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Visited in August, 2018. It is quite strange that nobody has ever described the places so far as all they look as very popular tourist destinations. From UNESCO heritage point of view it is an idea to put together the efforts of France, Italy and Monaco and inscribe part of Mediterranean Alps in those countries. Initially I intended to see the area in Monaco but since on our map it is placed in the middle of the ocean I opt for something more conventional and decided for French Mercantour National Park.

Stayed overnight in small village of Fontan (Chambres d'Hôtes Le Terminus, 63 Avenue Bottone, family owned with restaurant, budget / midrange accommodation). If you have your own transport it may be a good starting point to start exploration of the area (at least the eastern part of Mercantour National Park, around Mount Bego) but you can choose any other place around Tende. As the Park is accessible by foot only you can leave a car in numerous parkings around local road D91. Main idea was to visit Vallée des Merveilles (alpine valley with prehistoric rock art). I start from the side road –exact google location 44°06'49.8"N 7°29'42.3"E. The place is within park borders, there are also tables with maps of the area and basic information about the park

From this point there is also a hiking path towards Valmasque river and via Lac Vert to Vallée des Merveilles. The path is well marked and at the beginning …

After the rather lifeless sites of Susa and Tchogah Zanbil which we explored under the scorching summer heat of 2017, Shushtar's watermills and waterfalls delivered a most refreshing sight. No other visitors while we were there, so we enjoyed it very much. Water pressure was not at its best, but it was still okay. The presence of some waterfowls was also a delight especially for bird lovers like us. Two adjacent components of this WHS are the Gargar canal and Gargar bridge-dam. A section of the Karun river -- believed to be one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden -- is part of the inscribed area and it is lined by the Band-e Mizan (in photo), Farangi tower, and Salasel castle. The river is eventually crossed by the ruins of impressively long Band-e Kaiser to the west (another interesting ancient Roman bridge in the region is Dezful bridge, the oldest functioning bridge in the world). I explored Salasel castle on my own and I was surprised to see that no one was manning the ruins at all, considering that it is the "most important" component of the entire water management system. Salasel hardly looks like a castle now, but the promontory offers great views of the river. Taking the advice of the previous review, we no longer took the effort in seeing the other components.  

Iran is far from being short of exemplary sites displaying mastery of water use and water control. It also has …

As the majority of other reviews described Nilgiri or Darjeeling mountain railways I will focus of Kalka Shimla Railway (KSR). Visited March, 2019, one of highlights of my Indian tour.

Initially I planned to go to that part of India as late as possible (there might have been still snow, especially in higher parts of Himalaya in March). While visiting Chandigarh I have found a railway office selling tickets for the train Kalka – Shimla. As far as I remember the trains for the next day were fully booked so I decided to go directly to the station and try to find something on the spot. Arrived to Kalka by bus from Chandigarh in the afternoon, reached Kalka railway station and found out that it is possible to buy an ordinary train ticket without the reservation for one of the trains next day (no guarantee of sitting place).

After buying a ticket I had some time to visit the station and surrounding area Kalka Station is currently divided between normal (modern) railway and historical part of narrow-gauge railway (UNESCO site). Most of the buildings and a lot of equipment are from the initial period of its construction. Comparing to other UNESCO railways (Rhaetian, Semmering) KSR use historical carriages (or at least looking as historical as they are quite basic).

Basic fact of the KSR (taken from UNESCO plaque located at the station): open in 1903, it represents an exceptional technical achievement in the development of the Himalayan …

For the simple reason that Macao and Melaka were able to get into the list seemingly smoothly (and it's really a mystery how they got in, especially if we apply to them the same standards we are using now in judging this tentative site), I see no reason in principle why Batavia needs to be left out. More importantly, Batavia was far more pivotal than the two during the age of trade, playing a most key role in the growth of the Dutch empire as a global superpower -- that's a fact that the East and West can easily agree on. It's history is monumental. While the accusation that "it lacks a cohesive area representing its golden age" is justified (it is not like Hoi An or Vigan, true), the evaluation is certainly not: Even with its stadthuis and Sunda Kepala area alone, an OUV can already be established (Bremen can attest to this approach). The fascination with the notion of "the more old buildings, the better" is getting more and more problematic and rather undynamic. That measure alone is not even a good yardstick in the valuation of heritage especially in Southeast Asian contexts.  

