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I visited here in fall of 2007.

Located a short distance out of Gyeongju, the Seokguram Grotto and Bluguksa Temple are two completely different w sites put under the same world heritage banner. The Seokguram Grotto was a real disappointment. It is much more difficult to get to, sitting on the top of a mountain, and up a winding road. You have to walk about 10-15 min to get there, and when you do get there, it is a tiny alcove where you can’t take photos, and the Buddha is walled off behind glass.

The Bluguska Temple, however, is the most impressive thing in the Gyeongju area. It was the best-preserved temple I visited in South Korea and is a rather large complex. The above photo is the front of the Seokguram Grotto. Both the temple and the shrine can be visited from Gyeongju on a half day trip via taxi or organized tour.

Read more about the Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple on my website.

I visited this site with my wife in June 2017. We had a rental car and so were able to drive directly to the village itself. The bridge is quite impressive, though a bit smaller than I expected. Very beautifully constructed though, and the way the paths run around the gorge you can see it from most angles.

We also visited the New Bedlam blast furnaces but they were being restored and were fully fenced off. We also drove over to the museum but decided it was too expensive to fully explore. Here the large blast furnaces are in a separate building at the far end of the car park, so if it's quiet you might be able to sneak in and have a quick look. Not that we did that of course ;)

Overall it's an interesting site, but fairly typical of the UK Industrial Revolution sites. Not somewhere I'd particularly recommend going out of your way for, but a diversion to see the bridge is well worth it.

See below for my full video review!

My wife and I visited in early June 2017. This was a surprising site for me, as I didn't have particularly high expectations but Blenheim Palace far exceeded them.

It was originally built by the first Duke of Marlborough to celebrate his victory over the Austrians in the Spanish War of Secession (in Blenheim, southern Germany). It's still their ancestral home and Sir Winston Churchill was born here.

The exterior is very grand and impressive, and the interior is quite good too. Lots of variety in the rooms, from the austere front rooms to the lush formal living areas at the back. It's still used as a home occasionally, so large parts of it are still off-limits - don't expect to access every part of it!

There's a large exhibition about Churchill on the ground floor too, though I skimmed through this as I'd visited the War Rooms in London a couple of weeks prior and it was retreading similar areas.

The palace grounds are enormous and beautiful too. Lakes, cascading water, fountains, a butterfly garden, hedge maze for kids to play in, and the list goes on. Good separation between formal and informal gardens too.

See below for my full video review:

The Historic Centre of L’viv presents an eclectic mix of architectural and artistic highlights of both Eastern European and Western origin. I stayed there for 2 nights during the long Pentecost weekend. The city is very popular with Polish tourists – the border is only an hour away – and has a lively atmosphere with cafés, terraces and street performers. Cost levels are very low, they are comparable to those in Belarus which I visited last year and a fraction (25-30%) of those in Western Europe. It is easy to navigate in L’viv as signs around town are in English as well: a souvenir from the Euro 2012 football championships.

L'viv has traditionally been a trading city, and has been part of the Kingdom of Poland (until 1772) and Austria-Hungary (until 1918). It attracted different populations that lived in their own communities - from Armenians to Jews, and from Ukrainians to Germans and Hungarians. Reminders of this multicultural history can still be found, though most of them have only been revived since post-Soviet times. Much of the buildings that one sees nowadays around town date back to ca. 1900, and subsequently there is a lot of Art Nouveau.

The city has no exceptional highlights that would warrant a WH listing on its own and it lacks a certain prettiness that for example attracts the tourist masses to a town like Cesky Krumlov, but there is a bunch of sights that are worth seeing anyway. The Armenian Cathedral for …

The Central Zone of the Town of Angra do Heroismo in the Azores was a relatively early WHS (1983). As no nomination files of that period have been made public and the ICOMOS evaluations at the time were concise, the ‘Why’ of the nomination and inscription isn’t well-documented. The only thing that stands out is that Angra was an important port-of-call during the maritime explorations of the 15th and 16th centuries. How this is linked to tangible elements in Angra itself is rather unclear. Maybe just ‘being there’ halfway between Europe, Equatorial Africa and the West Indies was enough.

