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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 …

The city of Mostar, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, known for its 16th century bridge (Stari Most), after which it is named, was sadly brought to the public’s attention during the 90s due to the horrors of the Croat-Bosniak war that followed the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. Amidst the destruction of most of the modern and historic city and the absurd number of victims, even the landmark of the city was destroyed.

Stari Most, a 16th century Ottoman bridge, one of the most important pieces of Islamic architecture in the Balkans, the most recognizable landmark of Mostar and the connection between the two parts of the city across the river Neretva, was destroyed on November 9th 1993, after standing for 427 years.

In October 1998, UNESCO established an international scientific committee to help the reconstruction of the bridge, assuring a design as similar as possible to the original and the use of authentic technology and materials. The new bridge was finally inaugurated in July 2004. Many of the historical buildings in the Old Town were also restored or totally rebuilt. Several countries helped funding the reconstruction of the bridge.

Nowadays, the Old Bridge Area of Mostar is a vibrant, tourist place and market. There are many restaurants, souvenir shops and it’s generally a nice place where to spend a few hours and learn about the history of the city.

Thanks to the efforts of UNESCO and all those that helped, Mostar and its people got back their bridge that represents …

I visited this WHS in May 2017 using the combination ticket to 4 Palaces and this shrine. Unlike most sites in South Korea, it is closed on Tuesdays. Having done some reading prior to visiting the site and also by attentively reading the superb information boards on site, I opted to visit on a Saturday to be able to visit at leisure. Even though I visited the site when it's truly active with the Royal Culture Festival taking place during the first week of May, the crowds were not that huge and the nighttime performance (entrance with prior registration) with royal ancestral ritual music was a truly unexpected highlight.

Jongmyo Shrine is the supreme shrine of the state where the tablets of royal ancestors (top right photo) are enshrined and memorial services are performed for deceased kings and queens. The construction of Jongmyo predates that of the main palace of Seoul, Gyeongbokgung. According to Confucian philosophy and the concepts of geomancy, it was built on the east side of the royal palace, while the Sajik Shrine, where ritual services for the gods of earth and crops were performed, was built on the west side.

Several kings and queens were enshrined with the passage of time, making it necessary to expand to what we see today. When a king or queen died, mourning at the palace would continue for 3 whole years! After that period of mourning, memorial tablets of the deceased were moved to Jongmyo and enshrined in Jeongjeon (top …

I visited this WHS in May 2017. It is definitely one of the best day trips from Seoul and one of the most impressive fortresses in South Korea, not only for its size and condition but also for the different military constructions and defense structures.

Being Spring meant that admission was once again free of charge. From the subway station in Suwon, we caught a standard taxi to Paldalmun Gate (bottom left photo), one of the 4 main gates of Hwaseong Fortress completed in 1795. It is one of 2 gates with a semicircular reinforced defense wall, quite similar to the Heunginjinmun Gate in Seoul. The only pity is that it is used as a very busy roundabout. There are several coffee shops with terraces for good photo opportunities.

Paldalmun Gate was our starting point to cover the whole 5.74km circuit on the fortress walls, stopping at intervals to take pictures and to explore the many exits which led to other paths beneath the walls or to other defense structures. We headed straight uphill for what was to be the longest stretch uphill of the whole circuit. After that it is a very pleasant walk with several panoramic viewpoints. There are 2 UNESCO WHS stone markers, just a bit further on after you climb from Paldalmun Gate, and another next to Hwaseomun Gate, where locals and tourists, young and old, enjoy kite running and archery. A section of the stone wall on the left of the Hwaseomun Gate contains the …

Olympic National Park offers a diverse landscape that includes glaciers, rainforest, and tide pools. With a rental car and early starts beginning at 5:45 AM, my wife and I explored all three major portions of the park over two days.

We were blessed with 3 days of sunshine on the Olympic Peninsula during the Memorial Day weekend. Taking the earliest ferry from Seattle (6:10am) we beat all holiday crowds and never had an issue as we began exploring Hurricane Ridge. Deer and elk are common in several areas of the park, the alpine meadows of Hurricane Ridge are one such place, my binoculars were put to good use here.

