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Cocos is a difficult place to reach. It took us over 36 hours of cruising on a live aboard dive boat to reach. The island itself is I believe the “real life” inspiration for Jurassic park. Other than a couple of rangers who live on the shore the island is totally uninhabited....by humans. It is very mountainous and is covered in thick rain forest jungle with beautiful streams flowing into the ocean. Supposedly buried pirate treasure is to be found....forget about it as the jungle is for all practical purposes impenetrable. The real reason to come here is if you are an experienced diver. The waters around the island are filled with sea life including sharks, mantas, pilot whales, dolphins, tuna, etc. because of the lack of a human population. But if you want to see this life go soon because the Japanese, Chinese and other fishing fleets have been illegally raping the seas around the island. For example, for the sake of shark fin soup the shark population has been greatly diminished...the sharks are caught, the fin is cut off and the animal is thrown back to suffer and die. UNESCO designation means nothing to these modern day pirates.

Unesco's description for Cajamarca refers to Spanish-Andean culture and architectural styles spanning the 16th to 19th centuries without specifically mentioning any specific places. It then goes on to list several unrelated pre-Columbian temples and some hot springs scattered about outside of town that don't really fit into the title of the proposed site.  

Unfortunately we only had half a day to visit Cajamarca and I was feeling particularly unwell so we limited ourselves to the small historic centre. Without the energy to truly appreciate what we were seeing I can say that although it is small, we quite liked Cajamarca and found it to be architecturally unique from the other colonial Spanish centres in Peru and not just a smaller copy of the same stuff. There are 2 churches on the Plaza de Armas, both with nice detailed facades which reminded me of the facade of the Basilica de San Francisco in La Paz.

In addition to the rich pre-Columbian cultural history in the surrounding valley (as is so common throughout Peru), Cajamarca is most famous as the site of the Spanish capture and execution of the last Incan emperor, Atahualpa. The only remaining Incan site in town is a small room that was supposedly the place where Atahualpa was held and offered his famous ransom of gold and silver. There isn't much to see other than a small room, but the cheap (5 soles) tourist entry ticket includes entry to the nearby Belen church and small ethnographic …

Have you ever had that feeling when you didn't expect much from a "minor" site but for some reason, your experience visiting it was fun and satisfying? I would count visiting Zona Arqueologica de Yagul--which is part of the core zone of this WHS--as such. 

The Executive Summary indicates that the site contains pre-historic caves and rock shelters and a couple of pre-Hispanic archeological complexes, one of which is the archeological site of Yagul, commonly associated with the Zapotec civilization. The nomination text adds that this cultural landscape represents the interaction between "man and nature that gave origin to the domestication of plants...allowing the rise of Mesoamerican civilizations", which reminds me of one of the justifications/aspects of Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Valley WHS. If you haven't checked the map or the nomination file, you could probably make a mistake of thinking that you've ticked this one off by visiting the more popular archeological site of Mitla (which people said was excellent!).

My buddy and I drove to this site as a half-day trip from the city of Oaxaca on Holy Thursday, April 2019, chancing that it would be open during this important Catholic holiday. Getting there from Oaxaca is pretty straightforward, and the 40-minute drive through Hwy 190 is smooth despite the occasional pesky topes. For those taking public transportation, Lonely Planet says that there are buses that ply between Oaxaca and the town of Mitla, passing by the turnoff that leads to this site.

Sources indicate that the site …

To make it clear from the start: I think the Victoria Lines are a bad idea for a WHS. For my visit, I drove up to the Targa Batteries (which are signposted). It is the only part where some conservation efforts have been done by private enthusiasts. A friendly guy had me have a look around, but the gun positions are still just an overgrown pile of stones. This is private ground and not really open for tourists. The three main forts of the line all seem to be completely closed to tourists, so this is still the best possibility to see some of the fortification works up close. There is a path going along the fortification wall in the direction of Fort Bingemma, which actually makes for a nice hike. I walked along it for roughly one hour until I arrived at some intermediate hill battery, and you can see all three forts and more or less the complete fortification line from there. You can also see that there is not much to see of the fortifications. The views of the countryside are nice, though.

Though I had a good time hiking there, with no other tourists around and plenty of beautiful wilderness, I still think that this site definitely does not belong to the list. Now, purely military buildings are always a tough sell. In this case, it is even worse:- The buildings have no aesthetic qualities, nor were ever intended to have any.- The fortifications were …

Cave of the Patriarchs 

Dating back two thousand years ago, the two-metre thick stone wall which forms the exterior of the Cave is the only fully intact Herodian structure and one of the oldest buildings that still serves its original function. The Byzantine built a roof and turned it into a church; after changing hands from the Muslims to the Crusaders then back to the Muslims, Saladin remodelled the enclosure into a mosque in 1188. The caves, holding the tombs of the patriarchs and their wives, are closed off since the 1490s, forcing pilgrims to project their imaginations onto the respective cenotaphs instead.