Angra is located on the island of Terceira, one of the 9 islands of the Azores. To get there I used the weekly direct flight by charter company TUI from Amsterdam to Terceira. My fellow passengers on the full flight were mostly Dutch senior citizens. The flight to Terceira airport took only 3 hours and 40 minutes, and afterwards I immediately hired a taxi to take me to Angra where I was to stay for 3 nights. My first impression of the town was that it seems colourful and festive (possibly related to the weeklong Sao Jao festival), and not overly touristy.

It was still way too early to check in to my hotel, so I decided to start with the 1.5-hour walking tour of the town center that is described in the Bradt travel guide. It connects several churches and other points of (low) interest such as an …

Boyana Church is in a quiet, upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of Sofia. It has three distinct eras of construction, from the 10th, 13th, and 19th centuries. The church was restored and maintained with the support of Queen Eleonora, whose grave is on the site.

Inside, there are original frescoes, including one I particularily liked of St. Sofia.

Visiting is easy, it's a quick (maybe 10-15 leva) taxi ride from almost anywhere in the city. In Boyana neighborhood is a movie studio, so if you want to try your luck at spotting American actors on a lunch break, head to the restaurant Cinnecitta nearby afterward.

I have a full write-up here: UNESCO World Heritage Site: Boyana Church.

A visit to Moscow's Kremlin and Red Square provides great insight into Russia's past and present. The red brick walls of the Kremlin are familiar worldwide, housing not just the ghosts of the Cold War, but relics of Russia's rich tsarist history. The Kremlin walls were constructed in the 15th century, and within the walls are many churches, including the Cathedral of the Dormition, or Assumption Cathedral. This cathedral was used for the coronation of Russia's tsars from Ivan the Terrible in 1721 all the way to Nicholas II, the last tsar, in 1896. Nearby in the Kremlin's armoury are crowns and thrones of Russian tsars, while evidence of some of the ruler's desires for greatness can be seen on the Kremlin grounds, including the world's largest bell and the immense Tsar's cannon. Outside the Kremlin walls is the famed Red Square, now used for events such as New Year's celebrations and military parades on Victory Day. Russia's most recognized building, St. Basil's Cathedral, topped with colorful onion domes, can be found at the southern end of Red Square, and is as brilliant to see as expected. Moscow's Kremlin and Red Square are a must for anyone with an interest in Russian history.

Logistics: Moscow's Kremlin and Red Square are accessible by public transportation, including the Metro stations of Okhotny Riad, Teatralnaya, and Ploschad Revolyutsii.

The site is located at the top of Tróia Peninsula and can be reached either by land (around 20-30 km detour from highway Lisbon - Faro) or by ferry from Setubal – ferry terminal is quite near the site, although taking a taxi might be necessary.

The site is a complex of ruins built at the beginning of 1st century AD and occupied until 6th century. It served mainly as a fish-salting production complex but it had many accompanying buildings, such as baths, mausoleum or cemetery.

The fish-salting workshops are quite well preserved and mainly comprise of several tanks, where fish was stored and salted. After finishing the process, the fish products (including fish sauce) were packed to amphorae and transported to other parts of the Roman Empire. The bath area and the mausoleum also survived quite well, but overall the ruins are rather small and half an hour visit may be more than enough.

The ruins are quite nice and worth a detour, although I could not see outstanding universal value of this site (although I am not aware of any other sites connected with ancient fish salting industry, so maybe this makes it unique and justifies placing on T-List).

I visited Stonehenge (and its sister site, Avebury) in May 2017 after the new carpark and visitor's centre were opened. The car park is now about one mile distant from the actual stones, and you need to get a shuttle bus from the visitor's centre to the site. The buses are quite regular so the system works pretty well.

Given the expensive price, many people will tell you that you can just look over the fence from the next field for free, and they're right. However, I wouldn't recommend this since: a) you can only see it from one angle, ticket holders can see from 360 degrees at varying angles, and b) you won't really get a clear view since there will always be people in front of you.

