24/08/19
Ngorongoro (Inscribed)
Ngorongoro
The giraffes stared down at us. We stared up at them. Animals that had seemed gentle and almost comic from a vehicle were much more imposing when viewed from on …
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Squiffy 20/08/19
Serengeti (Inscribed)
Serengeti
The buffalo were nervous. Their ears twitched as they shifted uncomfortably. Visibly reaching a collective decision, they turned and started to walk away from our vantage point. It was at …
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Squiffy 19/08/19
Crac des Chevaliers (Inscribed)
Crac des Chevaliers
I squeezed my way out of the tiny van. The last section of the cramped ride had been the worst, with the van straining in first gear up a seemingly …
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Squiffy 03/08/19
Aleppo (Inscribed)
Aleppo
Late afternoon, the first day of Ramadan, and the heat was intense. It was a blessed relief to duck into the shade of the Souq al-Attarine. The brickwork radiated coolness. …
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Squiffy 02/08/19
Damascus (Inscribed)
Damascus
Damascus is a city of stories and a city of story-tellers. I met the first on the plane, somewhere over Germany. His name, he told me, was Anwar. His little …
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Squiffy 01/08/19
Bosra (Inscribed)
Bosra
The old sunken roadway still held its north-south bearing. The stubby remains of columns lined my way to left and right as I walked, my feet kicking up puffs of …
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Squiffy 31/07/19
Palmyra (Inscribed)
Palmyra
The sun was already setting. In all likelihood I had arrived too late. But I climbed, regardless. The road wound around the hill and up it I ran. Loose stones …
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Squiffy 30/07/19
Te Wahipounamu (Inscribed)
Te Wahipounamu
The incessant rain dripped from my sunhat. My jeans were clinging clammily to my legs. My surroundings lay lost in the cloud banks that enveloped the little boat, creating an …
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Squiffy 05/06/19
Saltaire (Inscribed)
Saltaire
The sustain of the organ juddered to a halt as the hymn ended. The bare handful of worshippers in the Saltaire United Reformed Church lowered themselves back into their pews …
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Squiffy 01/06/19
Kew Gardens (Inscribed)
Kew Gardens
The last week of March and Spring had arrived in England as suddenly and as unexpectedly as it does every single year. People emerged, pale-skinned, from their houses, blinking in …
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Squiffy 23/04/19
Edinburgh (Inscribed)
Edinburgh
The first discarded leaves of autumn crunched underfoot where they lay scattered amongst the graves of Greyfriars Kirkyard. They served as a thematic link to the tombstones – proper 18th …
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Squiffy 04/10/18
Forth Bridge (Inscribed)
Forth Bridge
The spume sprayed high up over the bow of the Maid of the Forth as she cut through the giddy swells of an incoming tide. Ahead, the choppy grey water …
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Squiffy 01/10/18
Jodrell Bank Observatory (Inscribed)
Jodrell Bank Observatory
South of Manchester, looming over golden fields and wind-tossed oaks, the superstructure of Jodrell Bank’s Lovell radio telescope dazzled in the July sun. A local landmark, it is visible from …
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Squiffy 13/08/18
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