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After a few hours ride from Coimbatore to Silent Valley National Park, my driver dropped me off at the park entry. I think there were only a few tourists and I got my personal park ranger for the trip. This being remote India, prices were quite reasonable, both for the driver as well as the park ranger.

The park ranger took me into the National Park by jeep, acted as spotter and took me to the standard tourist stops including a view tower. The final stop of the tour was at a waterfall. The roads were rough; there is no way you can do this by normal car. Along the way we saw plenty of monkeys and other animals. We also found elephant tracks, but did not meet any.

What I liked about Silent Valley was its remoteness and space. Most of India, even areas that look remote, are not. You are hard pressed to find idle nature; Silent Valley is. Still, I was hard pressed to identify specific OUV. I have to admit, though, that animal watching is not my thing. I found the chats I had with my driver re living in India way more interesting.

Getting There

The first question you will have to answer is where? The Western Ghats stretch 1600km along western India from Pune all the way down to Kerala. Even if you have settled on the general area you want to visit, you will run into problems. I …

As of May 2023 a number of the links referred to in my 2 reviews of CCL are broken. Many (but not all) are still available if you enter the link into Wayback Machine

As previous reviewers have identified, the first problem when making a visit to the Coffee CL WHS is to determine where exactly the boundaries are and how you “know” if you are/have been inside them. The execrable maps provided on the UNESCO Web site (Michael Ayers - I agree with every word you say!) show 6 inscribed “landscape areas” (or “Zones”) which cover a large area of central/western mountainous Colombia. I have studied those maps (and other sources), both before and after our travels, trying to make sense of them and, before reviewing any of the areas we visited, I will cover below the conclusions I reached and suggestions as to how others might use the available sources to determine their own visits to this WHS ensuring that they visit a core area if they so wish! If the detailed boundaries of the CCL are of no interest to you then please read no further!

The best entrée to making sense of the boundaries is via the Nomination file. The Executive Summary on PDF Pages 10/11 states that “The Coffee Cultural Landscape (PCC) covers areas of 47 municipalities spread over four Colombian departments” (these in turn are spread across the 6 “Zones” so a few departments, e.g Risaralda, have areas in more …

Trying to pronounce "Revillagigedo" isn't easy so most people will say Socorro even though it is only one of the four islands in the archipelago, albeit it is the biggest of them all and has the navi base. Even if you look for dive trips they will use the name Socorro.

The only obvious way to get out there is by liveaboard. It takes over 24h just to reach the first spot from the marina in Cabo so most diving tours will be out for at least a week and that's excluding Isla Clarión because it's just so much further out than the others. You need to book a special trip just to get that on your itinerary. Having said all that we did have a private yacht in the area so that would be your second option ;)

First stop is usually San Benedicto. It has 2 dive sites but El Boiler can get a bit rough so boats might all be in the same area. The tour operators sync their schedules and it is first come first in the water, with no other drivers in the water at the same time. If you ever dive and see bubbles and hordes more often than large fish then you will know why this is the best practice for diving with large animals.

The biggest draw of diving in Revillagigedo are the giant oceanic mantas, oceanic meaning they get laaaarge, much larger than the smaller ones you can …

A major element in the attraction of Mompox has been its relative remoteness and difficulty of access. It is situated on Colombia’s largest inland “island”, Isla Margerita, and any visit to it involved a water journey using a ferry at Yati near Mangague to La Bodega (still 35kms by road from Mompox). And this ferry doesn’t just “cross” the river but takes a 40 minute voyage downstream and then up into a different arm of the Magdalena! This added to the mystique of reaching somewhere “up river” where things were “different” even if not quite the “Heart of Darkness”!!

We visited in Dec 2019, but Mompox is undergoing considerable change and its “remoteness” is being rapidly eroded. A bridge was built in 2006 at El Buton on the road from Bucamaranga to the South East. In Nov 2015 another new bridge was opened at Talaigua  which permitted a complete road journey to/from Cartagena via La Gloria - longer in distance than the traditional route via the ferry but quicker and more certain! And more change is on the way – the route via Mangague is about to get 2 new bridges across arms of the Magdalena in what is a major infrastructure investment for Colombia. These are expected to reduce travelling time between Cartagena and Mompox from 5.5 to 3.5 hours. Luckily the opening of these had been postponed until Feb 2020 following the discovery of archaeological remains during the building of the approach road, and we were still …

Nahal Me’arot may represent half a million years of human evolution, but they are a clear contender for the title of one of the least impressive paid-entry sights that I have ever been to. There are three caves that you can see here, although the first two are more overhangs than caves and can be viewed only from a distance behind the barrier. The first diagrams the geological ages of its layers, the second illustrates a prehistoric settlement with a few highly unsophisticated models and props.

