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In July 2020 I visited two locations, close to the border with Portugal, out of the three that make up this peculiar tentative WHS, namely Fort de la Conception in Aldea del Obispo and Ciudad Rodrigo.

The title of this WHS would suggest an emphasis on the Romanesque elements which is precisely what you'll get when visiting Ciudad Rodrigo, which is also one of the Pueblos Mas Bonitos de España. From research over the internet, this is San Felices de los Gallegos' main tourist offer too (the third location of this tWHS).

However, the Fort de la Conception in Aldea del Obispo, is definitely the weakest link of this nomination as it would make more sense to have it included on the transnational tWHS of the Bulwarked Frontier Fortifications (indeed, it is included together with San Felices de los Gallegos and others on that nomination too!). Fort de la Conception is a star fortress built in the Vaubanesque style which lies opposite the Portuguese castle fortress of Almeida (more on this in a separate review). Unlike the fortifications in Almeida, the derelict ones in Aldea del Obispo were sold privately and renovated into a luxury hotel which opened in 2012. It reminded me of part of the fortifications in Terceira in the Azores which have been converted into a pousada of Angra do Heroismo.

That said, should Aldea del Obispo be excluded from this tWHS nomination, ideally with an updated and more concise name such as for …

Visited this amazing site in July 2020. We were part of probably the first organized tourist groups after removing regional Covid restrictions. Kamchatka is considered one of the most outstanding volcanic regions in the world and is also part of iconic highlights of Russia. It is still not possible to determine exact number of volcanoes on the peninsula; usually the sources indicate 29 active volcanos and approximately 300 dormant volcanos. From time to time devastating eruptions take place; the latest was in 1975-1976. However many active volcanos continue to eject ash with various level of density and are closely monitored scientifically. On average, there are 3-7 eruptions each year in Kamchatka.  

Kamchatka is larger than Germany and Benelux together, while its population is only 313 thousand people, including 180 thousand in Petropavlovsk and 20 thousand in closed city Viluchinsk, naval base of nuclear submarines. This results in extreme wilderness and remoteness of the region with very limited access to mobile network, internet, hotels and comfort in general. At least I finally learned how to set up tents. 

Our trip started with a two-day rafting down the River Bystraya. There is high probability to encounter bears on the shores and (which is much less funny) during night stays in tent camp, however this is largely unpredictable and depends on the season, last year a similar group spotted 92 bears in two days; while we noticed only one. Our guide luckily had Kamchatka husky dog called Sever, and it is …

The Icelanders keep on having difficulties to provide catchy names for (possible) WHS - the Torfajökull Volcanic System / Fjallabak Nature Reserve is just another example. I will just call it Fjallabak. “Landmannalaugar” may even be a better choice, as it is the best known and most spectacular part. The Torfajökull volcano created this colourful landscape with its rhyolitic lava flows.

With a "normal" 2WD car, almost the entire interior of Iceland is off-limits: the roads here are unpaved and you have to traverse a river every now and then. So I booked a super jeep tour to Landmannalaugar to still be able to see some of the inland and this TWHS. The drive out there from Reykjavik took about 3 hours. After entering Fjallabak we first held a short stop at Ljótipollur, a crater lake with red colored walls and bright green spots. It is filled by groundwater.

At Landmannalaugar we arrived in a sun-drenched valley where fellow tourists walked around in t-shirts and shorts. You really arrive to something here: it is perhaps the busiest place in all of Iceland! Dozens of cars were parked there and just as many tents were pinned on the rocky surface of the campsite.

There are 2 major things to do here: enjoy one of the geothermal hot pools or go for a walk. I choose the latter and followed our tour guide for a hike of about 2 hours. The trails are marked so it is quite easy. …

In July 2020 we took the “Island roundtrip” visiting all Iceland’s WHSs and TWHSs. The turf houses are the dominant part of the TWHSs because of its numbers, thus the turf houses were always on our minds in the trip.

The turf houses is a remnant from then viking age and where probably the building standard in northern Europe for some time. Eventually it is replaced by wooden houses, but probably is the lack of trees in Iceland made that difficult. Hence the technique has survived.

Between the 14 buildings enlisted in this TWHS there are a variable quality/standard/authenticy from house to house so each one needs a mini review:

1. Austur-Meðalholt…is a museum with opening hours until 6 p.m, but when we arrived on a Sunday at 5:15 it was closed. We could still visit the exterior. The facades and roofs look new and not very authentic. Not the best example, but still ok. The advantage is the closeness to Reykjavik.

