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In 2014 I visited the centerpiece of this nomination, the Daisen Kofun, which is considered to be the grave of Emperor Nintoku and is the single largest grave in the world by area.

It is so large that the best way to view it is perhaps to take off or land at the Kansai (Osaka) International Airport.

The photo shows the Shinto Torii Gate in the middle, behind which lies the widest of the three moats that surround the all important keyhole-shaped grave.

I believe it'll be surprising if this site gets a go at getting on the WH list, simply because, no matter what the nomination dossier says, nobody is certain that the Daisen Kofun is really the grave for the Emperor. This absurdity comes from the fact that the belief that the grave belongs to an Emperor means it is managed by the Imperial Household Agency, an ultra conservative entity that wouldn't allow anyone to visit such a holy site, let alone to dig it, resulting in the uncertainty. (Remember that the Japanese Imperial Family is considered to be the descendants of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, in the Japanese mythology.) I was told by a man who managed this property on site that the Ministry of Culture, which takes care of the World Cultural Heritage in Japan, had been unsuccessfully battling it out with the Imperial Household Agency, which takes care of the living deity!

But this nomination is not just about the Daisen …

Visited Caves of El Cogul on the way from Poblet monastery to Zaragoza. Unfortunately due to time constraints arrived there right in the beginning of siesta. The place is located in the pleasant agricultural scenery in the outskirts of Cogul village. There is a small visitor centre and the access to the cave is fenced. I climbed the fence and made some picture of the cave, which is also covered by an iron lattice (it could only be open during visit time).

The paintings are of course not so bright but are quite visible. There are over 40 african-style figures painted, including humans and animals in black and red. The most famous and central is dance scene. There should be somewhere Roman inscription as well, but I couldn't identify it.

In overall nice place with easy access and not disappoitning paintings. Vistor centre probably has some useful information, will try to return here next time outside siesta time.

In May I was able to get into the State Kremlin Palace and Faceted Hall. This is kind of special "secret" excursion, which is not ordinary access to the Cathedrals inside the Kremlin sold publicly. This excursion is offered by some agencies on selected dates (usualy several times per month), when the Kremlin is not occupied by various events. The maximum amount of people is 20 in the group with obligatory guide, it is necessary to provide passport details in advance (the foreigners are allowed), the price is 5,000 Rubles during weekends (80 euro), but it depends on the agency. I booked about 2 months in advance in order to get in on weekend day.

Excursion lasts for 80 minutes and provides access into the Faceted Hall; 4 main ceremonial halls in the State Kremlin Palace (including that one where inauguration or official awarding takes place); medieval Terem's Hall enclosed by the present Palace and Empress's Chambers. Foto is only allowed in some places as indicated by the guide.

In overall despite extremely expensive price this is the only opportunity to see probably the most important building in Russia. All the halls were lavishly re-created and reconstructed in the 90s in accordance with original decor from the 19th century (even imperatorial thrones were put back; they are modestly covered by partitions during present date Putin's led events). Medieval parts have rich frescos and are also quite interesting and original.

In overall I liked the excursion, but unfortunately it's very expensive …

Visited this site in May 2017 as a pleasant detour from Tokyo (and using some private railway line not subject to the wonderful Japan Rail Pass).

The cost was 1,000 yen entrance + 200 yen audioguide and 200 yen conservation viewing desk.

The mill was completed in 1872 after local government decided to import mechanized Western technologies of silk processing. Technical advisers from France were invited, while trainees were hired from local female workers. Other factories using Tomioka mill model were constructed around the country afterwards. Introduction of mass production technologies led to modernization of Japanese economy.

The mill have been producing raw silk till 1987 when all the reeling machines were preserved in the original state.

In overall I liked the whole cluster of buildings, which are interesting mix of colonial style constructions and Japanese traditional design features. Many industrial architectural innovations already known in Europe were first introduced in Japan in this mill.

I was lucky to visit on Sunday, when there are various workshops and exhibitions involving demonstrations of how the silk was gathered from the cocoons, very interesting process.