For 700 years Jews were forbidden to enter — the closest they could get was up to the seventh step of an outer staircase. Jews began to migrate back to Hebron following the Six-Day War and at long last regained access to the Cave of the Patriarchs, although it continues to be managed by an Islamic charitable trust. Sharing a holy site proved to be anything but smooth, resulting in four attacks targeting Jews from 1968 to 1980, and after a period of calm, a massacre of 29 Palestinians at the hand of a radicalized Brooklyn-born Jew called Baruch Goldstein in 1994. Curfew was imposed on Hebron for two months, disproportionately affecting the Palestinians. Goldstein’s grave has inexplicably become a pilgrimage site for Jewish extremists.

As prevention of further bloodshed the Cave has since been split into two, creating a bizarre scenario where …

Bugeun-ri, Ganghwa: The tourist park is now being expanded at the back to include four more extant dolmens within the vicinity --- one, which is half buried, seems to be even bigger than the capstone of Big Dolmen (Bugeulli jiseok). I also decided to take a leisurely walk further into the adjoining pine forest-- a good idea to escape from the heat. Walking for 2 hours back and forth, I encountered no other person at all. One interesting dolmen there showed some carved holes, suggesting the method and outline the ancient people used in cutting these megaliths. The dolmens, though most of them are the unsupported capstone type with a few being collapsed table type, are all properly marked with their respective dolmen number and the WHS logo. There is even one dolmen that is not part of the inscribed ones, but is also protected on a local level and is marked differently (no WHS logo).

Hidden in what nowadays is the Eastern border region of Poland Zamosc is a well preserved Baroque fortification town. It was built by an Italian architect from Padua. While there may be Italian influences, to me it felt Eastern European, similar to Nesvizh.

The most memorable spot is the colorful old market square (Rynek Wielki, photo). When I came much needed renovations were ongoing as the state of preservation was not great. In addition there are plenty of fortifications to explore. Just outside the fortifications to the North West you find the lovely Park Miejski.

Getting There

Zamosc is tucked away in a rather remote corner of Poland. Be prepared to spend some time to get there if you plan to visit from Poland's touristic hot spots (Cracow and Warsaw). Myself, I came from Rzeszów where I had visited some of the Wooden Churches of the region. To get to Zamosc I had to make a major detour and change in Lublin. Luckily, Lublin has a nice old town as I had to spend a few hours waiting for my connecting train.

The next day I left Zamosc for Ukraine. Unfortunately, the bus from Warsaw to Lwiw/Lvov/Lemberg does not stop in Zamosc, even though it passes through. I had to take a local bus to Tomaszów Lubelski first, an unmemorable border town on the border, where I boarded the bus to Ukraine.

As always: Use e-podroznik to research your travel options in Poland.

The catacombs in Malta have everything a true catacomb should have: A proud roman/christian origin,an underground labyrinth and a slightly creepy athmosphere. I have visited the St Pauls and the St Agatha catacombs in Rabat. They are in walking distance to Mdina, but can be a bit difficult to find. Especially tricky is the fact that the St Pauls church offers visits to the St Pauls grotto (and catacombs - but not THAT catacombs). In fact, all these catacombs might have been connected in ancient times, and the different names and access methods originate from more modern times. The difference between the St Pauls and St Agatha catacombs is mainly in the operation method. St Pauls catacombs are operated by Heritage Malta and accept the Malta multipass. The tour is self-guided, and you can easily make photos. St Agatha catacombs must be paid extra, and be explored with a tour. The visited area is smaller than St Pauls, and photographs are forbidden. As a plus, St Agatha comes with an underground chapel with very nice frescos. Also, many tombs have the original bones inside of them, adding to the athmosphere.The visiting experience in both catacombs was quite nice, although there are very few decorations or inscriptions. Compared with the catacombs in Rome, the experience is roughly similar, although the catacombs of Rome are much bigger and more famous. All in all, the catacombs are one of the stronger entries in Maltas tentative list. The big question is if the catacombs …