2. Keldur…is also a museum but very connected to an active farm. You omit the farm to find the museum. It opens at 10 a.m. and since we arrived at 9 once again we had to enjoy the exterior only, but this looks more authentic, hence “enjoy”.

3. Núpsstaður… is not (yet ?) a museum. It is a closed gate by the main road 1, but you can park there and walk up to the house. There is a white house amongst the …

I visited this WHS in July 2020. I had skipped this WHS on my last trip to Andalucia to avoid having any 'fatigue' from the sort of Golden Triangle of Spain - Granada, Cordoba, Seville. This choice turned out to be a wise one as all three cities have quite a lot to see and visit and are really top sites. Of the three, I rated Seville's inscribed sites slightly less than the grandiose Granada and amazing Cordoba.

The Cathedral's highlight is undoubtedly the recently restored Giralda Tower (top left photo). Currently, due to the COVID-19 restrictions, both can be visited with a longish tour with a maximum of 50 people. I enjoyed the views of the tower from the several nearby plazas. Make sure to visit the Prince's Gate and the Door of Forgiveness in the afternoon too. The Spanish Renaissance General Archive of the Indies (bottom left photo) nearby is the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Philippines (closed on Mondays).

Last but not least, the Alcazar is most probably Seville's highlight, yet it was no match with Granada's Alhambra. The level of Moorish architecture detail in general is more on the level of the Mudejar architecture of Zaragoza's Aljaferia especially when gazing at the marvellous Patio de las Doncellas. A lot of the Alcazar was changed after damage by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. For example the façade of the Palacio Gótico overlooking the …

Vatnajökull National Park only exists since 2008 and therefore the areas included may not be commonly known under this name. However, it is one of the most deserving WHS that have been added in the past 10 years. Its IUCN evaluation upon inscription was full of superlatives and the site comes across as highly unique. The park covers a complex interplay of a large ice sheet with the largest glacier in continental Europe, moving tectonic plates and ten volcanoes. So far on this website it has achieved a very high 4.36 out of 5 rating from 28 voters.

I started my visit at Skaftafell, the park's westernmost visitor center. I got there at about 3 pm and was surprised by the crowds. There is a very large parking lot for what really only is a starting point of a few hikes. The shortest and most popular hike is the one to Svartifoss - the "black waterfall" surrounded by columns of black basalt. It is only half an hour's walk, steeply uphill. I didn't like it much, neither the walk nor was I impressed by the waterfall itself.

I found a more pleasant short hike behind my hotel, Hotel Skaftafell. Here you walk on a path through the bushes to yet another glacier tongue. Apparently so few visitors come here that the birds jumped in panic when I walked past ‘their’ bushes. The walk ends at a small lake, from where you can continue to one of the trails …

Visited Wadi El-Gemal or Valley of the Camels in July 2020, in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. Luckily during the visit of the National Park's terrestrial "half," it was just myself, two travel companions and two local guides - enough physical distancing. Amidst the sweltering heat, our 4x4 drove through rocky landscape, specks of acacia trees across the valley and true to the park's name, herds of camels resting underneath them. 

The next day, our group visited the Park's marine "half" and swam through healthy coral reefs and walked around mangrove forests. This land-sea continuum truly reflects the site's potential OUV and unique biodiversity.

The Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaiso has seen better days, and now seems just an echo reminding visitors of its heady history as an important stop for seafarers en route to and from Cape Horn. The early 20th century was cruel to the city. First, in 1906, a massive earthquake destroyed large parts of the city (it was a cruel year for cities on the Ring of Fire in the Americas; San Francisco, California, had been destroyed four months earlier). Valparaiso rebounded and rebuilt, ready to welcome back visitors, only to be bypassed in trade by the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. After visiting Valparaiso, I can't help but picture it as a suitable setting for Charles Dicken's Miss Havisham.

Perhaps I am not giving Valparaiso its due; I did only have a half day to visit the city, and I took part in a tour from Santiago, trying to take advantage of limited time to see as much as possible. The tour started in the upper part of the historic district, and we walked past fine wooden houses, many covered with murals. For every mural, though, there was just as much graffiti. I'm not sure if the graffiti was new, as part of the consistent protests against the Chilean government found in Santiago and other major cities, or whether it had been there for a while. Wandering down the streets, I enjoyed the overlook near the Lutheran Church of Santa Cruz, which offered …

On a brief stopover of three days before NYE 2020, I visited the Convict Sites around Sydney. The day I arrived, I was off to a splendid start, as the Hyde Park Barracks were undergoing renovations (should be completed by now / Summer 2020), so I only got some outside glimpses. Then, two days later on NYE, we took the boat to Cockatoo Island which ... was closed the whole day in preparation for the NYE party. My last chance was the Old Governor's House in Parramatta.