Another welcome alternative is to catapult Batavia/Old Jakarta to the spice trade route sites, a highly promising WHS nomination that Indonesia seems to be pursuing. This is an interesting website to explore: www.jalurrempah.kemdikbud.go.id 

I visited Batavia in Dec. 2018, and stayed at a hotel beside the old town square for two nights. Glodok …

Although I have a fondness for modern architecture, I was not very familiar with Álvaro Siza's work when it was included in Portugal's revised T-list in 2017. His style is often classified as Critical Regionalism and is characterised by clear forms, simplicity and the restriction to the essential elements. Alvar Aalto (on the Finnish T-list) also represents this style. The list of Siza's works is extensive and includes many private homes, social housing complexes, residential areas and public buildings such as banks or swimming pools. Later in his career, he also designed museums or Expo pavilions and other representative buildings. All these buildings are still used for their original purpose. Therefore, most of them are not open to the public, or only partially during regular opening hours.When I was preparing for my trip to Portugal in May 2018, I spent some time selecting the Siza buildings that would be worth visiting. The Unesco entry doesn't help. It is more a hymn of praise to Siza and his impact than a detailed description of his buildings. Only a few are mentioned, but it is obviously not yet decided which sites will be included in a nomination. Meltwaterfalls compiled a list of sites and coordinates here on the forum. That was very useful, so a belated thanks to him.

Álvaro Siza's buildings are spread all over Portugal, many of them are in Oporto and its surroundings. It is therefore easy to include some of these sites in your itinerary, especially …

Ivan and I have visited Pskov and seen some of its churches many years ago, before it was inscribed - with Ivan's Dad. We made this town on the Estonian borders an overnight stop when taking the car through the borders and back due to customs reasons. It was a lovely summer afternoon and evening, which added to the beauty and pleasure of the experience.

Since we haven’t been anywhere via an overnight train, one of our favourite modes of travel in Russia, in a long time, we decided to make a weekend trip out of revisiting Pskov and examining its sacral school of architecture a bit closer. And examine we did. Ten churches are inscribed and if you wish to make a proper visit out of it, I recommend marking all of them on a map. Most are a walking distance, except for the Church of Svyatitel Nikolay inside the Snetogorsky monastery. We were overchurched by the time we could visit it and skipped that one, along with Church Rozhdestva Ioanna Predtechi.  

If you had to pick one, I would recommend visiting the Cathedral at the Spaso-Pereobrazhensky Monastery, which has beautiful 12th century frescoes in s very good state. Entrance to the monastery complex is for free, but to get admitted to the Cathedral you have to visit the green “tickets shed” and buy your tickets there. I also very much enjoyed the double church of Pokrova i Rozhdestva ot Proloma. There is no entrace fee for …

I have visited quite a lot of Hindu temples over the years. For me, the Sun Temple is unique because it takes the form of a huge chariot (the surviving structure is still 30 meters high). The architectural style is typical for Odisha but different from those in other parts of India. Highlights are the stone carvings depicting Hindu deities, animals, and scenes of daily life (including some erotic ones). There are also 24 beautiful stone wheels, each about three meters high.

Around the main temple there are ruins of minor temples and buildings. But all in all, the area of the site is small. My visit took about an hour. There is also a museum run by the Archaeological Survey of India just north of the temple. Unfortunately, it was closed when I was in Konarak in 2016.

The Sun Temple is the biggest tourist attraction in Odisha, and it can get very crowded. The site is easy to reach by public transportation or taxi and can be done as a (half) day trip from Puri or Bhubaneswar. As with many World Heritage Sites in India, the entrance fee for foreigners is quite high but in my opinion worth it.