The third cave can be entered. It is 70 meters deep, with nothing of a particular exceptional note. At the end of this cave you can see an AV presentation – a dramatization of the prehistoric life that looks like a failed costumed home-video attempt. I watched that for about seven minutes and could not stomach the cheesy show any longer. (On the positive side, there are sensors in the cave, and the presentation started right away when I approached the screen – it would be a lot more maddening if I had to spend time waiting for it to start first).

The rock views of the surrounding natural reserve are the most gratifying visuals at the site. The reserve may provide additional entertainment if you have kids in tow – who knows, they may even enjoy that movie – and want to do some hiking in addition to seeing the caves.

My entire visit in November of 2019 lasted no …

WHS#63

Sinai doesn't feel quite like the rest of Egypt. It's home to some beautiful rugged mountain landscapes that kept me awake through every drive. It also doesn't feel quite as congested and crazy. And it's cool. As in cold. Even in May when I experienced 47-degree temperatures in Luxor and Aswan days before, temperatures were 30 degrees lower in the nights in St. Catherine. I spent a night in a Bedouin camp nearby while on my trip through Egypt in 2018, and the views and atmosphere of the desert mountains was just magical, almost as if preparing us for the great sights to see the next day. I think that's why I wasn't so sold with St. Catherine's Monastery the next day - there was just so much anticipation for what ended up being an hour-long visit to a small courtyard, a church, and a very historic, though unimpressive, bush. I don't think my visit to the monastery really gave it justice, but does the monastery really give justice to the long drive going there? It's great, but I ended up not seeing the renowned library and mosque next to the church as those options weren't even available to me. I also regrettably didn't go up to Mt. Sinai as my family wasn't in the mood to wake up at dawn and climb hundreds of steps. All in all, it was a somewhat underwhelming experience, but I did love the mountain landscapes.

Ultimately, though, I can't take …

Imprisoned in a Salt mine!! We only had 2 experiences in Colombia where we had to join a group tour – visits to Guatavita Lake and to Nemocon mine. BOTH suffered from an incredibly long-winded tour experience. This was not due to our problems with Spanish – the Nemocon tour was in (semi) English and the Guatavita tour Spanish was adequately understood by us. No, it appears that Colombians expect a good long outing when they pay for a guided tour! Our Nemocon tour lasted almost 2 hours and could have been perfectly well covered in 1!!

Out of the 3 Salt Towns included in this T List site we had originally intended visiting that at Zipaquirá for no better reason than it was on our direct route back to Bogota. It is also by far the most frequently visited, being an easy day (or even afternoon, if you have your own transport) return journey from Bogota. It is particularly famous for its underground “Salt Cathedral”. For some unknown reason however the mine decided to close on the day we were due to visit and, rather than swap dates, we opted to visit the mine at Nemocón instead.

It is noteworthy that the site is listed as the “Cultural Landscape of Salt Towns” which implies that it is intended to cover rather more than a mine in each town. There are indeed a few elements mentioned in addition to the mines themselves – at Nemocon, excavations have uncovered …

WHS#52

I think the term "White City" is just overdone. After visiting Sucre, Arequipa, and Tel Aviv, it seems that every one of these "white" cities is disappointingly not so white, and often, a little disappointing in general. It's not that the name is given to ugly cities, I think it's just that the name draws an immediate picture of a stunningly pristine and glistening urban landscape, and the reality is often far from the truth. For Tel Aviv, though, it may be a bit more than that that doesn't quite impress as much as the rest. Tel Aviv was naturally my first stop upon arriving in Israel in April 2018, and taking a taxi ride to the apartment right by the WHS core zone, it wasn't hard to observe the general style of the buildings. They were all Bauhaus, but not what I had pictured in my head. They were quite simple and modern-looking. But they weren't all white. Or clean. Or in good condition. But they formed a huge ensemble. Everywhere I looked, there was just Bauhaus. That being said, each building did look a bit different. Some were all smooth, white, and curvy. Others looked like sand-colored sandstone blocks. There's might be quite a few things to look out for in this seemingly stylistically coherent district.