When I arrived it was awfully quiet and signs on the lawn were announcing that the Parramatta NYE party later that day was cancelled. The place looked desolate and I was acutely worried to find yet another closed site. And indeed, the museum was about to close due to low attendance. Luckily, they hadn't yet, so I got a mostly private tour. Later a few more tourists dropped in.

The tour guide painted a clear picture of the site. It's a simple home, nothing that would go for an estate in Europe at the time. The interiors are simple and certainly not luxurious. Australia was a poor, remote colony. Being governor of Australia was either a stepping stone for a young ambitious official or a retirement option for officials past their prime. And of the settlers, as the site name tells you, most came involuntarily as convicts. 

Initially, the estate served agricultural purposes. There wasn't much food to go around, …

Velké Losiny is quite interesting village located in the broader region of Jeseníky Mountains, the highest mountains of Moravia. The important period for Velké Losiny is the late renaissance – 16-17th Century, when the dukes of Žerotín, who were of the protestant faith, founded a castle, a church, spas with mineral springs, and also a paper mill there. All these structures were further maintained and developed in the later periods, and thus survived to our days.

From the point of view of both exterior and interior, the castle belongs to the most authentic structures from the second half of 16th Century in Czechia. The church in the center of the village, built around 1600, is also very nice, and I would recommend to all church-enthusiasts visiting also nearby villages of Maršíkov and Žárová with wooden churches from the same period.

The focal point of all tourists is however the paper mill founded in 1596. Its white buildings from the 19th Century with typical dark wooden roofs are located by the busy road and cannot be missed (check the photo in the previous review). The place is ready for masses of tourists, mostly from Czechia but also from abroad. There are a parking lot, the restaurant Losín for hungry tourists and a shop with the hand-made paper souvenirs in the separate small buildings around the paper mill.

The most of the tourists go to the guided tour No.1 (around 1 hour), which includes the museum of paper, the …

Sagalassos is situated in the Western Taurus mountains, about 120 km north of Antalya, in the Turkish province of Burdur (Ağlasun). The city is embedded in the Taurus Mountain chain, with the Mediterranean Sea to its south and the Anatolian plateau to its north, located in a mountainous terrain with forests, steep valleys and rivers. We visited this tentative UNESCO site in July 2020 after it was reopened following the Corona crisis with the usual health precautions. As it is about 1500 metres above sea-level the temperature was pleasant even in the middle of summer with a light cooling breeze.  

It is an archaeological jewel that was blissfully forgotten over the centuries and therefore never really destroyed or looted by force. A protective settlement first set up by the “Sea People” around 1200 BC, it played an important role in the region throughout the Bronze Age, Hellenistic (Seleucid and Pergamon) Roman and Byzantine periods, abandoned after an earthquake in the 7th century with little population left in the subsequent centuries. Rediscovered only in the 19th century, excavated as of 1989 by Belgium’s Leuven Catholic University and partially restored given that large parts of the collapsed buildings remained on site. It has the appeal of Pompeii retrieved from the ground and of Ephesus with its glistening public buildings. Surely a worthy candidate to be put on the world heritage list.  

Sagalassos was conquered by Alexander the Great in 333 BC on his way to Persia. After being taken into …

Originally, I planned to visit this world-famous site two times in two days, first day in the evening and next day early morning in order to avoid the hoard of visitors, as a result I chose to stay in a hotel that located next to the historical park with special separate entrance that open before and close after official time. Unfortunately, because of terrible car accident, instead of arrived around midday, I arrived the hotel around midnight! I managed to wake up and went to the entrance, after some argument with an officer on my tiny camera tripod which he insisted that it was prohibited, I was quite sleepy when I was standing next to the famous El Castillo, the iconic site of Chichen Itza. The step pyramid temple was indeed really beautiful and photogenic while bigger than I anticipated. I spent my time relaxing around the pyramid almost alone with few gardeners, it was a great experience to enjoy the world class monument without any tourist, sadly such peacefulness lost only 45 minutes.