We stayed in Port Angeles, which allowed us to extensively explore Hurricane Ridge, the Elwha River, and Storm King Ranger Station. Elhwa River is truly a hidden gem and is almost universally ignored by visitors heading to Lake Crescent or to the rain forests. One of the greatest successes in Olympic National Park is the destruction of the massive dam on the Elhwa River. The demolition project was only completed in 2014. The salmon have returned! After 100 years this portion of the park is truly special and stands as an exemplar partnership between the National Park Service and Native American Tribes. Pictured below is a massive bloom of Spring wildflowers adjacent to the Elhwa river.

The Hoh and Quinault Rain Forests were both superb, small and large trails are available. The moss and bird life are bountiful, though I slightly …

I lived in Philadelphia, PA for a decade, so Independence Hall was a building I saw frequently. I did two official tours: the first in 2007 during my first year in the city and the second was in January of this year when I went back to visit friends. The building is one of my favorites in the city.

The “Archaeological sites of Otrar Oasis” T List site consists of the remains of 7 ruined towns, together with irrigation structures etc located within a 200 sq km area around the confluence of the Arysi and Syr Darya rivers. Its lowest strata date back to around 1st C BC and it later became an important stop along the Eurasian arm of the Silk Road. At its centre lies the massive mound (200 ha by up to 18m high) of Otrar Tobe (= Tepe/Tell) - the former largest city of the oasis. This is situated in semi desert (in May 2017 it was one of the few places in Kazakhstan where we saw camels!) west off the main road between Shymkent and Turkistan. Most visitors I guess will limit themselves to seeing this main site but the road onwards to Turkistan does pass other tells – with “free” entrance (but with nothing to do but climb them?) and notice boards describing them if you want to stop and read! With a private car it is easy to fit in on a day trip from Shymkent to Turkistan and back – a walking tour of the main part of the mound will take no more than an hour for the non-specialist.

A rough path goes first along the bottom of the tell and then climbs up onto it - each point of interest has a bilingual Russian (?)/English notice board/plan. The first point is a Bath House outside the main tell in …

This is probably the UNESCO World Heritage Site I spent the most time in trying to understand how to “properly” visit it during my recent trip in Iran. When I was just about to give up on it, a sign suddenly emerged in the streets of the historic city of Yazd referring to the “Zarch Qanat gallery”. This seems to be an improvement since the previous reviewer went to Yazd last year (exactly 12 months apart!), reporting the glaring lack of any public information about the qanats.

Later on, my friend and I realized that there were in fact a lot of signs all over showing some sort of a direction. Only to find out that — after intently and passionately following the signs for nearly an hour — it was not really leading us to a “gallery” (i.e., an exhibit, a museum, or a showroom)! Rather, it was just illustrating where the qanat flows underneath the city! This finding was interesting, but it was far from constituting a “proper” visit.

Much to my surprise later that day, however, we eventually got the proper visit that we needed no less than inside the Great Friday Mosque itself. At the main gate of the mosque, I already wondered why there was a banner congratulating “… the successful inscription of the Persian Qanats as a UNESCO World Heritage Site”. Sadly, it obviously and shamefully fails to indicate the more important detail – that a part of the qanat can actually be accessed …

I visited this WHS in April 2017. I visited all 3 locations over 4 days, namely the Manjanggul Lava Tube from the Geomunoreum Lava Tube System, Mt Hallasan and Seongsan Ilchulbong Tuff Cone. All entrances have free admission in April.

The only lava tube open to tourists is the Manjanggul Lava Tube which is 7.4km long, 18m wide and 23m high. Only 1 km is accessible but it is more than enough to grasp the OUV of this unique lava tube. The vast majority of lava tubes are formed by a basaltic lava flow which contains less viscosity. When the lava flow from the volcanic crater stops, it forms an empty space shaped like a tube. Thenm the lava flows continuously into this tube, the ground melts down in the high temperature and deepens gradually.

A number of impressive lava formations can be observed while walking underground for 1km: lava flowstones, lava rafts, lava shelves, lava stalactites and stalagmites, lava flowlines, quartzite fragments and last but certainly not least, the world's largest known 7.6m high lava column (picture, top right). The small information centre has a number of information boards and lava fragments as well as the original UNESCO certificate (picture, top left).

The second location I visited was Mt Hallasan. This is where a rental car comes in handy as I managed to drive through the never-ending maze of green tea plantations (not the ones at O'Sulloc; picture, bottom left) beneath Mt Hallasan. The mountain peak is also visible …

I visited this WHS in April 2017 with my wife and dog. Signage seems to have improved since the visits of previous reviewers, as there's now at least a "Welcome to the WHS" sign (two of them, in fact!).

