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Visited September 2005.

As I was born in Kenya, it holds a special place in my heart. The Northern Frontier District or NFD has always been seen as a very wild place and certainly not for the faint-hearted to visit.

Lake Turkana itself has gone by many names, initially Lake Rudolph and the more romantic Jade Sea.

Life for the local tribes people is a constant fight for survival against drought and starvation. Camels and goats are the only animals able to survive these conditions. 

Lake Turkana is absolutely huge and you could spend many weeks traversing its shores. Of particular interest to the adventurous soul are the Volcanic islands which have their own lakes within them. Hiring a reliable boat is essential as it gets very rough out on this mini sea. 

Also of great interest to human history are the archaeological finds that have been made along its eastern shore. 

Finally their are the immensely interesting tribes people who inhabit its shores. Regularly in conflict with one another over the limited resources available it is always good to keep abreast of travel advisories, and particularly in respect of somali incursions. Some of the local practices such as female circumcision may make you cringe and witch doctors still hold sway over modern medicine. 

The best way to visit as we did, is with a small group of people led by an experienced guide/driver/mechanic.

If you want to see an Africa which …

While in Israel in November of 2019, I stopped by the Jordan Star National Park (Kokhav HaYarden, in Hebrew) which is centered on the Belvoir crusader castle high above the Jordan river valley.

The castle itself is the type of ruins that actually give you a pretty good idea of how it used to be in its heyday. Sufficiently impressive, although once you learn that the heyday lasted barely 20 years in the 12th century, you may doubt that any OUV can be justified here.

The killer feature of the place are the views over the valley and towards the Sea of Galilee. The castle's nickname of "fine view" was not for nothing. The views themselves are worth the cost of entry, but if you have "orange card" Israel Pass (which allows one entry to almost every national park in Israel over the course of two weeks) there is no additional cost. Brochure that you pick up at reception has all necessary information, and no guidance is needed. My overall visit lasted under an hour and I was nearly the only visitor on an early afternoon.

The sites of this serial property are spread around the country, and I have not managed to fit other castles into my itinerary. But it appears that Montfort could be combined with exploration of Acre (and the caves of Rosh HaNikra, if you are doing the non-WHS stuff), while either Pelerin or Apollonia could be combined with Caesarea (and the latter …

One of the most underrated destinations in the world was my first impression as I made my way down the winding Siq, the narrow entrance into the Archaeological site of Petra. Hand in hand with my 5 and 3 year old who were keen to run and play, they seemed more interested in gathering rocks than gazing at the massive Treasury, Al-Khazneh, that stood before us. 

Petra is one of the places that I recommend to everyone I know and hope they will see its wonder and magic as I have. 

I woke up after another cold night thinking "should I skip the pyramids and sleep more? It's easy to do it again from Mexico City on another trip". Glad I didn't. Too cold to fall asleep anyway, so I went to the breakfast buffet to recharge: "last Mexico WHS here I go!"

I actually thought it would be busy but not really, and definitely relative to its size. Compared to El Tajin there were probably only 15% Mexican tourists and that is assuming they even are. El Tajin was ~98% but could be seasonal. Arriving at 8am at the front gate I first checked out the Serpent temple. A guide was there talking a lot about tombs. Unsure if they actually know facts or make it up. Funnily enough there is a sign at the entrance to explain it was NOT made by aliens!! Shame on people to even think so in today's science age (History Channel I'm looking at you). From the distance you can obviously already see the Sun and Moon temples and awe at them. People can climb up? I should have rested up more! It also takes a loooong time to walk towards them. One wow factor is the short climb from a lower area and see the temples arise beyond. Magical. There are dozens of structures along the way with some signs (in 3 languages usually) if you are interested but most people don't bother. Your main goal are those pyramids!

I climbed …

On my travels around Israel in November of 2019, I stopped by Bet Alpha National Park, which ended up one of my favorite ancient sites in the country (including many places that are already inscribed as WH sites).

Bet Alpha must be the smallest of all national parks in Israel - it is basically a single room of the ancient synagogue headlined by the primitive yet evocative mosaics on the floor. The 15-minute interpretive video – which started as soon as I entered the room, since I was the only visitor at the time – is a lighthearted dramatization of the origin of the mosaics, mixed int with an overview of the synagogue architectural features. It is definitely worth the time to see and listen to; as the explanations cover different parts of the mosaic, those components are lighted on the floor. After the movie ended, I had a few minutes to look over the mosaic and the remains of columns and supports under the full lighting.