After lunch in the excellent shawarma and falafel shop nearby, I started my walking tour of the White City. First stop was Dizengoff Square, but the fountain was covered …

Some points which might be of use to someone planning a visit to San Agustin and deciding how to visit its 3 locations (Based on a visit in Nov 2019)a. Alto de los Idolos is closed for renovations until (at least?) Aug 2020. Worth double checking I guess if you arrive before this!b. San Agustin is the main park and, with its museum, could take a full morning or longer. c. It consists of 5 authentic “in situ” elements (3 “Mesitas”, 1 “Fuente” and 1 “Alto”) all situated within a fenced and “ticketed” area. There are paths (mainly paved) between them. Only the final “Alto” requires a short climb d. There are 3 “Mesitas” (“A”, “B” and “C”). These are areas levelled by the builders of the San Agustin tombs to provide flat areas for the location of several groups of tombs. The tombs consist of “dolmen” which would have been covered by earth and have had guarding statues at their entrances. e. We visited in the sequence B, C, A. I felt that there was a benefit on reaching B as soon as possible in the morning. All the tombs and stones are covered by modern protective structures and, as the sun climbs, these cast dark shadows across the stones making photography difficult (the worst is when the shadows cross half way up a statue!) The Triangle and the Eagle were fully clear when we reached them (on the other hand we had to postpone the Museum until …

Some points which might be of use to anyone planning a visit to Tierradentro and deciding how (and whether) to visit its 5 locations (Based on a visit in Nov 2019) -a. Alto de Segovia is the most worthwhile site to see. From the main site entrance there is a paved uphill path (30/40 mins without rushing) which leads to what I understand to be 30 excavated tombs – of which 25 are “open”. Other statements vary these numbers slightly - but it isn’t worth arguing about the odd difference! All are currently lit by electricity. Sometimes this is switched on by the guard and sometimes there is a movement sensor which means you have to descend in the dark almost to the chamber itself before the light goes on! The tombs may have their “lid” covers open when you arrive – but there is a guard nearby to unlock any of them if required (some are kept closed to prevent birds entering). We visited Segovia twice across 2 days - once religiously entering every open tomb and once concentrating on the finest. The tombs are scattered in groups across quite a large area and each group is covered by an open sided, but fenced, shed. All tombs are numbered and T21, 30, 9, 10. 11 and 12 are the best in terms of decoration. The amount of energy required to descend the very steep steps and haul oneself back up could be as much as the walk itself if …

The original moshav and the earliest kibbutz may have non-trivial meaning to students of sociology, but I can't imagine that Nahalal and/or Degania ever become a WH site. Israel's withdrawal from UNESCO a few years ago obviously puts a damper of any new Israeli sites being inscribed in the near future, but even if Israel rejoins at some point I can't see how these two villages can claim anything of OUV.

There is literally nothing to see at either. Nahalal may be a model of concentric village design, but if you drive to its center or along its main circular road, you will only see an unimpressive - and in places rather neglected - backwater rural habitation. Degania grounds are a few degrees prettier and a tiny shade livelier. But not in any sense remarkable or even reflective of its pioneering impact.

I stopped by each of them for about 15 minutes or so on my recent 2-week trip to Israel solely because I was driving by. If these were dedicated trips, I'd be mad at myself for wasting time.

“Ahora, Ciudad Universitaria” we told our taxi driver after a visit to the Virgilio Barco Library. “Cual Entrada?” came the reply. Hmm – I hadn’t planned for that. It appears that the University Campus has at least 5 entrances and our driver wanted to leave us outside one of them. So we asked him to take us to the nearest one (at the Northern side of the Campus). We got out, walked through the gates and were faced by a field of cows and a few very ordinary, even ramshackle, buildings. Perhaps we were at the Agricultural or Veterinarian Faculty? Luckily there was a board with a map and, after hailing a passing student, we got our act together. You need the Calle 26 entrance to get to the heart of the University and its main architecture - such as it is! This is situated at the Southern point of the large campus and would actually be best for reaching by public transport since Bogota’s limited route metro bus system, the Transmilenio, runs along this street and has a stop for the University. This is the street which, renamed “Avenida El Dorado”, goes on out to the airport.