Then I moved my attention to see the countless rows of column of Templo de los Guerreros and felt depressed when I saw the infamous sacrificial altar. After seeing many ceremonial platforms around El Castillo, I found myself alone again at Gran Juego de Pelota, funny I saw the iconic stone ring then my mind was full of story of ancient football as in the documentary before abruptly ended that the losing team …

Just 2 weeks before my summer weekend trip to Prague, Czechia added the Old Wastewater Treatment Plant in Prague-Bubeneč to its Tentative List. Of course I immediately put it on my schedule, despite (or thanks to?) the odd subject. The site represents early 20th century state-of-the-art sewage technology and has been preserved in its original form. It is already part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage and is featured in the thematic study ‘The Water Industry as World Heritage’ from 2018. The latter states that heritage of the modern water industry is underrepresented on the List "despite its unarguable relevance to human development".

The Plant proved to be easy to reach from the Old Town where I was staying: I took the commuter train S4 for 2 stops to Praha-Podbaba, and from there it was an 8-minute walk. I arrived at 3pm, just in time to take part in one of the guided tours. These tours are conducted five times a day in the weekend and less frequently on weekdays. I joined 4 elder Czech visitors. The tour was in the Czech language, but I was given a document with explanations in English. The friendly guide also made sure in each room that I knew what I was looking at. 

Although the site has interesting surface structures (such as the Main Hall which nowadays is used for exhibitions and events), most of it lies underground. This means that a lot of climbing up and down stairs is …

My visit to Ouara is more of a story about the journey and not much the destination itself. In Jan 2012, a friend and I convinced the relevant authorities (through some very loose associations with NGO's in the country) that we should be given permits to travel to Abeche, ostensibly to research some future work there.

I don't remember now how we heard about Ouara but it was along the lines of vague rumours of ruins somewhere nearby. Asking around town we were given all sorts of directions and replies until we found an old bedouin mototaxi driver that claimed to have been there once years ago. He recruited another driver nearby to assist as well and in one of the most foolish travel decisions of our lives, at 1pm in 30+C and without any additional preparations we jumped on and headed out of town thinking it would be a quick trip. I can only say with confidence the site is somewhere ~40km north of town somewhere nestled behind a small mountain well off the main dirt road heading north from Abeche. We finally arrived there about 20 minutes before sunset after stopping for directions at every little village we found, a couple flat tires, nap time under a tree and an aborted mutiny by the 2nd driver and finally an off road "short cut" that only ended in success when we found a lone camel herder to get us around the last corner so to speak.

Ouara …

I spent a week in Naivasha in February 2019 and used it as a base to visit the lake, Mount Longonot and Hell's Gate national parks. The lake itself is a bit away from the town but one can walk there through dry areas of land that I assume will flood during the rainy season.

The south side has big horticulture farms, an industry that needs a lot of water and workers. The end of the day sees innumerable busses shuttling workers from the farms to the town. The reverse probably happens in the morning at dawn but I was not present to witness that. 

Further south, it is more quiet and there is the pleasant Elsamore estate where one can learn about the author of Born Free and watch the Colobus monkeys play while enjoying high tea. Also there is Crescent Island, an estate where one can walk among the buffaloes, antilopes and giraffes.

I stopped at the abandoned airstrip and walked along the fences towards the lake, surprising a group of warthogs and later on I spotted the hippos as well. I walked along the road until I reached the village where the matatus end and stayed at the lake until it started to rain. The antilopes run for people but are not afraid of the cars and I could spot them closer from the matatu then from walking along the road on my own. 

While it is an interesting place and the geothermal …

This was another surprise, just after the nomination of Czech beech forests, that very new addition to the Czech T-list is the old wastewater treatment plant in the northern outer part of Prague city center - in Bubeneč, very close to Vltava river. Well, it is not such surprising as the water management-related sites are now in the focus of the UNESCO experts and state parties. Nevertheless, my secret guess to a new addition to TWHS would be another site in Prague related to water - a monumental building of the water treatment plant in the southern edge of the Prague center - in Podolí, also close to Vltava river (visit highly recommended as well). Thus, the water treatment plant in Podolí for producing drinking water is upstream but the wastewater treatment plant in Bubeneč is downstream - That sounds logical! However, I must admit that the structure in Podolí is monumental but not such unique from the point of view of industrial architecture as the waste water treatment plant in Bubeneč, which was declared as the Czech national monument in 2010 and praised by the experts on the industrial heritage. Thus the selection made by the Czech state party is understandable.