The cost of the entry is but a few dollars, and if you have the "orange card" Israel Pass (which allows entry to almost every national park once within the space of two weeks) there is no additional cost. No guidance is needed for the visit, which in my case lasted less than half an hour.

The rest of the synagogues on this tentative submission are clustered near Tzfat or by the northern shore of Lake Kinneret. I was close …

I visit the site almost 20 years ago. In those times, I started with my independent exploration of the outside world as I was 20-something years old. Slovakia was the first target because of its slightly exotic spirit and pristine landscape as compared to homeland Czechia. So, I traveled with a friend to hike and to overnight outside in the nature of Štiavnické Vrchy protected natural landscape area - actually its area overlaps with the buffer zone of the WHS. The mountains are of volcanic origin with the highest peak Sitno (1009 m), and the old mining town Banská Štiavnica is sitting in the middle. Because all the highways and main railway routes go outside the protected landscape, it keeps the area relatively unspoilt.

So, we travelled by train to Žiar nad Hronom, and walked in direction the protected landscape from the railway station and spent around one week by walking in this hilly landscape remodelled by human impact for centuries. The aim was to spend time in the "nature" and not so much in the UNESCO protected town. But I had slightly "distorted image" what was the WHS, and I thought that only the town and few ponds around were parts of this WHS. However, I checked the nomination text very recently and quite large area of 10 x 20 km large rectangle with the town in the middle was actually inscribed. It means that I spent in the WHS much longer time than I though! In the …

I had an opportunity to thoroughly visit this pleasant little University town in September 2019 beacause of the conference organized by KU Leuven (KU = Catholic University). Thus, I could explore the buildings belonging to KU located in the town center quite intensively. As the University is an inseparable part of Leuven, there are a lot of buildings used by KU scattered all around Leuven. While most of the lectures took place in modern buildings - the largest was Pieter de Somer Aula, we had opportunity to visit also huge late gothic University Hall during poster sessions. The Hall is located very close to Oude Markt (PHOTO - the building with tall roof on the right side belongs to KU and it is adjacent to University Hall, and in the middle one can see the Belfry of Leuven - WHS!!!) and also to the world-famous Town Hall. Unfortunately, I could see the impresive Library only from outside - the building is really expansive and it is hard to believe that it is really a library.

Even though Leuven is nice and worth-visiting, I cannot see any OUV in its University. No building belonging to the University is truly exceptional, and I mean not only old buildings but also modern ones. Furthermore, there are already two other WHS in Leuven! The University town of Leuven lacks the monumentality of WHS Coimbra and the spirit/integrity of still-not-inscribed Cambridge&Oxford, and does not stand out when compared to other University towns in Europe …

March 2017 - for our honeymoon we chose Andalucia as a Destination and had 2 weeks time to visit the many beautiful cities and sites. Day 1 we landed in Sevilla, got our rental car and had still time to drive up to Huelva. We stopped in Palos de la Fronterra, a festival was taking place in remembrance of 525 years of Columbus discovering America.

Very nice little town, the church roofs were inhabited by storks probably a few weeks before going back to northern Europe. The atmosphere was even better due to the little festival. The area however is predominantly covered by strawberry and tomatoe glasshouses. It looks somewhat unreal and destroys the historic flair of the area. We still drive to Rapida to see the Monument and the Church before we found a wild camping spot at the coast further east. 

As I knew I would wake up early because of the unavoidable jet lag, I had looked for something to do in Bogotá in the early morning of my first day here. I found it with the Virgilio Barco Library, one of two TWHS in Colombia’s capital dedicated to modern architecture. It opens most days at 8 a.m. as it is a fully functioning public library. If the library were to become a WHS in the next few years, it would be the most recently built site on the List. It only opened in December 2001.

Bogotá is a sprawling city and although the library is located fairly central, I needed a 25 minute taxi ride from my hotel near the National Museum to get there. The EasyTaxi app did its work flawlessly – for less than 3 EUR I was transported from door to door by a yellow taxi. Despite the early hour, I found several people already walking the paths in the surrounding Virgilio Barco Park (which is also part of the TWHS). The area is also popular with bikers and you can rent bikes from street stalls.