With that said, I think Avebury is probably a better and more interesting site than Stonehenge. Not quite as impressive, but the circle is bigger and you can still interact with the stones (at Stonehenge you're now about 3 metres away at the closest point).

See below for my full video review!

The archaeological sites are not open for public (at least at the time of writing). They are not anything impressive to see either as they are just grassy hills with some makeshift buildings for the staff that (I suppose) work here. If you insist on going to the Hongshan site, there is a bus from the central station in Chifeng. You will be disappointed ;)

Instead head to a museum to see these. I know it's not "the same" but the Chinese basically move all the artifacts there. Take it up with UNESCO/ICOMOS whether that is kosher. Nevertheless the museum in Chifeng has a nice, free, permanent exhibition of the Hongshan culture as well as several other significant local history such as the bronze age findings, Mongolian ruling time. Top this up with nice English displays and the ~1h spend in here is worth it. Note that the opening times include a long lunch break so time your visit accordingly.

To get the Chifeng you can easily take a bus or train from Beijing (6-7h), and if you are already up in the area you should check out Xanada (Shangdu) over at Duolun. The bus is around 4-5h and you can go to Beijing from here to do a nice triangle trip and "tick off" two historic sites.

When visiting the complex of Bru na Boinne xI was impressed how well preserved the site was. It was not something I had expected from a site that old. I also learnt some interesting facts regarding the sites that are not normally mentioned:

1) The complex is the second largest concentration of neolithic art in the world (after the WHS Neolithic Orkney). As most of the art is presented on large stone slabs it is dubbed the largest concentration of megalithic art in the world.

2) One of the carvings presents a whale. I couldn't find any information as to whether whales lived in Europe at the time the site was built.

3) Almost all materials used in the construction of the site had to be transported from afar. Each material was transported from a different location. The furthest location had to be the Alps, which suggests that commerce on quite a large scale already existed in neolithic society. Closer links probably existed with Orkney, which also features evident cultural similarities.

4) The site consists of three locations, each with its own passage grave. Although the most visited one is Newgrange it is neither the largest nor the most impressive one. This honour belongs to Knowth. I would warmly recommend visiting both.

5) Unlike Knowth and Newgrange, Dowth is privately owned and at the moment cannot be visited. Work is underway for it to be opened to visitors.

6) Several unexcavated tombs can be seen in the area. Currently due …

None of the 4 previous reviews of this WHS has mentioned a visit to Magura - the hill situated 1km to the east of the Palace (but still within the inscribed area) which the Nomination File describes as a “Memorial Complex”. As Els mentions, the tumuli on this hill are clearly visible on the skyline from the palace area. In June 2017 we had a car and were able to drive, so it is perhaps easy for us to say that everyone should do it, but it does provide both a fine view of the Palace from a high point and a much better understanding of the rather strange process of “Apotheosis” by which Galerius and his mother Romula were deified.

The motorable track up to Magura starts by turning left from the car park (the main exit is to the right!) and goes around the southern wall. It was partly hidden by high uncut June grass when we were there but just keep following it uphill away from the palace and you will eventually reach a small area with a “P” sign just below the tumuli.

At the time I am writing this review we have a “Connection” for this WHS with “Tumuli” which states “The Mausolea of Galerius and his mother are hidden in two tumuli”. This is not the case - as those who go up to the Magura will discover, there are 4 structures there (See photo of 1 “pair”). …

Site visited April 2017. I visited four inscribed sites of this WHS, three granaries and one proper stretch of the actual canal.

At first, when I planned my trip to China, this site looked like just a tedious tick off. But when I searched more information about it, this site became very exciting. I found many interesting Grand Canal sites which would be very nice to visit. The only limitation would be time - which places would be within reach for my itinerary. I used Luoyang as one of my bases for my day trips so there were two options for canal visits: either Zhengzhou Section of Tongji Canal or Hua County and Xun County Section of Wei Canal (Yongji Canal). The former is nearer but it would be a bit problematic to get to because there are not any clear landmarks where to take a taxi without any Chinese skills. The latter is conveniently located along the high speed railway line towards Anyang so I would be able to visit it on my way to Yin Xu site. Additionally, I would be able to tick off one more granary site. So I chose that one.