University students had been a bit of a nuisance to us during our Colombian journey, having been a moving force for a series of demonstrations and strikes across the country. They had been joined by groups of Campesinos and Indigenous peoples who had caused the closure of …

I visited this tWHS in June 2014 and November 2019. After having visited the worthwhile locations near Bari in June 2014, I wasn't convinced that much. The Cathedral in Modena, just to mention a similar site in Italy that was already on the list, already covered Romanesque quite well even though the Cathedral in Bitonto is quite remarkable for its age. So as a half day trip from Lecce, in November 2019 I decided to visit the last remaining location of Otranto to visit its Romanesque cathedral.

Otranto itself is a pretty town with river streams and countryside on one side and a fortified waterfront on the other. The cathedral exterior is pretty normal and I was also happy that there was no entrance fee to visit inside. Perhaps this is also one of the reasons why such a beauty is not that famous yet. The whole cathedral floor is completely covered with beautiful 12th century mosaics! The mosaics are in very good condition considering that the cathedral is pretty much still in use and there's no protection for the mosaic floor like there is in Aquileia for example.

The floor mosaics include episodes from the Old Testament such as the story of Adam and Eve, zodiac images, the tree of life, the tortures of hell, the tower of Babel and last but certainly not least Alexander's flight to the heaven carried by two griffins with the title 'Alexander Rex' (photo). According to a medieval legend, Alexander, wishing …

Now – why might one pass through Colombia’s “Zona Bananera”? It could be that one is

a. in the Banana businessb. simply en route between Mompox and Sta Martac. a devotee of the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquezd. a WHS “collector” trying to tick off another of Colombia’s Tentative WHC a.k.a “United Fruit Company Infrastructure”

Well, in Dec 2019, we fitted each of the last 3 and the very last was in fact probably the least rewarding of the reasons for being there. However, in support of the attempt by this community to review all TWHS I contribute below what we discovered - on both d and c

This site was added to Colombia’s T List in its 2012 update – along with 11 other of its current 16 TWHS. The UNESCO entry states “Zona Bananera is a relatively recent municipality, but, traditionally, it also gives its name to a region.” – However, all of the towns listed are situated within this “recent” municipality. If you travel along Rte 45 from Aracateca northwards you will pass through its eastern boundary but you really need to go a few kms west of this road to towns such as Orihueca and Rio Frio – both of which we visited. The former is described in the UNESCO entry as a “town with four streets and six alleys had a telegraph station; it was a station for the Magdalena Railroad, whose road still goes through the village” …

I visited this tentative WHS in June 2014 and November 2019. In June 2014 I had already visited Ostuni and Martina Franca, not knowing that they were 2 of the 11 locations that make up this tWHS. It was time to make up for this, so in November 2019 I explored the other 9 locations in Lecce, Nardò, Galatone and Gallipoli.

Ostuni is a pleasant place to visit although to me its highlight wasn't the Barocco Pugliese (which would be more apt as a title for this tWHS) but the great example of gothic architecture found at the former cathedral of Ostuni. It really reminded me of the Cathedral in Sibenik, Croatia. The Barocco Pugliese elements are scattered all over town but are more difficult to appreciate since most of Ostuni is white-washed. Perhaps the best example of baroque is the Chiesa the San Vito facade (the interior is currently closed for restoration works). On the other hand, Martina Franca is like a poorer and smaller version of Lecce and its monuments are almost entirely baroque. The highlight here was the Basilica di San Martino in Piazza Plebiscito. Unknowingly, in 2014 I had visited possibly the least impressive locations.

If you were forced to choose just one city/town to visit, this will undoubtedly have to be Lecce which actually gives the Barocco leccese its name. I spent a long weekend here and will be revisiting next year. One of the main peculiarities here is the bright white stone …

As we had private transport, we took the opportunity to make a short excursion along the road from San Andres de Pisimbala to nearby Sta Rosa to see its “Catholic Doctrine Temple” as well, of course, as visiting the one in Pisimabla itself, which dominates the centre of that village. It was around 8kms – but, as the average speed on a rough Colombian road is rarely above 20kms an hour, it fully filled our time between finishing off El Tablon and having dinner in Pisimbala! To reach it continue along the road from El Tablon.

