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The Gonbad-e Qābus, meaning “Dome of Qābus,” was visited on Friday, 16 May 2014, on a three-day extension of a guided tour of Iran. It had been the subject of an art history master’s degree thesis in 1966, so there was a long term wish to visit what is said to be Earth’s tallest tower of unglazed, fired brick and one the the earliest Iranian monuments bearing its date and the name of the Ziyarid dynasty emir responsible for its construction.

The tower was first designated a protected monument under Iran’s Law for Protection of National Heritage in 1930. In 1975 it was cited by the Iranian Cultural, Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) as number 1097. In 2012, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the number, 1398.

Today, the tower sits off center atop an artificial hill measuring 10m in height in the center of the city of Gonbad-e Kāvus, located in Golestan province in northeastern Iran near the Turkmenistan border to the north and the Caspian Sea to the west. Originally the tower stood 3km from the ancient Ziyarid dynasty capital city of Gurgan which was destroyed in the 14th-15th centuries CE. Sitting in a park in the city which has grown up around it largely since the Revolution, the monument remains as the only remanent of the dynasty that one ruled most of northeastern Iran.

The inscription in Kufic style Arabic, built into the brick fabric of the tower and duplicated …

Yandang Mountains is awesome, you should go visit. End of review.

Oh, you expect me to write more? It has been a few years since my visit and I hadn't even noticed it was on the Tentative list without any review. The listing is a little old - clocking in at almost 20 years without any update, the official description gives you some idea of the place but is still not very good, and there seems to be no movement on this becoming a World Heritage site since then.

The main attraction are the rock formations. To the average person, and thus most tourists, there isn't much detail going into the rock formations type being rhyolitic volcanic rocks. In fact the description is very, very geeky and a turnoff to read. Cretaceous revived caldera, Cenozoic, acidic magmatism, oh my. In-between all that they do mention what you see: mountain & water in harmony, beautiful water landscapes, and I suppose no mountain in China would be a proper mountain if not for temples and thus propelling this into a natural/cultural mixed site.

Arriving by train you get off at the appropriately named Yandang station. It is still a bit off from the park entrance (sorry I don't remember how I got there, probably a taxi). Inside there are two variations of things to do: rafting, similar to Wuyishan, and hiking along the rocks. The former I found rather second rate and I threw in a picture into the …

Residence Ensemble Schwerin – Cultural Landscape of Romantic Historicism: The full name of the TWHS indicates that it is about more than the Schwerin Castle with its gardens. And Indeed, the description on the Unesco website mentions a number of other buildings, and this nomination website lists a total of 43 elements. Not only around the castle but also in the city centre and around the artificially Pfaffenteich (Priest's pond).

Two or three decades ago this site would certainly have been nominated as "Schwerin Castle and Gardens" with the focus on the architectural features of historicism. And most likely, they would have been successful and Schwerin would now be on the WH list. But today this category is over-represented, especially also in Germany. Thus, the nomination was extended to all preserved buildings from the 19th century, a "cultural landscape" was created and referred to as a "residence ensemble".Although I gave Schwerin a "thumbs down" because I think the WH list doesn't need more castles and parks, I have to admit that Schwerin is worth a visit. I visted Schwerin in August 2020 and really enjoyed my day strolling through the gardens and exploring the city centre.

The heart of Schwerin is the castle, its location on a small island on the shore of Lake Schwerin is really beautiful. Today the castle houses the parliament of the federal state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the castle museum. But on such a sunny, hot summer day I skipped the museum and preferred …

When I visited Olympia back in 2004, Bassae appeared too difficult to reach, so I just simply skipped it. Now finally, when Greece still appeared to be a nice place to avoid corona back in September 2020, I decided to go. It was my first time to visit a WHS in 7 months. 

But it was a long way from where I was. In order to enter Greece without quarantine or covid test, I, a non-EU citizen, traveled from my dacha in Ukraine first to Bulgaria (non-Schengen EU), second to Poland (Schengen EU) and then to Greece.

Once in Athens, you can take two connecting buses to Andritsaina, the base town for Bassae. The first one runs from the Kifisou bus station in Athens every morning at 9:30 to Megalopolis and the second one runs from Megalopolis to Andritsaina except Saturday. You should be there in about 3 1/2 hours. 

