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If you are looking for the Irish monastery ruin, then Clonmacnoise is probably what you are looking for. The lovely ruins are situated along the banks of the Shannon river near the very center of Ireland. The location chosen was at the time a key trading hub with several trade routes crossing, so the monastery was well positioned to spread Christianity in Ireland.

Founded in the 6th century, it reached its largest expansion in the 12th century. The many remains still visible today give a good impression of the size and wealth of the monastery in medieval times.

The wealth also led to a long line of raiders attacking and ransacking the place, first Vikings, next Normans and then English. It’s final demise came at the hand of Cromwell’s forces in the 17th century when it and hundreds of other Irish monasteries were destroyed and never rebuilt.

The site is quite popular with organized tours. As a German I involuntarily joined multiple guided tours in my native language. It also features a museum providing context and showing a few of the high crosses to protect them from the harsh Irish climate.

OUV

To me there is little doubt that this should be inscribed. This is the quintessential Irish monastery ruin. Only issue I would see is how this relates to the other Irish monastery nomination, the Early Medieval Monastic Sites: Clonmacnoise is the very definition of an early medieval monastic site. One solution would …

I just wanted to add the Fujiwara part of this nomination. 

I visited the site in 2010 where the Fujiwara Palace of the Asuka Period used to stand, as shown in the photo. 

I'd say this is important because the palaces of the kings, Tenno in Japanese, is perhaps the most important in any period.

In the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara WHS, for example, the Nara Palace, called Heijo-kyo in Japanese, is the only one of its kind; all the other six elements of the WHS are religious edifices. (But the Nara Palace has been reconstructed; the Fujiwara Palace has not, as shown in the photo.)

In the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto WHS I do not know why the Kyoto Palace, called Heian-kyo or Kyoto Gosho in Japanese, is not included in the WHS. It's most likely because it is just like the fact that the Jingu in Ise is not even nominated for a WHS, even though it is without a doubt the single most important historic site in Japan by any means: as the Japanese thinking goes, they are so important that they should not be protected by foreign money. 

The Fujiwara Palace can be most conveniently reached from the Yagi-Nishiguchi train station on the Kintetsu Kashihara Line, four stations north of the Asuka station. From the train station it's about 2 km away. 

The T List “Area of the Prespes Lakes” (etc!) consists of those parts of Great and Little Lake Prespa (and adjacent land) which belong to Greece. They have been designated a Greek "National Park" for both natural and cultural reasons and this has been mirrored in the T List entry. However, the Lakes are shared with FYROM ("Macedonia") and Albania - neither of whom has placed their area onto their T List! Furthermore, they are situated extremely close to FYROM's existing "Mixed" WHS of "The Ohrid Region". Indeed, at its closest point, the current Ohrid core zone boundary is only 2.6 kms in a direct line from the FYROM banks of Great Lake Prespa, whilst its buffer zone actually reaches it! When we visited Prespes in Apr 2018 we had just come from Lake Ohrid and inevitably found ourselves drawing contrasts and comparisons between the 2, as well as considering what the impact of its near neighbour’s inscribed status might be if it were ever to try for Nomination. 

We had found the mix of Nature and Culture presented in the Ohrid WHS very unsatisfactory. The Macedonian lakeside has been significantly (over) developed and towns like Struga (pop 16500) and even much of Ohrid (pop 42000) are not only of no cultural value, but even detract from the natural values of the Lake area. In 1979 it had been nominated for both Natural and Cultural reasons (under the name of "Ensemble Naturel et historique de la …

In June 2008, I made my second visit to Oporto. J.K. Rowling taught English in Oporto for two years in the early 1990s, when she wrote the first few chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first novel in the series. Oporto has since parlayed her stay into a cornerstone of its tourism industry. Livraria Lello & Irmão, the city’s stunning bookstore, claims to have inspired Hogwarts Grand Staircase. Due to its tenuous connection to the series, the bookstore has become one of the city’s most visited attractions, in such demand that visitors are required to purchase a €5 credit, which can be applied against a purchase. From what I saw, the bookstore derives most of its revenue from the breakage of unused credits. The bookstore is located in the buffer zone of the Historic Centre of Oporto, Luiz I Bridge and Monastery of Serra do Pilar WHS.