If you do not get enough of ancient temples, there are more in the area. The Ekamra Kshetra of Bhubaneswar (THWS) has dozens of temples in similar style, however none as impressive as the Sun Temple. Moreover, there is the Jagannath Temple in Puri, which is …

This is the 11th review and I'm probably the only one not rating this as 1 or 1 1/2 stars. Here is the problem: yes, Stoclet house is private, yes, it's CLOSED to anyone, but yes: it's great architecture. So a lot of visitors are expecting it to be open, expecting WHS to be accessible. In fact that is not true and was never a commitment by any state party, at least not when this was inscribed. A lot of houses in France and Belgium are private, even some Le Corbusier that were inscribed are not a "museum" for tourists. I once entered the courtyard of the "Fasanerie" in the Potsdam gardens and the lady made it sarcastically clear that "it's private". Mt Kalesh, Tibet, is not to be climbed and yet it will probably still be inscribed in the next decade or so. My point is, just because it's not accessible doesn't make it a horrible site.

In fact, I made it my goal, after reading all the other reviews, to take pictures from every angle possible, checking out each nook and cranny I can see from the outside. It made for a great visit, and yes of course I'm disappointed I can't go inside and see more of it. It would probably be a 5 star site for me! Because frankly if you can't see the outstanding architecture designs and choices from the outside alone then I think you are just not into architecture. I have seen …

Although this site already received a number of reviews, we will add another since it seems that none of the reviewers managed to get a look at the inside of the buildings.

In high season there are regular guided tours during which the buildings can be visited. In principle the tours are in Swedish, but the (very knowledgeable) guide also made the translation in English for us. The tours are in very small groups but since we visited the site in 2020 / covid times, we don’t know if this is always the case.

First an explanation of the history of the site (and the Swedish ironworks in general) is provided: the iron industry is what fueled Sweden’s development and power as from the 17th century. As mentioned by other reviewers, Engelsberg is located in the beautiful Västmanland province but the guide explained that during this period of iron production the place must have looked like hell (pollution, stench, clouds of smoke, …).

Afterwards, the smelting house – the building appearing on most pictures of Engelsberg – is visited. This structure actually consists of two parts: the roasting furnace (cf. picture) and the blast furnace. This last room also houses an ore crusher powered by a (still functioning) water wheel and a number of panels explaining the iron production. The second building which can be visited is the forge, located at the back of the site next to a lake and also powered by water wheels.

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Costa Rica’s Tentative List has only one entry, so for the second time I will review one of its FTWHS as they are the country’s best cultural sites. The Guayabo National Monument is its most important archaeological park. It comprises a settlement created by one of the local pre-Columbian chiefdoms; it flourished between 1000 - 1400 AD. Guayabo has been designated as International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark for its extensive roadways and water supply system.

I arrived by car from the north, from San José via road #230. It’s only 80km but it will take easily 2 hours because of the winding roads and pedestrians/cyclists on the road. The Guayabo National Monument is well signposted almost directly after you leave San José. 95% of the route is covered by an excellent asphalt road, but at the end there is an unpaved stretch of five kilometers. It’s not too bad, but I was happy that I rented a car with high clearance. On the way out by the way I took the southern loop (via route #415) and that one is fully paved.

Guayabo is quite a popular attraction with the locals, of which several dozens showed up on the Sunday that I visited. Payment at the entrance is by credit card only (5 USD for foreigners). The site is located in a nice patch of rainforest and I enjoyed being in the tropical nature again.

On the way to the partly excavated ruins of the settlement you’ll …

I wasn't aware I had visited this tentative site until the other review showed the picture of the temple and mentioned the exhibition hall. I would think the North Koreans want to inscribe the area due to the exhibition hall but then I read it is mainly about the mountains and the temples in the area. The reason I say this is because every tour will visit this hall and it is a huge propaganda piece. It is common for countries to do diplomatic gift exchanges, your own country will have a bulk load of gifts stored somewhere, but the DPRK makes a museum out of it and claim that they got these gifts because "they love us so much" and "they want to be our friends" (real quotes from the guides). You go figure.

Anyhow, we the group visited Pohyon Temple. It's not bad in any way, but it's like many generic temples I have seen in China and even South Korea. One shouldn't be surprised here but then why try to inscribe them? Apparently (sic) "Buddibism" properties, as the documentation calls it, are well presented in the area, and I'm interested in the "Archives of the 80,000 Wooden Blocks of the Complete Collection of Buddhist Sutras" that I never got to see. A proper hike into the mountains would help me establish and change my mind about this property being worthy of an inscription.