The Virgilio Barco Library is the chosen site among the works of the Colombian architect Rogelio Salmona. Actually the whole country is dotted with important works of his design. He is known for his brick architecture and conscious use of water. At this site in Bogotá he succeeded very well in “incorporating it into the landscape”: the building …

I spent a weekend in Innsbruck during Advent 2019, and I was overwhelmed by fairytale-like charm of this "cultural landscape". Despite this, I did not find any rationale for the inscription as WHS because of a lack of OUV.

The historical core is quite small but stuffed by fine houses from late middle ages, Hofburg and impresive churches mostly modelled in Baroque. The setting of Innsbruck by emmerald river Inn surrounded by white Alpine peaks is really breathtaking. One can almost touch the peaks, which are easily accesible by the cable car. But I had no intentions to reach the Alpine peaks. Instead, I went by city bus to not-so-far Hungerburg place located on the slopes of Nordkette mountain range with wonderful views over the Alpine landscape and with very pleasant Christmas market. However, the highlight of my visit was Ambras castle located some 3 kilometers from the city center (PHOTO), one can reach it by walking ca. 30 minutes or by bus 3 from the Railway station. It was built by archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol in 16th century, and he founded there the oldest museum in the world (all the collections are accesible for 8 EUR, and they are really worth the price).

Despite my praise to Innsbruck and surrounding landscape, it is still of national or better said Central European importance. Surprisingly, Innsbruck and Prague has quite a lot in common because of Habsburg emperors, for example, archduke Ferdinand II spent 20 years in Prage …

For those who have been privy to participate in one of our meetups or are members of our whatsapp group, the term "Rock art" is synonymous with our dear community member Samuel. I always wondered where his infatuation with rock art came from. For me (and I would argue this is a majority opinion) rock art is rarely if ever endearing. Mostly, rock art shows how much mankind has evolved and how humble our beginnings were.

Well, if I had grown up at one of the truly great rock art sites, I may have a different opinion. Samuel is from Bretagne in the vicinity of Carnac. He must have spent quite a few school trips in the stone fields around Carnac studying the standing stones (menhirs). And it's hard not to fall in love with the place when you do.

In the morning, I had come from Nantes. After a short, unmemorable stop at the museum in Carnac, I set out to hike around the site. I must have misread the scale on the map they had given me, as what was intended to be a one, maybe two hour hike turned into a lengthy hike into the countryside. But with all the great fields of menhirs, it was hard to say stop, so I continued.

The most amazing part to me was just how huge the place is. Even a single field would warrant inscription and it's field upon field upon field... Amazing!

…

Even though I visited France as a kid on a yearly basis, I never made it to the Chateau de La Loire. It felt like a weird omission and in 2019 I decided to correct it. I flew into Nantes and took a day trip along the Loire to Chenonceau, Amboise and Saumur.

My first stop in the morning was Chenonceau. Technically Chenonceau is not on the Loire, but on a side branch. Therefore it was not originally included in the inscription. It was added in 2017. Without a doubt it's an iconic structure and taking the proximity to Amboise and the Loire into account, I have no objection that it was included. As pointed out by Hubert, the main gallery over the river is great. I also really enjoyed the surrounding gardens.

From Chenonceau, I walked to Amboise crossing several vineyards. I imagined following some French nobles footsteps as they went from their castle to a dinner in neighboring Amboise. In Amboise, I walked through the town and it was impressive. I did not have the time to visit the Chateaus, though.

My last stop was Saumur. Saumur is really different from the first two sites I visited. It's way less touristy and it's clearly less of a representative building and more of a defensive castle.

Of the three sites, Chenonceau is the clear highlight. I would assume only Chambord comes close or exceeds it. Amboise is more about the town, while Saumur is more …

If I were to pick the most special WHS I've seen this year, it would have to be the Bauhaus sites. It is not because they are beautiful and grand, but more because of the impact they have made to the world. I myself was surprised to find out that something so common and recent could still be so interesting! Modern architecture and modern designs as we know today have largely been shaped by this school of thought. Its influences are still apparent today, and they, perhaps, are even more relevant now than they were ever before. 