But I wanted to visit the town of Kalavryta in northern Peloponnesus first for some reason, so I decided to go to Andritsaina from Pyrgos. For this I just had to time myself to be in Pyrgos on Friday, as the direct bus from Pyrgos to Andritsaina departs at 6:00 only on Friday.

Once in Andritsaina around 8:00, I bought a cup of coffee and stored my luggage at Café Neio, which is right by the main but tiny square where the bus dropped me off. This café also sells bus tickets.

Several taxis were …

A shoutout to Martina to say "Hey, I visited your hometown", and I think you should be proud to able to call it home. In fact, Košice is a lovely town center. And for tourists: easy access from hotels, parking, shops, lovely gardens planted around the centre, fountain, a big Gothic cathedrals, many good bars and restaurants - my picture shows it just shows an ideal town. That's probably what the people who want to nominate this as world heritage had in mind too. Sorry, a little overeager. The whole core thing also doesn't seem unique enough and if it would be a front-runner for this concept in any way that would make it very, very niche. I'm guessing though, that it was not started in in Košice and either a similar style or taken from other countries (by crusaders?) that it was built this way.

Do visit Košice for it's a wonderful town but don't expect a world heritage site, ever.

October 2020 - after sleeping in a suburb at the beach we arrived in Porto early in the morning. We parked the camper on a guarded parking- recommended in Porto- next to Monastery of Serra do Pilar. It was very cloudy when we walked over the iconic steel bridge. compared to the rest of Portugal so far, Porto was comparably crowded for COVID-19 standards. In the First Café we had our mandatory Pastells breakfast and continued to the train station to visit the many azulejos. As the day was early we continued our walk through Passos Manuel along many nice Art Deco buildings and sneaked into some of the shops or Cafés. The majestic cafe and the many cinemas were stunning. Every second corner, someone roasted chestnuts. Obviously a specialty of the region. We walked up to the famous book shop Lello but were astonished about the long line of Harry Potter fans, despite Covid. Many other places reminded us of our England trip though, especially Liverpool. We continued to the older and more characteristic Ribeira with its cozy alleys and morbid charme. We met a few cats strolling around and had lunch in a non- tourist bistro. With a typical pork nuckle dish. The weather turned 180 sunshine no clouds and tshirt weather. Finally we reached the painted houses along the Douro crossed the river, I still planned visiting portwine cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia. All in all a wonderful, too short day in Oporto. I would have …

The nomination of the Lower German Limes is scheduled for 2021. The German part of this TWHS includes 25 components, some of which have multiple locations. However, not much is left of the Limes section along the Lower Rhine today, only very few original remains are visible, most remains have been preserved underground. Hence it seems more than questionable whether the Lower German Limes could add anything significant to the already inscribed parts of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.

The Dutch nomination website provides the entire nomination dossier including maps. Based on this information, I have identified the following locations of the German part, where original remains are visible:

- Xanten Colonia Ulpia Traiana (CUT) (id 27), an archaeological park- Monheim Haus Bürgel (id 35), remains of the original walls are visible in walls of the later medieval and modern estate- Cologne Praetorium (id 37), the former Palace of the Roman govenor; remains are shown in an underground museum- Iversheim (id 43), remains of six lime kilns

I visited Xanten and Iversheim in summer 2020. The Praetorium in Cologne was closed due to construction works (until 2021), the area is being redesigned into an archaeological zone. And the Haus Bürgel didn’t seem worth the detour.

Xanten was once one of the largest and most important Roman settlements in the Germanic provinces. The archaeological park encompasses the boundaries of the historic Colonia Ulpia Traiana. It is a large but almost empty area. Near the main entrance, …

October 2020 - I am a big fan of modern architecture, inspired by Bauhaus and Corbusier. But this nomination might be a bit early for an architect who is still living and working. The Corbusier WHS is encompassing his most striking buildings in the world, this nomination whereas just lists almost anything Alvaro Siza built within Portugal. Anyway we enjoyed the few buildings we saw. The Portugal Pavillon of Expo 98 has a majestic roof reminiscing a cloth blanket. Unfortunately we missed the housing estate in Evora, which I regret. But we have also visited the bank in Vila Conde, the Piscinas de Mare, which were in renovation, and the Casa de Cha de Boa Nova. A beauty! As iconic as Frank Lloyd Wrights Falling Water. We spent the night on the parking lot next to the Teahouse and got to see it at three different times of day. Did not have the pocket money for dinner there though. This building will make it onto the list at some point. In whatever constellation.