One might wonder why there are many granaries (storehouses of grain) in this kind of watery World Heritage Site. It is justified to the background that the canal is originally created for transportation of grain. The Grand Canal answered to the massive needs of agricultural empire. It solved many unbalances in society and …

We visited the Jurassic Coast of Dorset and East Devon in May 2016. The site itself is very large, and covers about 1/3rd of the southern coastline of England. Although we'd allowed for two days to drive various parts of it, very uncooperative weather meant that we had to rush through most of it in just one day. The highlights I'd recommend are:

- Lulworth Cove, where you can see several hundred million years of geology in one spot

- Durdle Door, just adjacent to Lulworth Cove and very spectacular

- Fossil hunting on the shore at Lyme Regis, where many dinosaur bones have been found and ammonite fossils are just sitting around on rocks

- The Dorset County Museum in Weymouth has quite a bit of info as well and is a good rainy day options

Several other spots including the rock stacks near Durdle Door we had to skip, partly for time but also because many places charge 5 pounds or more for parking!

See below for my full video review.

We visited the Kosovo Monasteries at Pec and Decani in June 2017. In fact, in what was possibly an excess of enthusiasm for Mediaeval Serbian monasteries, we took in consecutively, in under 24 hours, the Monastery at Studenica and those at Djurdjevi Stupovi and Sopocani before driving south into Kosovo from Montenegro on the mountain road over from Rozaje. The drive from Sopocani to the monastery at Pec took around 3 hours including 2 frontier crossings.

Pec (Peja) is a surprisingly busy town with a chaotic “anything goes” atmosphere and building taking place everywhere – it isn’t clear how “controlled” all this activity is, and neither is the nature of its economic underpinning! Kosovo has the reputation of being something of a mafia state based on smuggling of goods, narcotics and people with “construction” being a good money laundering method - See . The monastery lies to the west of the town at the entrance to the Rugova Gorge and, as we approached the town, it was obvious where we needed to be - unfortunately the main road came to a dead end at a square, there were no signs for the Monastery and the nearby “Tourist Office” was closed for “Brek”! A taxi driver wouldn’t assist us unless we took him to get there but the receptionist in the nearby main hotel provided a useful sketch map! The monastery at the moment is situated at the very end of building developments extending West from Pecs – it must …

Having been born in Japan and visited Japan numerous times even after moving to the US, I just counted 6 as the number of times I have made trips centered around Fujisan. This is on top of the fact that Fujisan can be seen on clear days from my condo in Yokohama.

By making the trips I have visited only 5 out of 25 components of this serial property: Miho no Matsubara, which I visited when I was a pre-teen, Fujisan Mountain Area, where I made the ascent to the top in 1984, Kawaguchi-Ko in 2011, Yamanaka-Ko and an Oshi Lodging House, which I visited on the day of the Fujiyoshida Fire Festival at Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja, only a few months after the inscription in 2013.

Is Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja (Jinja means Shinto shrine) in Fujiyohsida a part of this property? If you look at this page

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1418/multiple=1&unique_number=1883

it is not listed, even though 7 other Sengen Shinto shrines are listed here. Nor is it indicated in our map above.

It is confusing, but as it turned out, Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja is included in the “Fujisan Mountain Area,” the core of the core zone, listed on top of the list on the page above. This means that if you visit this Shinto shrine, you visited the “Fujisan Mountain Area.”

Indeed, all in all 9 Sengen Shinto shrines are included in the property, not just 7, the last one being the Hitoana Sengen Jinja, which …

During our Iran visit in May 2017, we ticked off three: Fin garden in Kashan, the ancient garden in Pasargadae, and Eram garden in Shiraz. We also had a fair glimpse of Chehel Sotun garden in Esfahan from its gates. However, after having seen India's Persian gardens earlier in 2015, which were adopted by the Moghuls using no less than Persian artisans, how should we appreciate the Persian gardens from the country where the tradition originated?