October 2020 - we drove south from Lisbon to Vila nova Milfontes. We took the occasion and took the most scenic roads through the cork forests of montado. We were driving for a few hours and all we saw was dry plantations with cork trees. I am positive, that if it should become a WHS we passed the core zone at some point or another. I would be in favor of seeing this tremendous amount of cork shaping the landscape being recognized. 

August 2020 - despite the Corona summer we decided to travel by bike and train to Denmark. We spent 3 days in Copenhagen. One morning we started at the Campground in Charlottenlund and drove the few km north to Jaegersborg Dyrehave. Once we crossed the wooden gates we were in a mystic beech forest with deer 🦌 running around freely. The open fields surrounding the Eremitage allow a wonderful view via this park onto the Baltic Sea. The Eremitage itself is a nice example for the hunting lodge architecture. The golf course is a pity on WHS ground though. We biked further north and eventually took the train to Kronborg.

The whole park is a mixture of Bialowieza, Potsdam and ancient beechtree forests. We enjoyed it a lot going by bike and can only support UNESCOs decision.

Aqueduto das Águas Livres - Aquaduct of Free Waters – what a great name for a city's water supply. However, its construction in the 18th century was financed by additional taxes, including taxes on olive oil and wine. The result is impressive, as you can see when approaching Lisbon airport from the southwest. To your left, you can spot the centrepiece of the aqueduct, the section that spans the Alcantara Valley (a few minutes earlier you have a nice view of the Belem WHS). But the Águas Livres Aqueduct is more than that, the entire canal system has a length of 58 kilometres.

The main section of the aqueduct begins in Belas, about halfway between Lisbon Airport and Sintra. Here, in Mãe d'Água Velha (photo), water from the springs was collected via a system of canals and further transported to Lisbon. The walled water pipeline and the air shafts are visible. Between Caneças and Belas, a visible part of the aqueduct runs a few kilometres along the N250 (or rather the N250 runs along the aqueduct). It was the first stop on my Portugal trip in May 2018 and only the first part of my visit to the Águas Livres Aqueduct.The Alcantara Aqueduct is the main point of interest of this TWHS. Without a doubt, it is impressive to look up from the bottom of the valley to the top of the pointed arches, the highest being 65 metres high. But the walk at the top of the aqueduct …

October 2020 - on a Monday morning we took the local train from Lisbon to Sintra and were astonished that despite COVID, there were a few more tourists than we anticipated. However, compared to normal years it must be extremely few. The trainride Leads through Lisbon’s suburbs, which are pretty ugly so nothing to see on the way, only a short glimpse at castle of Queluz.

Arriving in Sintra you can choose from many offered tours to one or many castles by buses or tuktuks. Stubborn as I am, we rejected and took a walk to the town center. It has an extreme rich vegetation and humid climate, so the Location was choosen wisely. The Castelo dos Mouros towers above the town and the red tower of the Palacio de Pena sticks above the mountain, reminiscing a lot Sarumans home from Lord of the rings. But also the town itself is like in a fairytale. After walking by the palacio de Sintra with the iconic chimneys, looks like a Whiskey malt kiln, we decided to visit Quinta da Regaleira. It is huge garden with a subtropical vegetation. Palmtrees, ferns, rhododendrons, just beautiful. But the many dwells, caves and fountains which we all wanted to see, make it a half day visit. The architects of this garden created a real masterpiece, but even more astonishing that most plants are only 30 years old, when the garden experienced massive restoration. At the end of the visit, we did not have power …

There is a lot and lot of history about Varaždin, but my reasoning for not recommending to inscribe this is because it's mainly regional interest and very much like other towns already on the world heritage list. It is definitely a worthy visit for a variety of reasons. The castle (pictured) is not that great but very popular. The Prassinsky-Sermage Palace is perhaps unique design, the old town in general is, like many old towns, a leisurely walk on cobble streets. Then you get the medieval churches and walls thrown in as a bonus for those who haven't seen enough in Europe already. Which is more or less my point as before: it's all sort of a mash-up of other European towns from various time periods, well preserved for sure, but nothing special enough to be considered WHS. Perhaps if it made a movie before a dozen other towns added themselves to the list it had a better chance.