The funniest fact about the mill: young female Japanese workers were reluctant to work at the mill, because there were rumours that the French were drinking ... blood!!! All this was because the locals saw French drinking wine, something they never saw before.

For me the site deserves its status due to unique combination of industrial cooperation at its very beginning, good preservation level and outstanding example …

I visited Togawa Oshi Piligrim's Inn and Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen-jinja Shrine, both within 20-minute walking distance from Fujisan railway station.

Togawa Oshi House was built in 1768 to host numerous piligrims to the Mount Fuji. In the begining of the nineteenth century there were 86 similar inns in the area, now only 12-13 remaining. The House has extensive audio guide descibing each corner of the house and providing general information.

The Shrine dating back to the 8th century was the last spiritual stop for the piligrims ascending to the summit from the north side. It is located in lovely forest setting (with some sacred cedars which are over 1000 years old), with beautiful garden, painted main hall, big torii gate, and portable shrines used in fire festivals.

I visited all 5 landing beaches of Normandy and the Pointe du Hoc this week. The site is expected to become a World Heritage Site in 2019 for the 75th anniversary.

The museum at Utah Beach was very good, giving a great overview of the timeline for that beach and the Americans as a whole. The Juno Beach Center was a great way to learn about the Canadian involvement in D-Day plus it was a great overview of Canadian history as a whole.

Highlights: Canada House, La Cambe German War Cemetary, Normandy American Cemetary, and Gold Beach.

I would highly recommend going during June for the anniversaries if you're interested in meeting veterans and hearing their stories. We met American, Canadian, and German veterans.

Budapest's entry on the WHS list encompasses a wide territory. I went to all three sections (the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, and Andrassy Avenue). My visit was in February of this year.

The banks of the Danube are gorgeous. It's impossible not to be awed seeing the Parliament at night on the river. I did a night cruise, and I would highly recommend it.

Andrassy Avenue was a great street to walk down in the afternoon. The Terror House Museum, while not officially part of the inscribed territory, was one of my favorite parts of Budapest.

I visited the Thracian Tomb of kazanlak in January and then of Sveshtari in May.

Staying overnight in Isperih, I took a bus from the main bus station of Isperih to the village of Sveshtari and from there walked about 2 km to the site. The bus leaves about once every two hours.

Right after me a few dozens of German cyclists arrived followed by their large bus, which meant that one German-speaking guide gave them a tour of the site and one English-speaking guide gave me a personal tour.

She took me to the 3 tombs on the site (but there are many more out of the site), so unlike the only one tomb at the Kazanlak site, this site resembles more or less like the WHS at Vergina in Greece.

The main tomb / room is structurally supported by caryatids, which is unusual in Thracia as well as in the USA, so I thought it would be nice to have such a tomb.

Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside of the tombs.

The World Heritage Site of Causses and Cévennes was not part of the original plan that my friend and I planned to visit during our trip to Pyrenes, the photos that we searched on Google and the reviews were not inspiring for an extra day detour until we found out that the must go of this cultural landscape was the beautiful area of Gorges du Tarn especially the surrounding villages near Sainte Enimie. We entered this World Heritage Site from Ales, we found that the scenery was quite boring with hilly landscape of forest, nothing special except some poor maintenance French villages. The view changed when we reached the town of Florec, from here we started to see the unique landscape that made Causses and Cévennes to be listed by UNESCO, the very large limestone plateau. The deep valley around the plateau was very nice. When we reached the village of Ispagnac, the scenic road was built along the deep canyon of Gorges du Tarn that formed by Tarn River. The canyon was actually very nice and we really surprised to see such geographical phenomenon in France.

The first place that really worth to mention is the village of Castelbouc. The village is located on the opposite side of the river from the main road on the much lower level from the street view. Actually we could easy bypass this village without notice, fortunately that we saw three motorcycles parked on the small viewpoint ramp, …

Staying overnight in Ivanovo, I walked about 5 km to the site. I was not able to hitch a car because most people driving towards the site were tourists and not locals.

Out of the 5 monuments, only Holy Virgin's Rock Church, which is supposedly part of Archangel Michael's cloister, is open to tourists.