My visit in Germany could not be more timely: the Bauhaus celebrates its 100th year anniversary this 2019. I was able to trace back the evolution of this school of thought beginning with a visit to Weimar where it all started in 1919. There, I even witnessed a class performance (Bauhaus in action?) at the "Bauhaus Box" beside the administration building. Next, I went to Dessau where the Bauhaus reached its period of initial blossoming, and then to Berlin where its principles were extended and applied for the greater good, i.e., when Walter Gropius took part in the creation of the Grosssiedlung Siemensstadt (of the Berlin Modernist Housing Estates-WHS).

I have also seen works of other Bauhaus masters such as that of Mies van der Rohe in the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart. And when I thought I have already had enough of Bauhaus, I got an assignment to go to Israel, …

Visited interior of 4 villas in one day on Sunday in November 2019. This could only be done with advance planning, pre-booking and using rented car as follows.

Villa di Poggio a Caiano – this one has regular opening hours, it opens at 08:30 and there is free accompanied tour each hour. Villa has extraordinary interior, including original frescos by Andrea del Sarto in the central hall on the first floor. There is little to add to the previous reviews.  Villa Artiminio (Ferdinanda) – this is private property now, which includes winery, hotel and restaurant. There are occasionally guided visits and we booked one in advance for 11:30 for 12 euro. Villas was built in 1596 as a hunting lodge. It has a lot of chimneys on the roof in order to heat the villa during winter times and is sometimes called villa of hundred chimneys. Unfortunately, in 1950th all the interior, furniture and decorations were sold by the private owner at that time through auctions and only certain pieces were purchased back afterwards. However, there are a number of survived beautiful frescos by Passignano, including entrance hall (pictured), internal chapel and small bathroom. External staircase was only completed in 1930 using original designs of the architect Buontalenti. There is also storage of wine on the ground floor and even secret underground tunnel to be used by the Medicis in case of danger. After the tour we acquired excellent Grumarello and Rugiolino wine from the local winery. Villa della …

On my first visit to Korea over Christmas in 2004 we did two excursions to sites outside Seoul. We went to Gyeongju for Korean history. And we went to Seoraksan for Korean nature.

Seoraksan is the most popular National Park in Korea. It is situated on the Eastern coast, roughly a 3h drive by bus from Seoul (depending on the traffic in Seoul). Coming from modern Seoul it's quite a contrast to see the rural side of Korea and the mountains from the bus window as you venture to Sokcho, the gateway to Seoraksan.

The National Park itself is surprisingly close to the coast. Essentially, it starts directly on the city limits of Sokcho, maybe a kilometer off the coast, and then climbs fast.

In the park, the most known sites are a giant buddha at the entry. And the unmovable stone. We did some hiking and site seeing. I wish we had had more time to venture deeper into the park as the nature was great, even in winter.

OUV

Having been to Korea twice, I feel that the country has two defining features:

• The coast
• The mountains

Both are not really represented on the list and in my eyes deserve to. For the coast, the tidal flats are nominated. For the mountains, I would be perfectly fine with adding Seoraksan. To me, this is one of the great national parks of the world and deserves inscription. I could …

Not many people who are neither students of Jewish history nor WH chasers will prioritize seeing Bet She'arim on their visit to Israel, but it has to be said that it is one of just a couple of WH sites in Israel that actually exceeded my expectations (albeit from a relatively low bar). I visited on an early morning in November of 2019 and pretty much "opened the site" for the day; only about half an hour later a few other people started to arrive, followed by a couple of tour buses.

The primary site consists of a few dozen caves that hold multiple Jewish burials from around the 2nd century AD. The two main caves nearest to the visitor center offer 90% of the overall value, while the rest provides one or two additional features and extend the range of the attraction. The Museum Cave, true to its name, offers a number of exhibits in a museum setting, from ancient pottery to fragments of stone decorations to models of the original structures at the site.

The Cave of the Coffins is also aptly, if not exactly creatively, named. This is a vast catacomb filled with all kinds of tombs and sarcophagi. The cave is roughly 75 x 75 meters in dimensions, but it feels larger as you walk inside its passages. Many coffins are decorated with patterns or animal motifs, and in one corner of it stands what is known as “the mother of all menorahs”.

…

If you enjoy lengthy history podcasts, you know Dan Carlin. Years ago he did a postcast on the dark ages and the vikings. One of the questions he discussed was how it came that war like peoples like the Franks or the Vikings could ever become Christian, supposedly a religion of peace and non violence. The answer is that they became a different type of Christian, a warrior type of Christianity.