Currently we don’t have its location identified on our maps and I can confirm that it is situated at 2.582890, -76.002442. On Google it has been identified as “Sta Rosa Tierradentro” but no church of that name is inscribed! Since it is definitely NOT “Sta Rosa de Suin” which is clearly situated elsewhere, I can only assume that it is the church called “Sta Rosa de Lima o Capisisco” in the UNESCO documentation. That would seem to be confirmed by this article . The church is situated in open country but next to it are a school, community centre, sports hall etc whose exterior walls were totally painted in Colombian style with representations of Indigeno life and culture. There were only a few houses and the church/Community centre etc obviously serve a much larger hinterland of small fincas. As one visits the area of Tierradentro and San Agustin one needs to …

As the WH inscription itself suggests, the highest concentration of examples of Bauhaus Movement architecture (interestingly, the inscription never uses the term "Bauhaus", instead preferring fuzzier "modern") is around Dizengoff Square, Bialik Square, and along the Rothschild Boulevard. Whichever route you choose between these points, you cannot miss the White City buildings here or there, and will probably see enough of them after half an hour or so.

It is not a contiguous monument by any degree. As you walk around town, you will find quite a lot of regular streets and newer construction that sometimes organically and sometimes not exactly fits in and around this architectural collection. You will also see instances of neglect and dilapidation. However, I did not find that to be the norm. In fact, in the process of geo-tagging photos from my stay in Tel Aviv, I looked up locations on Google StreetView. Practically without fail, Google representations dated around 2015 show the buildings in a significantly worse shape than I found them in November of 2019; in some cases, the improvement was striking. Something must be said about positive regeneration that’s been going on in the city lately.

There is the White City Center on Bialik Square (which is open on a very limited schedule a couple of times a week) and the Bauhaus Center Tel Aviv on Dizengoff Street (which should be open more readily) that offer photo-galleries dedicated to the history of Tel Aviv construction, which may be worthwhile additions …

On this trip to the Czech Republic I had planned to see beside the treasure trove of Prague one new WHS and one new TWHS: The Villa Tugendhat in Brno and the Jested Tower near Liberec. None of it worked out. For the Villa Tugendhat even three weeks ahead was too late to find any space in a tour, they are now booked out for months ahead, even in wintertime. While I enjoyed Brno for its lively old town and the beautiful St. James church with its ossuary, I decided not to visit the Villa just from the the outside since the garden is hardly enjoyable in wintertime. After that we didn't do our day trip to Liberec either because the performance of two rare Rachmaninov operas that we had planned to see was cancelled. I decided instead to use that day for a short day trip to Kutna Hora. 

There is about one train per hour from Prague main station to Kutna Hora main station, sometimes you have to change trains in Kolin. From Kutna Hora main station you have often a very tiny, cute local train to the nearby stations of Kutna Hora Sedlec (for the Cathedral of our Lady) and Kutna hora mesto (for the old town, the mine, the church of St. Barbara etc.). With a little planning this additional train saves you a lot of walking through modern parts of the town. Better be well prepared because in the small trains the staff may …

March 2010 - actually it is a shame, that I have only spent a few hours in Bamberg so far. Since I am a Brewing Engineer, there is lots to discover in that town.

The world's most known malthouse is standing just next to the train Station, one of the most famous brewing Equipment suppliers is also located here. And of course, Bamber is home to the famous Rauchbier. Bacon flavoured beer, Yummi:) We caught a timespan, when we were the only tourists in town and After days of snow, spring was coming out and the town was decorated with daffodiles. We took a Map and walked from one brewery to the next, actually had 3 beers at 3 locations, and visited the Main sights during the walk. The bridgehouse is unique and also the cathedral is worth visiting. Apart from that there are lots of timberframed houses.

I will definitly come back again and already looking forward to Rauchbier again.

I made a 15-minute stop at Nuruosmaniye Mosque on my tour around Istanbul in November 2019. The mosque is located outside one of the entrances to the Grand Bazaar, well away from the main tourist hotspot of Sultanahmet; while it is technically on the path from Sultanahmet to Suleymaniye, Nuruosmaniye Mosque gets a tiny fraction of the traffic than the more famous attractions in Istanbul.

The architectural significance of the mosque is in the fact that it is as Baroque as a mosque can be. No restoration work needed or being undertaken - unlike in several other grand mosques that I visited - definitely contributed to the visual impact. It is clearly a standout piece of architecture and design. I was the only visitor on the mid-morning Saturday, while there were a couple of worshippers by the mihrab. My local guide asked a custodian to allow me to go up to the upper terraces of the mosque, but was rebuffed.

The tentative WH inscription calls the Nuruosmaniye complex the finest example of the "Ottoman Baroque" and builds its OUV on that. Although that is clearly distinct from the OUV of the existing Historic Areas of Istanbul WHS, I would be surprised if Nuruosmaniye ever becomes a separate site rather than an extension of the Istanbul one.