From the parking lot there are two ways to get to the church: one goes directly up the stairs and the other meanders leisurely.

There seem to be many religious remains on rock cliffs around Bulgaria, and the sole reason this one has its OUV confirmed is because of the quality of the frescoes, I understand.

But still all we see is just one little cave church. It would be so much nicer if we could visit all 5 monuments in the site.

A few words about the village of Ivanovo. Perhaps because most tourists visit the site from Ruse, there are very few infras for tourists in this village. No ATMs to begin with. There are 2 hotel-restaurants, one of which was closed when I was there. (I had a reservation with the other one.) The restaurant where I had dinner didn't have everything listed in the menu. But because only locals usually eat here, it was extremely cheap. A glass of impressive red wine from Razgrad, Bulgaria, was only 0.4 Euros (40 cents) there!

I got on a pontoon pushed by a ship from Calarasi, Romania, crossing the Danube / border to Silistra, Bulgaria.

Staying overnight in Silistra, I visited the Srebarna Nature Reserve WHS by bus. The sign at the bus stop for Bus 22 (located at 44°06'49.4"N 27°15'10.8"E) says it runs from 5:15 on but does not say exactly what time. So instead of milling around waiting for the bus at the bus stop, I decided to take another bus from the main bus station a few hundred meters away to the city of Ruse at 9:30 and get off at the entrance to the village of Srebarna.

As soon as I got off the bus at the entrance, an old lady who also got out of the bus just waved to the first car she saw to get a ride into the village, and I was at the visitor center/museum for the WHS in no time.

I first checked out the museum and then walked out to the lake. There were two groups of pelicans nesting in different shores of the lake.

This site is just one lake, so it wasn't as extraordinary and impressive as the Danube Delta.

Even though I have heard the reputation of England’s Lake District for a long time, it was not in my top list of places I want to see on British Isles; however, when I visited Scotland last year autumn, it was a good opportunity to add an extra few days to go down to Cambria and to see the famous site. From Edinburgh, it was very convenient to reach Lake District by superb highway. Since I came from the north, I decided to use Keswick as my base to explore this national park. The landscape of Lake District along the Derwent Water was very lovely with beautiful mountain, pretty houses and amazing autumn foliage. I drove to the beautiful Honister Pass passing picturesque villages of Borrowdale and Rosthwaite. When I reached the Pass, the landscape changed dramatically with steep grass mountains that similar to Scottish Highland or Northern Scandinavia. The scenery of the valley became more breathtaking between the Honister Slate mine and Buttermere Lake. Then I changed to use small road to the village of Stair, the view along this route was maybe one of the most beautiful places around Keswick.

I had no doubt that Lake District I saw around Keswick was a very beautiful place; however, there was no truly outstanding that made Lake District to be unique in my opinion, so I decided to focus more on cultural sites. The most important historical site in the area was the stone circle of …

Staying in Shumen overnight, I spent several hours in Madara in the afternoon. Took a bus to Madara and a train back to Shumen. From the bus / train station it's uphill walk for 1.5 km to the base of the National Historic and Archaeological Reserve, which includes the relief of the Madara Rider on the rock...cliff of a table mountain / plateau.

I think Madara Rider is my favorite WHS in Bulgaria, not just because of the relief, which is the core zone in itself, but of the whole reserve, which is basically the buffer zone. The reserve includes even some Neolithic and Thracian settlements, some Roman ruins (close to the train station), a 4th century fortress on top of the table mountain, and the remains from the middle age, which includes a monastery with cells for monks hewn into the cliff. In other words the reserve is a human history in a nut shell.

There is also a one-room museum, which was closed, but by asking around when it's open, someone managed to bring another person who opened the door for me for a few minutes. The room contained relevant artifacts from the archeological area. 

I spent the hours walking around and up and down. The dramatic mountain setting even reminded me of Masada in Israel.