I am not such an expert and could not recognized qualities of this old building from 1906. I was aware of its existence but there was not reason to go around too often because the old wastewater treatment plant is very close to the new one, which …

I'm rather torn on Stoclet House in Brussels, Belgium. As far as visiting experience goes, I would give it a .5 for its lack of accessibility. But should World Heritage Sites be judged solely by accessibility? Another World Heritage Site in Brussels, the Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta only has the interior of one of its four sites regularly available to visitors, while natural sites, such as Surtsey or the Rio Abiseo National Park, also prohibit tourism. There are even World Heritage Sites that prohibit access based on gender, such as Mount Athos and Okinoshima Island. Some sites that limit tourism compensate with museums or replicas, such as the case of the Decorated Cave of Pont d'Arc. Others have properties visible from the exterior that compensate for their lack of interior access, such as the Art Nouveau stylings of the Horta houses, or the Usonian architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright's Frank and Katherine Jacob's House. I'm more willing to forgive a site for lack of accessibility if, as a cultural site, they compensate with museums or replicas, or are part of a larger nomination in which other components are visible. For natural sites, I am always in favor of lack of accessibility if it preserves an endangered ecosystem.

As far as the World Heritage Site committee is concerned, accessibility to visitors does not factor into its requirements for inscription. Stoclet House was inscribed because it it was considered a masterpiece of architecture, a crucial example of …

The complex of the Horns of Hittin, Mount Arbel, and Nebe Shueb encompasses a wide range of historical religious and natural wonders.

1. Mount Arbel:The mountain is only 181 meters above sea level, but it rises steeply 380 meters from the Sea of Galilee. If you drive on Route 90, along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the impressive sight of the high cliff rising directly 400 meters above the road cannot be ignored. Mount Arbel is indeed impressive when you look at it from below, but the view from its summit is even more beautiful. Without a doubt, this is one of the most beautiful lookouts in Israel. The best way to visit it is by tackling the classic hike. Climb from the base to visit the Arbel fortress (see below). From the fort continue to climb to the summit. And go down via the ancient synagogue(See below) and Wadi Arbel. However, if you are not up to the steep climb, you can reach the summit with a 10 minutes easy walk from the National Park's entrance.

2. Arbel Ancient Synagogue:The beautiful ruins of synagogue dates from 4th century CE. It was built from large limestone blocks in the center of the ancient Arbel village. The synagogue is believed to have been used continuously until the 8th century CE. The synagogue can be visited by car. It is located about one kilometer before the entrance to the National Park.

3. …

In 2003 I was in Prague for the first time. At that time, the crowds were especially noticeable: since the fall of communism in 1989, it has become a popular city for weekend trips within Europe. Cheap flights, cheap beer, basically everything is cheap here. I felt uncomfortable amid thick lines of people moving through the historic city center to the castle via the Charles Bridge.

But in the summer of 2020, I dared to visit one more time: after my visit to the WHS of Kladruby, I committed a full day to the Czech capital. Early in the morning, I walked through the streets of the center, loosely connecting a number of well-known and lesser-known highlights. Prague is full of buildings from the 14th to the 20th century. Despite this long flowering period, it is a coherent whole: nothing is too tall, too different or too derelict. There is beautiful Art Nouveau, for example at the central square in the Old Town directly opposite the medieval churches and town hall.

I was there on a Saturday, so unfortunately all the sights in the former Jewish quarter were closed. What is striking is how well the synagogues, related buildings (the very beautiful ceremony hall for example) and the cemetery have been preserved here. The photo above shows the Old New Synagogue from the year 1275, making it the oldest active synagogue in Europe.

Behind an inconspicuous wall lies the Wallenstein Palace. This is now in use by …

I’ve never liked horses. I’ve never had the common young girl crush on those stereotypically ‘noble’ animals. As an adult, on a group tour to Turkmenistan, I remember an obligatory stop at a breeding farm of Akhal-Teke horses which bored me within minutes. So the appearance of the horse farm of Kladruby nad Labem on the World Heritage List last year did not give me great joy. But well, you gotta go to every single one WHS and the subject in this case at least is quite original in the WH context.

I did look forward to the day trip as a whole though, starting the small expedition by public transport to the Czech countryside fresh off the plane. Having learned from previous reviewers, I visited on a Friday to make the best of the railway connections. On weekdays there are 2 trains per hour between Prague Central and Recany nad Labem, the closest station to Kladruby.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, which proved to be a blessing for the final 3km roadside walk. There are white-blue-white markers painted on trees to show the way, but it is easy anyway: just go straight ahead from the station. The first 1.5km of the walk is extremely boring, only when you cross the Elbe river (Labe in Czech) the landscape becomes more interesting. There are pastures bordered with white fences in which the horses run their laps every now and then - but I saw only a few of …