In my quest to cover every Chinese TWHS in the list I...wait, what? Already 2(!) reviews for Quanzhou?! I guess I don't need to add more than a thumbs up.

All jokes aside, it's no surprise Quanzhou has already been visited and reviewed due to the inscription attempt in 2018. It was first recommended not be inscribed but then overturned to have another look in 2020 (delayed until 2021 due to Covid-19). Normally the politics behind these inscriptions are not pleasant to read about because it all deals with cooperations between countries, favours (in this case Tunisia writing a referendum to have it inscribed) and plain old ass kissing. To compare, Saudi Arabia had the same situation with Al-Ahsa Oasis and after debating and all sorts of haggling within the nation's representatives it was eventually inscribed as world heritage site (referendum by Kuwait). So as you can see these games played for an inscription are ruining what was once a prestigious site that experts review for including them alongside The Great Wall, Yellowstone etc. that dilutes it into "one more won't hurt" rather than "quality of quantity". If the list grows to 2,000 in my lifetime I may just look back and see that every dust particle is inscribed. HOWEVER, in this case the advisory board got it completely wrong. You can definitely see all three criteria it aims for an inscription and I am surprised that it was viewed so badly during the advisor's visit. For me this …

October 2020 - after a wonderful day in Guimaraes we continued our drive to the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus, the good old Jesus, arrived on the top and parked our camper almost next to the church. There is a small cafe Pavillon with a terrace overlooking braga, the cablecar and the numerous stairs. Good place for a second breakfast. Coffee and Pastells de Nata, of course. Meanwhile my daughter and me had to visit the 20-30 koys which were swimming in the nearby fountain. The view of braga was nice, but to have a good glimpse of the sanctuary, we had to take the stairs down, zigzag from one platform to the next. As a sensory scientist the fountains were of special interest for me. Looking up to the sanctuary it becomes comprehensible, why this is a WHS. Good thing though, when we reached the last stair, that there was a historic cable car operated with large amounts of water which brought us up again. A fun ride in this technical masterpiece for only 1,50€. Back on the hill we visited the Abbey (which is not particularly outstanding) the grotte and of course the devotionals Shop. And continued to still reach the sea again

Guanajuato is a fascinating city. I stopped there for three days during my Mexican trip in 2019. I was charmed by its eclectic architecture, narrow, steeply sloping streets and breathtaking views. The most remarkable buildings are la Basílica Colegiata de Nuestra Señora de Guanajuato, el Teatro Juárez and la Universidad de Guanajuato. After arriving late from Guadalajara the day before, I spent my second day in Guanajuato walking around the city from west to east, from the fascinating and very creepy Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato (I love creepy attractions, I'm quite the target audience for this museum, but I was still a bit disturbed) to the relaxing Presa De La Olla. As specified by other visitors, the view from the Monumento Al Pipila is well worth the climb. Your calves may resent it, but your eyes and heart will be delighted! I feel like I'm repeating myself in each of my reviews, but you have to get lost in this city, admire its colourful houses at random and face all its hills to grasp its charm and enjoy it to the fullest.

On my third and last day, I went to the heights of La Valenciana. As extraordinary as the heart of Guanajuato is, I was slightly disappointed by this area. It is true that the Templo de San Cayetano Confesor (La Valenciana Church) has richly gilded and decorated altars and its façade is pretty.However, I wanted to learn more about the mining history of the town …

Dislaimer: this Tentative WHS is ancient - hasn't been modified since 1996 and the data in their description is from the mid-80s. The main attraction of the lake, or rather Nature Reserve, are the migratory birds. They come in early December and stay until February. Well, this December there weren't really many to see. I am unsure they still come here. Yes, sure, maybe I came too early to judge but then I suppose the place is still not a good visit ANYTIME apart from January and February as you can read soon.

For starters the lake has been shrinking over the years. It could still lose the status of largest freshwater lake in China to Lake Tai. On a side note, the massive Qinghai Lake is not freshwater and the larger Xingkai Lake is shared with Russia so it "doesn't count" for the stats. Secondly, and I cannot confirm this, there are many labor camps around the lake. If true that would obviously be a bummer for WHS status. Even if it's not true, houses have been built around the lake that encroachment is a big issue now.