The photo shows the locations of the Madara Rider relief on the cliff, the fortress on the table mountain top and the screen capturer on the edge of …

Its May in the South Pacific and we are into the dry season. My wife and I have spent the last three weeks, with two other couples enjoying and exploring a myriad of different islands. It is interesting to distinguish the differences between the Melanesians, Micronesians and Polynesians. Also I am reading the wonderful travel book, 'The Happy Isles of Oceania' by Paul Theroux.

Everyone is packing to go home except I am doing a last excursion to Levuka on my own. No one else wants to make this trip and Mrs Sun insists its time for her to return home to see her grandchildren. So after sending them off at Nandi, Fiji to fly to Los Angeles, I start my attempt to hit another WHS.

If you are in this part of the world, most international flights come in and out of Nandi, Fiji. From here to get to Levuka is quite an effort.First of all, you need to get to Suva, the Capital of Fiji which is 4-5 hours by bus across the main island of Viti Levu.

Then you overnight and catch the early bus from Suva to Levuka which is 2 hours by land and 45 mins by ferry to the island of Ovalau and then another 45 mins round island on gravel road where you will be deposited in downtown Levuka. The return bus starts out at 4.00am!

Its a one street town and so you cannot get lost. Look for the Royal Hotel for …

The Wooden Tserkvas in the Polish part of the Carpathians have already been well-covered by the reviewers active on this website. I visited 6 of them myself in 2015. However, 8 of the inscribed tserkvas (churches) lie just across the border in Ukraine. Noone wrote a report on one of those yet. As I had half a day to spare after visiting L’viv, I hired a taxi to take me to the wooden Holy Trinity Church in Zhovkva – part of the Later Halych Group of the inscribed Ukrainian tserkvas.

Zhovkva is a town of 13,000 inhabitants, about 30km northwest of L’viv. The drive takes just half an hour and doesn’t bring very remarkable scenery. The roads out of L’viv are potholed, many of the streets leading from the main streets into villages are still unpaved. Inspired by the Polish churches which lie in sometimes idyllic rural settings, I hoped to get a glimpse of the Ukrainian countryside by going to Zhovkva. It didn’t turn out to be that way however.

The Holy Trinity Church lies beside the main road that leads from L’viv to Zhovkva city center. I had brought a print with me including the name of the church in Ukrainian and a picture of it, just to be sure. But it cannot be overlooked, and is even signposted in English with the same type of bilingual signs that point to the various sights in L’viv. It looks a bit out of place in its suburban setting, but …

Walter’s comment in his recent review that “The !Xam Khomani Heartland corresponds in fact to the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park” has come indeed as a very pleasant surprise to me - even if he also indicates that the Nomination has been recommended for “deferral” this year!! This because we had a very memorable visit to the park just 1 year after Walter’s, way back in Aug 1998, and it therefore gives me the “right” to post my favourite Lion Photo taken inside the Park in the South African sector. I had just not previously realised that this Cultural nomination encompassed the entire South African part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. I have re-read the UNESCO Web site T List entry and it is very opaque about the boundaries, referring to areas south and north of Upington and “restitution of land to the south of the Kgalagadi Trans-frontier Park, the original home of the community, and restoration of certain land use rights within the Park” – hardly evidence of a nomination based entirely on the Park. Indeed we discussed the regrettable non inclusion of Kgalagadi park on the List on the Forum earlier this year. However, the ICOMOS evaluation in this year’s WHC papers includes a map which confirms that the Nomination does indeed follow the S African Park boundaries.

We had picked up a rentacar in Capetown and driven all the way up to Etosha in Namibia. Our route back was scheduled to take in the Namaquland flowers but, given …

I took an 8-hour, speed boat tour by Safca Delta Tours from Tulcea on May 23. This company seems to be one of the more popular and reputable ones for the tour of the Delta. The skipper made things fun for all 4 of the participants all day. It cost something like 80 Euros including lunch.

We left Tulcea at 9:30, had lunch at the village of Mila 23, went on to the village of Letea for what they called a safari and came back on the Tulcea-Salina branch of the Danube straight to Tulcea at 17:30.