Oct 2017 - Another day in Greece….. another “Greek” ruin….! Well not really - ok Philippi is in Greece and was named by Philip II of Macedon in 356BC when he captured it for its nearby gold mines and strategic position, but this is no Delphi or Delos. There are some remains of “Greek” civilisation - but what you are going to see is primarily a late Roman colony planned as “Colonia Victrix Philippensium”. This occurred as “late” as 30BC following the Battle of Philippi 10 years earlier, and the city then developed into an early centre of Christianity - particularly from the 4th C, until it withered in the late 6th C.

Greece has only added 2 sites to its inscribed list in the 21st Century - Corfu in 2007 and Philippi in 2016. One can understand perhaps a certain reluctance to put forward yet more archaeological sites from classical “Greek” civilisation and the “Roman” and “early Christian” ruins of Philippi do “fill in” another period across the long “continuum” of Greek history. But I do wish they would get round to Knossos and Akrotiri!!

My main memory of Philippi is of a vast area of stone blocks hardly rising above ground level, which form the layout of the Roman City (Photo). Scattered around are a few taller pillars and walls, but the site lacks any really significant “sight” whether artistic or architectural. The, originally “Greek”, theatre is not particularly noteworthy among many such remaining …

Initially I was skeptical whether it would be a good idea to visit three monasteries on two consecutive days. Or whether it would be rather an overkill of sacral architecture. But it turned out to be an enjoyable and instructive experience to visit them one after another and directly compare the different styles: the rather plain and sober Alcobaça, the flamboyant Batalha, and the fortress-like Tomar. The three monasteries could not be more different, hardly possible to say which one was my favourite.

The Convento de Cristo was built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century as a combination of a monastery and a fortress. In the following centuries, the convent was extended and redesigned, today it consists of buildings dating from the Medieval Period to the 18th century.You enter the convent through the abundantly decorated south portal, a first example of the Gothic-Manueline style. The centre of the monastery complex is the original round church of the Templars, the Charola. Later, the Charola was extended by a nave and a choir. But do not expect a huge church as in Alcobaça or Batalha, it is a small building compared to the size of the whole convent and the octagon with its beautiful murals is one of the highlights of the visit. Another one is the west façade of the church with the famous Manueline window. You should take your time to study all the details, the maritime references are clearly visible: ropes and sailor’s knots, coral motifs …

I spent several days in Dakar in June 2018. On my first morning, I caught an early ferry to Île de Gorée, which, at least according to UNESCO, was the largest slave-trading center on the African coast from the 15th century to abolition in the 19th century. Although many historians disagree with that assessment, Île de Gorée has become an essential stop for the African diaspora, including President and Mrs. Obama, who visited the Maison des Esclaves and its windowless cells and “door of no return” in 2013. I also visited the slave house, even though academics have generally agreed since the 1990s that the house was more likely to have been a private home than to have been involved in the slave trade. Whether or not Île de Gorée played an important role in the transatlantic slave trade, the small island has become a moving place to contemplate the human toll of African slavery.

Having spent five days in The Gambia in early June 2018, it’s easy to appreciate why the smallest nation on the African continent has been nicknamed The Smiling Coast of Africa. I organized two full-day tours with Arch Tours. Since I traveled during shoulder season, I wasn't able to join group tours, so Arch Tours graciously charged me the same price for an individual tour as I would have paid for a group tour -- and traveling in June allowed me to have each site to myself. Each tour company runs a variation of a tour to visit several sites in one day. On Arch's Four Tours in One Day, I visited Serekunda Market, the country's largest (although I later visited Albert Market in Banjul, which seems just as large, better organized and more photogenic); Kachikally Crocodile Pool, a popular destination for women struggling with getting pregnant, who come from around The Gambia to douse themselves in its supposedly curative water; Abuko Livestock Market, the largest cattle, sheep and goat market in The Gambia; and a fishing beach, where the daily catch is smoked or salted under the hot sun.