We visited Bag-e Fin on a Friday, which was not the best day to be a tourist in Iran since it is their weekend. Expecting tranquility and peace in the oldest functioning Persian garden in the world, what welcomed us was a garden fully packed with locals picnicking and groups occupying every known space inside. Sadly, knowing that we enjoy taking photos, the experience did not turn out the way we expected it to be. If there is any consolation, however, there was water flowing, all the fountains were working, the pools were not empty, and the water source, the Solomon's spring (a qanat opening that also feeds water to the T-Listed Tepe Sialk), can be publicly seen at the back. There were other attractions inside (ridiculously with separate entry fees!), but we no longer bothered giving them a try due to the long queues. Another thing that impressed me was that the garden is surrounded by thick and high mud walls typical in the desert region.

The 500BC-built ancient garden of Pasargadae is …

Just visited - May 2010. Main question about this place is the limits of inscribed site. Dispite relatively huge area the place is not protected as a National Park or reserve, it is just a dessert. But while studying the official map on UNESCO website I am pretty sure that Nebkas area (just outside Shahdad) and Kaluts (some 40 km from Shahdad) are part of World Heritage.

In fact on the right side of the road Kerman - Zabol, just outside Shahdad (around one km from the town) there is a small brown sign - Nominated Area, probably marking the limits of Lut Desert as a World Heritage Site. That should include Nebkas area as well. Further on, while you enter Kaluts, there is just a small sign although the road just crosses sandstone castles.

Some practicalities: I read there is a public transport to Shahdad (but not to Kaluts) but the most convenient way is to rent a car (taxi) which I did. I took a car from Mahan to Shahdad than to Kaluts and return to Kerman for 1.200.000 Rial (including waiting time in the Kaluts area). It may take half to full day depending on the time you want to spend in Kaluts. I am pretty sure that similar can be organised from Kerman.

Take plenty of water with you as it is the hottest place on earth, and something to cover a head. In fact descend from mountains to Shahdad was like going …

We commenced our “stecci search” across Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia with a fair degree of enthusiasm, having identified 8 out of the 28 locations which were on or close to our planned general route which was primarily designed to pick up other unvisited WHS.

Our first location was 1504-023 Velika and Mala Crijivika, situated just west of the village of Cista Provo some 11kms north of the main Croatian motorway. The main area of stecci straddles the road and is marked with a Croatian flag - a smaller one lies around 200 metres further west which might as well be seen. A notice board describes the site but, unfortunately it has been used for target practice by local hunters! There are around 90 tombstones which exhibit a nice variety of carving and the entire site is of interest for having remains (tumuli and cisterns) of human habitation going back to prehistoric times. If you only wanted to take in 1 stecak site, then in my view, this would do very well, being close to the coastal towns of Split etc.

Our next location was 1504-006 Dugi polje at Blidinje in Bosnia. If you are wanting to go inland from the Split area to Sarajevo then this can be nicely taken in for the cost of a few kms of small/rough roads from it to Jablanica. Blidinje is on Bosnia’s T List for its mixed values and is also a skiing area. The T List cultural aspects include …

I visited the Tower of London with my wife on a grey London day in May 2017. The entry fee of 22 pounds is quite steep, but you can comfortably spend 5-6 hours here so it's overall reasonable value. More than numbers and dates, I love hearing about the human side of history, the little stories that colour in the world, and the Tower is absolutely chock-full of them.

The story of Anne Boleyn, who arrived through the dock gate to high praise from Henry VIII, to being executed in almost the same spot not long later. The royal zoo, which housed a polar bear (!!) that would hunt fish in the Thames. The first prisoner, who escaped after getting his guards drunk, the last prisoner: high ranking Nazi Rudolph Hess. The two nephews of Richard III who were murdered in the bloody tower. Even Queen Elizabeth I was imprisoned here briefly.

I would 100% recommend the Yeoman Warder tour, and waiting around for when the Coldstream Guards (large fluffy hat guys) do their marching. The royal menagerie was great, as was the Crown Jewels, though the large display of medieval horse armour got tiring eventually.

Overall it's a fantastic place and strongly recommended. Just pick your moment to go: summer, school holidays, weekends and sunny days are all crowded. Thankfully we managed to avoid the worst of it and had no queues.

See link below for my full video review.