Lubenice is a tiny village on the island of Cres, accessible by ferry only. Cres is also the name of the only town with restaurants and hotels where I met my Croatian BFF, who crazy enough thought it was a good idea to open up a vegetarian restaurant on the island. I don't know if she ever completed her dream but the reason I say it's crazy is because the island (and probably many islands in the area) are famous for delicious sheep meat (also olive oil). The sheep eat the healthy herbs and grass on the island and turn extra delicious - not that I tried.

But back to Lubenice. The morning after my stay in town I drove over to the village because there isn't that much to do on the island. At the time I wasn't aware of any tentative plans to put this into the world heritage list so I totally missed out on any "stone water reservoirs that are accessed by stone stairs" which are apparently so "monumental". The main reason I actually came here was because the sheep breeding museum is in the village, yes: shame on me. So my impression of the village is rather on the boring side, with a rather rundown village that managed to not collapse into the nearby sea or even worse: got overrun by sheep. I found a walk around the town more interesting than anything within its tiny area.

I visited Troy on the 18th of March 2020 and the place was almost empty. It was an emotional visit. I had been traveling for almost three years now and the evening before I had made a decision to return home. In the week before it had become clear that Turkey was not immune for covid19 either and nothing could be taken for granted anymore. Will the public transport still run? Will the site be open? Will they close the hotels? Troy would be the last visit on my travel and I did not know when I would be able to travel again.

Troy is not very big and I could imagine how different it would be full of tour groups and tourists, but today I could imagine myself a Schliemann, as if discovering the place for the first time. I felt sad that all this beauty would be closed soon for an undetermined period of time. Troy as a civilization was sacked many times but our civilization nowadays is so rich and sophisticated that we are able to open this history to anyone who is interested in it, and on this day it was very clear how extraordinary this is.

The museum is magnificent too, it honors both the history of Troy and the Turkish national pride. The presentation is fresh and modern though in a few parts it felt the building is a bit too big for the exhibition.

I visited Pohyon temple and the Mt. Myohyang area during my North Korean tour in late 2017. As with all things while in the country, I had no control over what we were doing but as a main part of our itinerary on day 3 we drove to this area primarily to visit the International Friendship Exhibition Hall, tucked away in the mountainous area across the river from the temple. After a while of viewing the displays of gifts in a few rooms (some of the gifts were impressive but most seemed to be from Chinese companies (greasing the wheels of business?) or unheard of fringe communist groups in random countries whose membership probably doesn't reach triple digits...) we head over to the nearby Pohyon temple.

Unfortunately by that point it had started to rain and we were rushed around the grounds rather quickly with only the briefest of commentary. Not that I would know what to believe if they told me more. The area is scenic for sure and the temple grounds extensive and well kept/restored, after being bombed by the Americans during the Korean War, with many other small halls, gates and shrines scattered about. In any other situation I would have spent more time poking about or backtracking a bit once the rain eased up somewhat.

The guide claimed that there is freedom of religion in the country though I suspect their definition is much more limited compared to home and indeed there was nobody …

October 2020 - after our first breakfast in Lisbon we took the tram in the morning right tithe doors of the Jeronimo monastery. We were the only visitors so far, but the doors were about to open in 20 min. So we decided to use the time and walk up to the Magellan monument, from where you have a splendid view over the Golden Gate Bridge 😂, at least a very similar view as in San Francisco. We might as well visit the Torre de Belem, it is only a few hundred meters further walking along the Marina. A wonderful building which however appears a bit lost and is way smaller than you might imagine before visiting. We did not unter but had a small breakfast just in front. You can as well buy fresh pineapple juice. When we walked back to the monastery the line of visitors was already long. And we regret that we did not wait the 20 min to begin with. Safety measure for COVID: you had to buy your tickets at a slot machine and only 1 was working. So that took quite a while. We decided to wait in line and finally entered the monastery. Actually not that much to see inside. The cloisters, some fountains, many Manuelic elements. Our daughter enjoyed it a lot though and ran along each aisle and into each room. So in conclusion we were happy to visit. Of course we had some of the obligatory Pastels de Belem, …