In 1976, Alex Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family, where he traces his genealogy back to Kunta Kinte and The Gambia. According to Haley, Kunta Kinte was born around 1750 in the village of Jufureh on the north bank of the River Gambia. Since the success of the 1977 miniseries, Jufureh has …

The island of Fogo is quite small, but it has the highest peak of Cape Verde, active volcano Pico de Fogo. The volcano and its surroundings (with natural boundaries of its caldera) are protected as a national park. Although the landscape is moonscape-like and, at least at the first glance, not friendly, due to mild climate and rich soil people always lived in the caldera, planting coffee and grapewine. They even developed original rounded houses, made from volcanic materials and called funco. Unfortunately, happy life in the caldera is frequently interrupted by eruptions of smaller peak of Fogo (Pico Pequeno). The last one took place in 2014 and lasted for four months. It was very slow so people had time to leave the village taking everything valuable. Although almost all buildings were covered with lava and destroyed, immediately after the eruption the inhabitants came back and started constructing new houses, literally “level up”, on top of the remnants of old ones. The landscape of the village and surroundings is really outstanding and one of the most memorable ones in Cape Verde. It is also one of the best examples of human adaptation to difficult conditions near volcanoes. If caboverdian government emphasizes this cultural aspect, I would cheer them on success of the nomination as a WHS.

The David Gareji Monasteries and Hermitage are located in the far southeast of Georgia, right on the border with Azerbaijan. There is no public transport that goes all the way there, but every day at 11 o'clock a special shuttle bus (The Gareji Line) departs from the Pushkin statue in the center of Tbilisi. This will take you to the monastery for 25 lari (8 EUR), and will return 3 hours after arrival. You cannot reserve this bus and I was afraid that it would be very busy on a Saturday when I had planned to visit. It was, but in that case they just send another bus.

The drive there takes 2.5 hours, with the landscape becoming more and more beautiful along the way. At the end you’re in a vast steppe with rolling green hills and many birds. The monasteries are built against a cliff, and that gives them their special charm. In the rocks there are hundreds of natural and carved caves: they were used as monks cells, chapels and churches. The site consists of two parts: the Lavra monastery at the entrance, where a dozen or so monks live and they are busy renovating at the moment. And the Udabno monastery, at the top of the rocks.

The shuttle bus is ‘transport only’, so for finding the sights we’re on our own. I started to follow an arrow marked 'Udabno' that points up from behind the monastery shop. This turned out to be a …

I arrived in Batalha around lunchtime on a Sunday in May 2018. Coming from the rather sleepy town of Alcobaça, the quite lively Batalha was a pleasant surprise. The service was just over and the squares around the monastery were crowded with churchgoers, locals and tourists. I decided to wait a bit until the crowds had dispersed and took a snack in one of the nearby restaurants.

After lunch and after a walk around the outside of the large monastery complex I entered the church. Compared with the exuberant exterior, the interior of the church is plain and elegant, not much different from Alcobaça. But this impression changes when you visit the monastery. It is famous for the Gothic-Manueline architecture. The opinions differ widely: "magnificent gem" or "over-the-top decor". I tend more towards the latter, nevertheless, it is fun to explore all the architectural details and the opulent decor. A highlight of this style is certainly the Royal Cloister or Clastro Real (photo): the combination of Gothic arches and Manueline tracery supported by slender columns is unique. And of course the Capelas Imperfeitas, in particular the Manueline portal, more decoration is hardly possible.However, my favourite room was the Chapterhouse: a large, rectangular room with a single star-shaped rib vault, without a supporting column in the centre. A daring construction at that time, but with an impressive result, both aesthetically and technically. After leaving the monastery, I went back to the entrance to have a final look at the details …

A few points about Bassae following our visit in Oct 2017.

a. Its Architectural significance

Bassae doesn’t exactly “wow” at first sight. It is certainly wildly and remotely situated but, beyond that, lacks what I might call “first order appeal” (look at its “rating” on this site!). It consists primarily of a rectangle of crumbling pillars, plus some “internal walls” - all much smaller and less “impressive” than its “big brother”, the Parthenon, with which it is approximately contemporaneous (c450-400BC). All is hidden under a rather grubby, disintegrating tent which has been in place since 1987 during a “long term” (!!) restoration project. The tent of course totally destroys one of the building’s main attributes - namely its relationship with its setting. Early photos in the next link below show it in its unshrouded glory.