We drove our car up to the hotel at the top of Engolasters and parked in their parking lot, before walking into the forest. It's about 90 minutes walk from here to the start of the site, and it's a very pretty trail through pine forest, over rocks and through a small tunnel as well. For most of it there are great views back to the city of Andorra La Vella.

There is a look-out at the border of the actual world heritage area from where you can see most of the valley, but since all three of us were tired we took some photos and decided to turn back. Pressing on would have required a serious downhill walk and then a serious uphill walk as well! You can see some evidence of the shepherd's huts and trails from this vantage point, albeit at quite some distance.

Overall it's not the greatest site we've been to so far, though if we'd started earlier and been fitter we might've found it more interesting!

Schwerin castle may be a bit overlooked, but its beauty is undeniable. It is the kind of fairy-tale castle that is nowadays more associated with disney than with real historical buildings. Schwerin residence actually has a quite large historical basis, with bits and pieces of history shining through the 19th century rebuildings. Its main appearance is certainly a sometimes kitchy historism (who paints his castle yellow/orange?), but together with a very picturesque setting on a lake, next to the historic old city, makes the visit a very pleasant experience. Schwerin is quite easy to reach, being close to Wismar and Lübeck. The castle can be reached by foot from the railroad station. Compared to its main rival on the tentative list, Neuschwanstein, Schwerin has much more history (Neuschwanstein being newly built in the 19th century), but is a bit more low-key than the bavarian fanatasy castle. I fear that the decision will go more in the direction of Neuschwanstein, being a peak of historism.

Visited May 2015.

Importance: 3/5 Beauty: 5/5 Uniqueness: 3/5 Environment: 4/5 Experience: 4/5

The Great Barrier Reef is as impressive a natural wonder as its name suggests, a wonderland of marine life stretching almost 1400 miles along the northeast coast of Australia. When I planned my trip to Australia in 2012, this was one of the sights I was determined to visit, and it was as beautiful as I had hoped. I used Cairns as my departure point for a full-day snorkeling and snuba tour of the reef. The guides were helpful to point out starfish and giant clams, as well as a shy octopus blending in with a nearby rock. Hidden amongst the anemone were colorful clownfish, while silver schools of mackerel swam above. Our tour also saw reef sharks and stingrays, although we kept a safe distance. I was particularly impressed with the coral, which was brightly colored and magnificent to behold; I'm glad I saw it in 2012 before the recent bout of coral bleaching struck in 2016. The warming ocean temperatures off the coast of Australia are a valid concern, and I'd hate to see long-lasting impact on the unique biodiversity of the reef. Australia is full of wonders on land and sea, and I found the Great Barrier Reef to be an unforgettable marine adventure.

Logistics: The Great Barrier Reef stretches from the Torres Strait to Fraser Island. Tours of the reef can be arranged in cities and towns like Cairns, Townsville, or Port Douglas.

Site visited in May 2010. Sharhr-i Sokhta or Shahr-e Sūkhté (farsi name means exactly Burnt City in English) is located between Zabol and Zahedan (Iranian towns that are located close to Pakistan border, around 177 km from Zahedan and ca 55 from Zabol). In theory there is a convenient public transport from Zahedan (oficial taxi from Zahedan Bus Station to Zabol, a place in a car should cost around 5 Euro per person, one way). It is also possible to hire a taxi on your own for the whole trip (dar baste) - including waiting time - prices are negotiable.

The site consists of two parts: main excavations area covering around 150 ha - vast land where only 3 % of the ancient city is uncovered and prepared for visiting. Second part is a small museum located on the opposite side of the road, some 900 meters from the exavations entrance.

It is good to start visiting the site from small Visitors Centre (all the information, photos and maps are displayed in Farsi and English). Excavation site is serviced by circular hiking path covering all attractions (building sites, so called temples, craftsmen area, graveyards). Have in mind that currently it is almost a desert, no trees, no shadow so take plenty of water if you want to wander around.

The museum is relatively small but at least is under roof. The site itself is not very popular along Zahedan people but taxi drivers know the place.