I first traveled Mexico's Royal Road, the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, in 1998 as part of a church mission trip which took me from El Paso by road to Durango. It's a shame I wasn't particularly aware of the significance of the route at the time, and I didn't pay much attention to the historic center of Durango. I corrected this oversight on a visit to Mexico City almost 20 years later in January 2017. I wasn't content to count the Zócalo as the only representation of this World Heritage Site, which includes 60 different sites related to the historic road, so I took a day trip out to Tepotzotlán, a small, charming city just north of the capital. Tepotzotlán is home to the former college of San Francisco Javier which in the 16th century trained Jesuit priests who would later serve throughout "New Spain". This inscribed site highlights the religious importance of the Camino Real. It is now also home to an incredible museum dedicated to the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The museum showcases liturgical art and artifacts and colonial furniture and collections amidst the many rooms in the historic complex. Most spectacular is the gilded excess of the Church of San Francisco Javier, an amazing sight to behold. If you have time in Mexico City, I highly recommend a day trip to Tepotzotlán to see this museum.

Logistics: There are direct buses from Mexico City (via the bus stations next to the Cuatro Caminos and Rosario …

July 2018 - Roadtrip to Normandy. On our third day of the trip we started in the Eifel and made a stopover in Aachen to visit this cathedral of historical importance. Charle le Magne, Karl der Große was baptized here. What shall I say, we did not expect such a beautiful, fairy tale like church in Germany. It has byzantine norman influences, a lot of mosaics, and just a wonderful atmopshere. From outside it is already intersting with its 3 differnet roof shapes, but the interior I would say is unique. We walked around the cathedral about 30min, but mostly marveled at the Kaiserkapelle.

If you are in this region of Germany, make your way there and allow enough time to visit.

July 2018 - WHS number 5 on that day. What a day!Just before arriving at our next overnight stop, we still wanted to visit this WHS.

What shall I say. a nice castle, but one of 1000nds in Europe. We walked around Augustburg, visited the gardens. There was not much more to do. We didnt have the time to visit the Falkenlust castle but saw it driving by with the car. Ticked of, perfect!

Paris is a lovely city. I don't go for “city of love” or anything like that, from a pure sightseeing point of view there is so much to do the 3 days I spent here were not enough, and that's didn't even include Versailles and the other things past the A86 ring road such as Saint Denis cathedral, the Nestle chocolate or Hangar Y. The arc, the tower, the basilica, Notre Dame (no access due to the fire which is very sad), the Louvre and that's just a few highlights. The only downsides I have are crowds (tourist groups) and general Parisian rudeness.

I also did the unthinkable: drive to some of these places! May 1st had zero traffic in town and parking is free. We decided that 5 people buying another metro pass would be too expensive and in the end walking and transportation exchanges would have taken triple the time. Why not just park 50m away from the Eiffel tower or just off the roundabout of the Arc the Triomphe? The only problem was that the Arc was off limits with a massive police presence all around town (ensuring no protests take place?)

The Cittadella is a tiny walled city in the center of Victoria, the main city on the island of Gozo. However, most houses inside the walls have been abandoned and torn down, so only the church and a few other houses are standing. What is mostly intact are the defensive structures, with large walls, bastions and gun platforms. While there are a number of small museums and attractions inside the cittadella, the best thing to do is walk around the ramparts and enjoy the view. You can see almost the entire island from there.

The biggest problem for the cittadella nomination is that the Mdina tentative site is quite similar, but better. Mdina is bigger, more complete, more beautiful and has more history. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the cittadella, Mdina is just the better choice for a WHS site.

Visited in April 2019.Importance 2/5 Beauty 3/5 Uniqueness 3/5 Environment 5/5 Experience 3/5

July 2018 - On our roadtrip to Normandy we finally visited Cologne. Probably the most beautiful cathedral of Germany and maybe on one level with the french cacthedrals, that were to follow on our trip.

Cologne ist the 4th biggest city in Germany, but i never felt the urge to visit it, except the cacthedral. Around noon we arrived in Cologne. We took a walk through the city, arrived at the cathedral and spent at least 30 min there. The cathedral was started during the gothic era, owever it was finished only in the beginning of the 20th century. Anyway, when stepping in the church its just marvelous. Every window is different, the golden mosaics are just beautiful and also modern parts, like Gerd Richters window are contributing to the uniqueness of this building. 

Supposedly the remains of the three wise men are burried here. Nice shrine, and mysterious story, how they came here. Another highlight un Cologne: It has its own beer style Kölsch, which you can try in any of the Kölsch Brauhäuser. There are a few around the old town. We chose Mühlenkölsch, which still brew their beer on site. So we had a nice lunch with a number of Kölsch.