To visit the lake you have many options but the free ones would get you nothing. There is a famous bridge, for example, that you can drive through during wet season - cool? Maybe. I selected to visit the National Wetland Park - surely it would be the best bet! To get here you can take a bus to …

Kilimanjaro National Park is centered around Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Tanzania and in Africa at 19,341 ft / 5895 m. A dormant volcano (and the world's largest free-standing volcano), Kilimanjaro towers over an otherwise relatively flat area. The mountain is big enough to create its own weather patterns. When the mountain isn't covered in clouds, you get a stunning view of it from the nearest town, Moshi; though I've heard you can spend days in Moshi without ever seeing it.

I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro via the Lemosho Route (8 day / 7 nights) in September 2020 on a private guided trip with a major outfitter. (Since it was during the pandemic, group tours were not an option, though I would have done one otherwise.) I also note that traveling during the pandemic likely led to a special, almost spiritual experience. There were only about ten people attempting to summit the day I did, and I had the summit to myself; in high season otherwise there could easily be 400 people summiting and crowds everywhere. The "climb" is more of a trek--there is no technical mountaineering, only a bit of rock scrambling in several places. Climbing it was a very special experience and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is in decent physical shape! 

Date of Visit:  September 2020

Rating: Five stars. A giant dormant volcano with five different ecosystems on its slopes, plus the opportunity for active outdoor adventure. What else could a …

October 2020 - this was my highlite whs on the Portugal trip. Guimareas is a wonderful, historic town with a very specific architecture. Many of the houses have tiled walls and characteristic wooden balconies. We parked next to the castle and toured through the city. Due to Covid, the town was probably not as packed as it is normally due to tourists combining it with Porto.The town has several sights, the medieval castle and the palacio ducal, which both have a very British character, the camara municipal with its big yard where children were playing, the Igreja e de Nossa Senhora da Consolação which stands on a roundabout but still is not loosing its charme, the Couro-zone where clothes were dyed and of course the main praca de São Tiago with the framework houses, the porticoes which lead you to further churches and squares. Somewhat like an ideal medieval town which you would build from Lego bricks. There are so many other things to visit but we had to find a laundry. In the evening hours we returned again, Guimareas turned into a Christmas market. Fairy lights on all the balconies painted the town into a cozy yellow. Just before closing we still had a Portwine in the wonderful Artdeco Milenial Cafe (very authentic). After this perfect sightseeing day, we fell asleep in our camper to continue to Braga next morning.

I arrived at Fetehpur Sikri at 7am, way too early that I had to wait for the ticket seller to come before I could go in. I rode on a bus from Agra, and asked the driver to drop me off at Fatehpur Sikri. From where I alighted, this WHS could already be sighted -- it only took me a leisurely 15-minute walk to get to the entrance. I passed through the defensive city wall and Agra Gate, and I also explored the ruins of a marketplace on the way. I had the palace grounds all to myself for at least 30 minutes before I was joined by a group of five local tourists; hence, I enjoyed walking around and getting into areas I might not even had been supposed to be entering. Indeed, Fatehpur Sikri is not short of the "chattris" it is quite known for and almost everything is made of red sandstone! I spent some time sitting at a nice spot by the western edge, looking out towards the Elephant Tower. There were peacocks and locals going about their morning routines on that side, too.

When I entered the Jama Masjid, I was surprised at the sudden change of scene: while the palace grounds were almost empty, the mosque was already busy with tourists and devotees alike. Aside from being an active place of worship, the mosque does not require any entrance fee to get in (back in 2015, it was 250 rupees to get in …

Visited September 2018

There are many remains of Neolithic sites in Eastern Bulgaria, but this one in Stara Zagora is worth to be inscribed because it is so well preserved that even knowing nothing about what are you looking at, you can imagine how people used to live, let’s say, 8000 years ago. We know nothing about the origin of these people, we know nothing about their ethnicity, we do not know how they looked like, but in this small museum we learn a lot about their everyday life, about their homes, furniture and utensils, food preparation etc.