Hmmm, May is supposed to be one of the better months for the bird-watching there, but I'm not sure if I saw so many birds. Or maybe my expectation was too high: my image was to be surrounded by birds just as I was surrounded by tropical fish at the Great Barrier Reef when I went scuba-diving there. Birds were almost always seen way too far. Tropical fish was within my arm's reach. 

The just-caught, fresh-water fish lunch (fish soup and deep fried fish) was nice.

I'm not sure if the safari was worth it, either. We saw some wild horses sort of bathing in water and a small dune close to the Ukrainian border. It did offer a feeling that it was a far corner of Europe.

But the expanse of nature always makes me ponder on our tiny existence, and this site is one of my …

The ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape, otherwise known as the The !Xam Khomani Heartland corresponds in fact to the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. To add some more confusion, together with the Bostwana Gemsbok National Parks, if forms the African Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

South Africa justifies the OUV with the association of the red dunes of the parks and the ǂKhomani and related San people, who descend directly from the ancient population that inhabited southern Africa around 150,000 years ago.

Back in 1997, as I was discovering South Africa, driving from Pertoria to Namibia, I decided to go to the Kalahari Gemsbok Park, is the search of the San people territory. I had been fascinated by a 1980 movie, The Gods must be crazy, telling the story of an isolated San tribe which is disturbed by a glass Coca-Cola bottle fallen from a plane.

As often, getting there is half the fun. The entrance to the park is now a 2 and a half drive from Upington, the nearest « town ». The new road to the entrance is now tared, but back then it was a 4 and a half hours drive on a gravel road. Driving from Pretoria is a long 10 hours drive (equal time from Cape Town), which make this area one of the remotest in South Africa.

Nature is here at its best. Far less travelled than Kruger Park, you get the chance to have all kind of different animal for yourself. I saw cheetahs from very close, …

Ifugao, which means People of the Hill, is a province in the Cordillera Administrative Region on the island of Luzon, in the Philippines. This area is famous for the 2000 years old rice terraces that are inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List with the name of “Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras“. This was the first property to be included in the Cultural Landscape category.

The site comprises five clusters of rice terraces: Batad Rice Terraces, Bangaan Rice Terraces, Hungduan Rice Terraces, Mayoyao Rice Terraces and Nagacadan Rice Terraces. I managed to visit the first three of the list and I was stunned by the harmony between the environment and the people living there, who morphed the landscape according to their needs but managed to preserve the environment.

A good way to visit the rice terraces is to stay in Banaue, a small town in the middle of the Cordillera mountain range. Banaue can be reached directly from Manila or nearby bigger cities such as Bontoc, Sagada and Baguio. I took a Jeepney from Sagada which was full so I had to sit on the roof. Although very uncomfortable it was an amazing experience.

From Banaue it is relatively easy to arrange visits to the rice terraces. The easiest way is to hire, either privately or through the local tourist centre, a car or a trike (little motorcycles with side cars) to get as close as possible to the sites.

The Hungduan terraces are completely made of mud walls …

Site visited April 2017. Wudang Mountains was one of the biggest highlights of my first trip to China which covered eight World Heritage Sites. This site offered vast area of stunning mountain landscapes, numerous beautiful temples and palaces and nice hiking routes.

I travelled to the city of Wudangshan from Xi'an by train which took eight hours. It would also be possible to take a bus from Xi’an to the city of Shiyan from where you must take a connecting local bus to Wudangshan. From Wudangshan railway station it is seven kilometres to the centre of the city where majority of the hotels are located. I stayed overnight in youth hostel and started my visit to the mountains early in the morning. I spent the whole day wandering around the mountains by foot, bus and cable car.

Like mentioned in the earlier review, visiting Wudang Mountains is expensive. You can spend 50 euros just for tickets. General ticket is 240 RMB. That includes entry to the majority of the temples, a leaflet with the map and limitless use of shuttle buses that circulate regularly around the mountains. If you want to go to the Tianzhu Peak by cable car it is 90 RMB one way and a little less than double price for round trip. The top of the mountain and The Purple Heaven Palace cost each extra 17 RMB.

My route went upward via eastern way and downward via western way. At first I went by bus to Prince …