There is clearly an opposition to glorify war memorials by the advisory board and I used to agree until I visited the sites in Belgium and France to see the WWI funeral sites. These do not glorify the war at all. They instead remind us how countries bonded together to protect each other, something I don't see as black and white in today's political climate.

Right from the start these sites are pretty grim. They do not talk about “victory”, only about the losses of protecting Belgium and France. I am not going to go into the war details, that you can read up online of course, but it clear to me that these sites differ from any war memorial in the world's including Pearl Harbor, funeral sites in Turkey, Normandy beaches, countless others. The main difference is that these sites tend to show their own losses in war and how they won or suffered, not how the world came together to protect from “evil”.

The main highlights to visit are Tyne Cot cemetery and Menin Gate. Each doesn't take long to see but gave me lots to think about. If you can time your visit with an event at the gate you are even better off.

This nomination needs more focus. From the description, it is not clear which cliffs and coasts are included and which are not (and why). The super generic name doesn't help either. As it is, the nomination might include the complete coastline of Malta and the neighbouring islands, including the Dwejra area, that is part of another tentative site. I have wandered around the Dingli cliff area (where the location marker seems to be), have visited the Mnajdra temple (whose cliff area is mentioned in the description) and stared intensely at the coastline of Comino (which has its own section in the description). Have I therefore visisted the site ? Who knows. What I can say is that the cliffs are indeed gorgeous to look at and wander around, although the access can be a bit difficult. Bad for the tourists, good for the nature. The most visited area seems to be the cliffs near Dingli (Dwejra excluded - they can't really have nominated it twice). There is a road with bus stops nearby, although parking spaces are very limited. I discovered that the best views cannot be gotten from the bus stop/parking lot near the radar station, but from the rock outlook further south (at the "Zuta" bus stop). There is also a nice hiking path starting there, but no parking space at all.

Although I had a fun time here, I cannot see how this nomination can get a WHS in the current shape. Even the much better …

July 2018 - another hour after visiting Fagus Factory we arrived in Corvey.

Quite an impressive convent, abbey and Castle. I have learned in school about the significance of that Karolingian Complex. It is located quite nicely and seems very authentic. However, we didnt want to spend the money for taking a tour. We visited the abbey, the gardens and could have a glance at the castle. We were there still quite early, so not many tourists were there yet. Again we were happy to see another german WHS site.

Dwejra lies on the western coast of Malta's sister island Gozo. The rock cliffs are especially rugged and picturesque here, with various spectacular natural attractions, like the "Inland-sea" lagoon, the blue hole diving spot and the "fungus rock" island. The best known attraction however, the "azure window" rock arch, has collapsed and vanished without much trace. The area is still a major tourist stop, with lots of people wandering around the rocks making selfies, so don't expect some kind of wilderness experience. Especially the inland sea lagoon is totally surrounded by quays and tourist bars, and is not really beautiful to look at. As often, you can escape the tourist hordes by venturing further outside. Wandering along the cliffs can be quite rewarding, and there is still much beauty to be found.

As a WHS nomination, the site has some problems. The loss of the azure window makes the site less iconic. More importantly, the general uniqueness is questionable. There are a lot of rock cliffs around the world, and many are beautiful and full of rare plants. The nomination text emphasizes the rareness of the vegetation, but I am not convinced. It doesn't help that the most prominent plant, the Malta Fungus, turned out to not be as endemic as thought. One more problem of the nomination is the quite similar tentative entry of Malta named "Coastal Cliffs".

All in all, I would rate the site in the category: Very nice, but not special enough for a …

I visited this site in August 2015, together with a friend who lived in Norway then, and I haven't much to add to Els's review about the WHS itself.

But if you haven't seen it, watch the tv-series The Heavy Water War (Kampen om Tungtvannet) (shortly) before going there. Of course, it's dramatised and not 100% accurate, but it's a nicer way to understand what happened here in WW2 than the museum can show you. It'll help you to breathe in the region's history when you're walking in the valley or across the hills. Perhaps that's what made me give it the extra half star.

(The picture is showing the Sun Mirrors that Els already mentioned; funny enough of it's own to watch from a nice terrace below.)

July 2018 - Roadtrip to France. After visiting Hildesheim we drove further to Alsfeld. around 9h we arrived the beautiful piece of architecture. A masterpiece and predecessor of Constructivist architecture.

We didnt want another 2 hours for the the first tour that day, anyway we were not that interested in the manufacturing of shoe lasts. We took a slow walk around the building, scrutinizing the details of the factory. The windows, the chimney, the combination of bricks and glass, all that is suiting perfectly. The place is very inviting, and you can easily take a walk also outside the opening times. Thanks to WHS we got to see this spot.