Back in Athens, the queues for the Parthenon would no doubt have been reaching epic proportions, but at Bassae we were almost alone. There was, however, a group of US graduate school students who were being shown round by a professor from Oxford - so we “followed” them. And he found plenty to talk about – its location, its orientation, its internal layout, its proportions, its decoration, its religious uses, who built it, who copied it etc etc! Wiki says “Although this temple is geographically remote from major polities of ancient Greece, it is one of the most studied ancient Greek temples because of its multitude of unusual features” - …

It probably goes without saying that Petra is an incredible site - one of the best in the world. I had high expectations before arriving and my visit exceeded them!

I spent about 10 hours at the site over just one day. I arrived with a tour group at about 6am and we toured around the main sights together until about 11am. Then I had another five hours on my own.

My first recommendation would be to get there early. It was magical arriving really early in the morning before other tourists arrived. Having the walk through the canyon without the crowds and then seeing the treasury (and being able to take photos) with nobody in front of me was incredible. I won't forget it soon!

There's a main path through Petra that you can follow and you'll see many of the main landmarks in the central area.

There are two other hikes you can do that I would recommend with one day. The first is the hike up to the Monastery - it's just as spectacular as The Treasury and the setting is special in a different way. The other hike is up to the viewpoint high above the Treasury, coming the back way from near the Royal Tombs. The view is beautiful and there are some nice cafes to take a rest.

If it helps anyone, I've put together a map and instructions on my blog with these tips of how to visit …

Possibly because I was primed for an underwhelming experience for my first 'early hominid' fossil site WHS, I actually quite enjoyed my daytrip from Yogyakarta to Sangiran. The museum exhibits were pretty decent, but without a background in geology or the other scientific fields involved, a lot of the summations of facts and figures and dates didn't really stick. While English versions of the exhibits were clearly abridged summaries of the Indonesian language versions, they were generally present and basically useful.

My visit became interesting, beyond simply the halls of the main museum, when I realised that I hadn't properly clarified what the specific boundaries of the WHS were before setting off in the morning. As I didn't have access to phone internet that day, I had a minor panic that the museum was only in a buffer zone and that I needed to find an actual dig site. Luckily, I thought, a man approached me upon leaving the museum to take me to 'the site'. I saw nearby a large billboard advertising the recent opening of four new museums in the Sangiran area, so I assumed he meant one of these, as surely they were constructed over the dig sites. 

So I got on his bike, and he took me down a random dirt path until we got off, and he directed me to start walking into a field. Soon, he pointed at some dirt and stated that he, personally, found homo erectus there in the early …

Since the retreat of the controversial Bagrati Cathedral, Gelati Monastery can shine in its own right. And what a sight this is. Its wall paintings are overwhelming and intriguing at the same time, because the depicted people far exceed the average list of Christian holy figures. They show saints and historical figures from Georgia and the Byzantine empire in their most beautiful clothing.

The 12th-century Gelati Monastery dates back to the Golden Age of medieval Georgia. The complex consists of 3 churches, a free-standing bell tower and an academy building. It was for a long time the cultural center of Georgia, with its own academy where the best scientists, theologians and philosophers worked.

From the center of Kutaisi, a minibus leaves 5 times a day directly to this monastery. It starts from a small parking lot with some other local minibusses at the back of Meskhishvili Theatre. The ride costs 1 lari (0.30 EUR). The 4 pm bus that I took only transported women: a few living along the route who had gone shopping in the city, another tourist and me. We two were the only ones that remained on the bus til the end. You can already see the monastery from a distance, on a hill amongst the greenery. The drive takes only a short 20 minutes.

The complex has the (for Georgia) usual set of souvenir and snack stalls in the parking lot. A small courtyard contains the 3 churches, the bell tower and the …

Rather than as a day trip from Labuanbajo, I visited Komodo National Park over the third and fourth days of a four-day boat trip from Lombok to Flores. While I wholeheartedly recommend this experience for viewing the aquatic elements of the inscribed area, it is absolutely not the best way to see the Komodo dragons if that is your primary reason for visiting the national park.