Mont St Michel was built in Normandie, Normans being Northern Men, i.e. Vikings. It's not a coincidence that they chose this patron as Michael leads God's armies against satan.

The monastery is what you expect. The views are stunning, the site being built on top of a hill in the flood plains that mark the border between the Bretagne and Normandie. Admittedly, I found the inside of the abbey rather empty and a bit underwhelming. But the surrounding town (if it wasn't for the endless flow of tourists) was a pleasant surprise. Due to heavy rains, though, it was hard to get a nice picture as I was fearing for the safety of my camera.

Getting There

There is a direct bus connection from Rennes. At 30€ it's fairly pricey, but other public transport options (as usual in France) are poor and more complicated. I bought my bus ticket in advance online at oui sncf. The bus did fill up. The bus stop is the long distance bus station next to the Rennes …

One of the fondest memories of my trip to Japan was pulling a float and having sake in Fujinomiya. This was not planned, as I rarely, if ever, check event calendars. My itinerary is set by logistics. Local events are only relevant if they significantly impact hotel prices.

I had arrived in Fujinomiya from Nara in the evening and planned to stay two days. The evening was quiet, but I did already notice plenty of huts covering the greater parts of the inner town; especially the area around the inscribed Sengen Taisha Shrine. The next morning I went to Niriyama. When I came back around lunch time, the town was in partying mood. There were floats on the streets and plenty of people visiting the temples to pray. It was the Fujinomiya Fall Festival (3-5 Nov).

For the afternoon, I was out of town with a sightseeing bus to see more of Fuji. For a classic photo, go to Lake Tanuki. The Shiraito Waterfalls were impressive as a natural site. We visited a smaller shrine and it's important to point out that Fuji is a cultural inscription. It's the religious sites build around Fuji that make the OUV, not the volcano itself.

When I came back to town the festivities kept ongoing. Eventually, I went back to my hotel and was about to call it night. Little did I know... I could not sleep as there was huge drum noise coming from the street. I got back …

Oh Toledo, jewel of a city! This was easily my favorite day trip from Madrid when I visited Spain last May. I was entranced from my first view of the walled old town overlooking the Tagus River on the short walk from the Moorish-style train station to the escalators serving the historic center atop the hill. I arrived on a Sunday, which was an ideal time to attend a mass in the historic Toledo cathedral, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture (it was not a good day to see the tower, however, since it was closed). Afterwards, I meandered through the narrow city streets slowly filling up with tourists, admiring the artwork and gardens of the El Greco museum, and relaxing in the sedate but intricately designed courtyard in the Museum of Santa Cruz (I fully agree with Els -- it was worth a visit). Toledo has quite a religious history, and I particularly appreciated the Synagogue of El Tránsito with its distinctive Mudéjar style. There are many photogenic viewpoints, or miradores, around the city, but I most enjoyed the one on the hill behind the city, which I reached via the kitschy, but practical, tourist train that departs from the city center and travels around and outside Toledo before returning to the city center. I don't generally recommend shopping, but Toledo is particularly well known for both its steel swords as well as its Damascene crafts, which are worth looking at just for the novelty. I spent my day in …

My previous review for this WHS explained how, in Nov 2019, we determined that we had visited 4 towns in the core area (Zone D) of the “Coffee Cultural Landscape” (CCL). We also visited a number of neighbouring “Veredas” (or “rural areas”) including some in “core” areas and some in “buffer zones”. So, what did we make of this WHS - what was its “Heritage value” and was there a coherent story to tell?

We didn’t take a “Finca Tour” in the CCL as we had already done so in other parts of the World where coffee is grown. However, in other coffee producing areas of Colombia we had pleasant and close interactions with “Campesinos”, visiting and talking to them in their homes and seeing them preparing and drying the coffee there from “plant” to “sack”. We had also visited the town of Inza (nr Tierradentro) on its coffee market day and concluded that it was difficult to envisage an area more reliant on the coffee business than it was – certainly the CCL isn’t any more so. See this article about Inza's small coffee growers. Which raises the question as to what is so “special” about the inscribed CCL which raises it above (or at least makes it different from) the multitude of non-inscribed coffee producing areas in Colombia?

It isn’t the quality of the coffee either. We asked Colombians we met whether the coffee from that area was the “best” in Colombia. It appears that it …