The site is so well preserved because it was burnt, ‘baked’, like in the firing process of making ceramics – and those who lived there left everything behind. Then the sand covered the remains, few layers of sand, and it helped to protect the structure of the houses and what was inside. Till 1970’s when there were some construction works on the premises of Medicine Institute. And now we can see – as it is stated in the brochure about these two Neolithic houses – ruins of the two of the oldest surviving home buildings in the world. Around them the Neolithic Dwelling Museum was built and opened in 1979. On the ground floor of the museum we can see these two lodgings of different size, almost rectangular, consisting one room each, and a shared common place around them; they were located on the axis directed north-south; the entrance to …

October 2020 - our original plan was to discover the alto Douro by train. We arrived at pocinho station but that day no train would go. No trainride, no rockart tours, the region is modest in its beauty, so we decided to continue by camper. The road to pinhao is extremely windy, we had to make some stops especially for our daughter to t***w up. Close to arriving at the Douro, the slopes were stuffed with wineyards. And in between sign of famous Portwine producers. We were a few weeks to late, most grapes had been harvested. But the scenery along the Douro was beautiful. We made a short boattrip eastwards and got to see the unspoiled part of the wine valley. Regarding Pinhao, we expected a cozy little village in between vinyards. That was not really the case, but the Quinta da Foz at the river offers nice atmosphere and wine. Next day we drove westwards along the river. Way too populated, lack of historic sights, rather a downer. To experience Portwine, Villa Nova de Gaia might be the more interesting Spot. 

The beech forests of Germany are a continuous running gag in my family. Both my father and my uncle pick this site when they want to point out that something is fishy about world heritage sites. Now, you need to know that neither of them knows much about world heritage sites. But they do know a bit of beech trees, having run a tree nursery specialising in German beech trees for most of their adult lives. And they aren't really impressed about this site, at least the German component. And I think I get why.

The designated areas in Germany are all National Parks, but .. Germany is densely populated. You simply won't find huge, rugged areas of virgin forests in Germany. It's limited patches of forest, intercut by roads or trails and close to villages. Civilization is never that far off and it makes it hard to appreciate the OUV of the German component.

So far, I have managed to see three forests in Germany: Kellerwald, Hainisch and Jasmund. If I was to pick, I would single out Jasmund for the best visiting experience due the iconic scenery of Cape Arkona, the white cliffs of Rügen. Forest wise though, none of the national parks impressed me.

Getting There

The Kellerwald visitor center is accessible via rail from Vöhl-Herzhausen. Major town nearby is Kassel.

From Bad Langensalza or Eisenach, you can take an infrequent bus to the Hainich visitor center. Next major town nearby is …

There are good reasons why these two Hanseatic towns were inscribed together as one World Heritage Site. They have a lot in common: a similar medieval layout, churches in Brick Gothic architecture as their main landmarks, well-preserved gabled houses dating from the time of the Hanseatic League and traces from the period of Swedish rule.In 2002, when Stralsund and Wismar were inscribed, the Hanseatic League was already well represented on the WH list. And even Germany had a similar WHS with Lübeck, inscribed as early as 1987. So, nothing outstanding about Stralsund and Wismar? Indeed, if you have already visited other Hanseatic towns, Riga for example, you may feel that this WHS has nothing to offer that you have not seen elsewhere, and probably even better. Lübeck has the Holstentor, but neither Stralsund nor Wismar have such a distinctive and unique building. On a positive note: the medieval townscape has largely been preserved in both cities, there are hardly any ugly modern additions. Again, Lübeck as a counterexample.

The old town of Stralsund is located on an island. From the tower of St. Mary's Church, you have a beautiful view of the historic town center, the sea and the island of Rügen.The best moment in Stralsund was a coffee in the sun on the Old Market Square with a view to the façade of the Town Hall and the towers of the St. Nikolas’ Church, and the gabled houses in my back.

In Wismar there is also a …

October 2020 - This was the most disappointing Whs on our trip, certainly by own fault. We have not arranged anything, since we spent the 2 days before arriving here in the Serra de Estrella, without recharging mobiles. We arrived at the museum, which is where most tourist stop only and visited the exposition. No guided tours were available for that day, next day only afternoon. We had seen Rock carvings before e.g Valcamonica, and they do not belong to my favorites anyway. We drove down to the Coa and could have a closer look on the most northern core Zone. For my standards that’s is enough of an visit to check this site. Please don‘t blame me. I will leave no rating since I cannot evaluate the essence of the OUV. Our schedule was tight, so we continued to Pinhao still that day.