The tour stopped at a few standard beach-stops along the route within the National Park, along with up to eight other tourist boats. Some of these stops allowed for fine but not exceptional snorkeling, with patches of coral and a lot of fish, but others were stunning. For me, Komodo National Park is a 5-star destination solely due to its manta ray population. The advertising material for the boat trip promised a designated 'Manta Point', which I cynically assumed probably wouldn't actually yield any mantas. I was overjoyed to be wrong, with three of the large, graceful creatures spotted immediately. Snorkelling above these weird fish in 6-10 metres of clear water was a magical experience.

In stark contrast, the dragons were a pretty disappointing conclusion to the cruise. I am not sure if we received poor service from the park rangers due to us being a group of 30 backpackers, or if other groups departing from Flores get similar treatment. Maybe it was because we visited Komodo Island, rather than the more popular and accessible Rinca Island, as no other visitors were …

When my boss told me that I have to go to Cairo for short business trip during the Ramadan, while I felt really happy to visit Egypt, I had load of questions and concerns, not only from my assignments, but I had no idea what is do and don’t during the Islam fasting month, do I have to eat breakfast before sunrise? Or can I drink water in the meeting room, etc. etc. and as a World Heritage Traveler, do I have time to visit Historic Cairo and the Pyramids! I really interested to visit old Cairo, because this city is a treasure trove of Islam architectures. With a bit of luck, I managed to have half day city tour to visit Old Cairo in the afternoon. Bad news was most of attraction will be closed early around 3 PM because of Ramadan, so instead of focus on single monument complex like the Citadel, I decided to visit the historic Al Moez Ldin Allah Al Fatimi Street or shortly Al-Muizz which according to Wikipedia this street have the greatest concentration of medieval architectural treasures in the Islamic world.

I started my visit at the iconic Bab Zuwaila, the old south city gate, its thick wall and beautiful twin high towers were just great introduction of Cairo’s incredible art. With my great regret all the entrance to every attraction were already closed even before 3 PM, so I had no chance to see the interior courtyard of all those …

Although Fogo is one of the most interesting islands of Cape Verde, not many tourist go there. Majority of those who choose to visit Fogo, stay in its capital, Sao Filipe. Sao Filipe is a small town, located on the high cliff, so the ocean is visible from practically everywhere. The town is poorer than caboverdian average and preserved most of its colonial style. There are even no asphalted roads, only cobblestone ones, which makes the town more “authentic” than, say, popular and modernized Mindelo. Despite that, it may be difficult to document outstanding universal value of this place, especially taking into account that the local government does not care of historic integrity of the town – so there are new, modern looking buildings next to historical ones.

I visited this tentative WHS (aiming for inscription shortly) as a side trip from Cordoba in September 2017. The view from above (just before the entrance) was the highlight of my visit together with the museum. The closer you get to what is left the more you notice the reconstruction work and the OUV (if any) of the what remains gradually subsides. The site's importance in Islamic architecture and its OUV in terms of what it once was would make it a worthy extension to the WHS of Cordoba but in my opinion it does not deserve to be inscribed on its own.

Upper Svaneti is among the most remote WHS in Europe, and one that has been on my travel wish list for a long time. It was a fairly dangerous place until 2003, “when robbing the foreign visitors was almost a daily thing”. Since then it has arrived slowly on the beaten tourist track. The road to get there is steadily improving as well: it took me 2.5 hours from Zugdidi to Mestia and another 2 hours to cover the final 44km from Mestia to the Ushguli valley with the WHS (full-size marshrutka’s still taking longer than the shared jeep taxis which I took). I stayed for 3 nights in the Svaneti capital of Mestia, a lively town similar to a ski resort.

At the central square of Mestia, jeeps and minibuses congregate daily to take tourists on a trip to Ushguli. The asking price for a spot in a jeep for a return trip is 50 lari (17 EUR), and a private car costs 200 lari. I did not want to wait for a jeep to fill up, so I splurged on the private option. The road still needs a 4WD because of the many potholes that fill up with rainwater, and the muddy state of it all. We did encounter some brave cycling tourists along the way, however. The surrounding landscape is just beautiful: narrow, green valleys with high peaks on either side which still hold a lot of snow. This area has the highest mountains in Georgia, …