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Of the 41 sites currently represented in our “Petroglyphs” Connection only 8, by my count, have been inscribed solely/mainly because of their rock art (Gobustan, Coa/S Verde, Mong Altai, Hail, Alta, Tanum, Valcamonica and Tamgaly). Tamgaly was the 6th of these which we have visited (missing Mong Altai and Hail). Looking back, and trying to discount both the “shock of the new” for the first ones and “travel excess/ennui” for some of the later ones, our view is that Tamgaly emerges pretty well in “interest terms” and significance compared with the others and contains some historically significant representations! It also introduces an archaeological period and culture which is not well known in W Europe/N America possibly because access to it by their archaeologists was cut off for political reasons

As previous reviews have stated, Tamgaly needs to be reached by car, probably from Almaty in a day return trip. We played a slight finesse on this and “saved” a day as we arranged for the vehicle taking us from the Kyrgyz border north of Bishkek to Almaty to take in Tamgaly “on the way”. The turn off north is almost exactly half way between the border and Almaty on National Highway A2 after around 1.5 hours in either direction – Tamgaly then lies another 1 hour along a deteriorating road reaching into ever emptier rolling steppe lands. At the (very) small village of Karabastay there is a visitor centre which neither our guide, archaeologist or driver thought ever opens …

Mesmerizing is the only word I could say when I looked at the amazing details of coral rock cravings of the Hukuru Miskiiy complex or the Old Friday Mosque in Male, the small capital city of Maldives. It was a great surprised that Maldives processes such a beautiful architecture gem which seem to be unknown among its many tourists who came to this coral atolls country for luxury resorts and beautiful coral sand beach. On my last day in Maldives before I went to the airport I decided to do a half day city tour.

Male in general does not have anything interesting except the small precinct of Mulee-Aage Presidential Palace and Old Friday Mosque which seem to be the sole area that could be considered as historic area. While the Presidential Palace and Medhu Ziyaarath Shrine which dedicated Abu al Barakaath Yusuf al Barbari, a man who convert Buddhist Maldives to Islam, are beautiful colorful colonial architectures, the opposite is the solemn white minaret of Munnaaru, Old Friday Mosque and cemetery. At first glance, it was a bit disappointing, the mosque was quite small and its tin roof was totally underwhelmed; however, my eyes was immediately at the tombs complex, there are four beautiful tomb chapels around the mosque, their craving walls are really amazing with unique design that I believed inspired by sea creatures and sea grass with Arabic writings, the closest comparison in my mind is Celtic pattern art. Surrounding these chapels are many tombstones for royal …

I often wonder how there can be so many tentative sites in the middle of Europe without a review on this website despite the fact that they are easy to reach or even near another WHS. Therefore I grasped the occasion when I was in Prague for a few days and made the excursion to see the Curch of the most sacred heart of our Lord by Slovenian architect Jože Plecnik. I had even read that the Czechs had considered to nominate this church for the tentative list by itself. I didn't expect too much from the photographs I had seen before but my visit left me with a similar impression. The church has a certain individuality but it didn't strike me neither by its beauty nor by its originality. The plain cubelike interior has a rather prosaic feel to it as many churches from the 20 century with a similar special concept. I cannot imagine that ICOMOS could be convinced of its OUV. Plecnik added also several elements to the gardens of the prague castle of which I liked the rounded stairs to your left when you enter the castle by the West entrance. But they are neither WHS material. When I googled his work I liked several of his earlier buildings in Vienna and I am looking forward to check out some of his many buildings he built in Lubljana where he is much revered. I am sure he was a productive and versatile architect of considerable value …

I was born in a small community of Zacatecas, in central Mexico, right in in the first third to "Road to Santa Fe", now called “Camino Real de Tierra Adentro” (incorrectly since in Mexico existed five or six important Real Roads). Therefore, I cannot write any description objectively. I am sure of its regional value, but I don't want to mention a possible universal value, I'm not an expert on those issues. I think everyone has to have some empathy trying to understand the love that other people have to their local places. In this case, probably in the United States the value to the road is sometimes more a political strategy or simple love to the History, maybe more like an anecdote; but let me tell you, in Mexico, this road still awakens full passions of love and genuine interest of anyone, in an inestimable way. To Mexicans, it is still an alive road (even if many sections of the original roads no longer exist): everyone living in these 10 states can narrate old legends about mines or treasure owners. Old legends about terrifying ghosts living in haciendas or anecdotes of our parents and grandparents as young travelers, old stories about passions, deadly sins or love (for example, my parents met for the first time on a pilgrimage). Old stories about apaches attacking wagons. The route also arouses in some people some national sentiments: it completely coincides with the "Route of Independence": the route that followed Miguel Hidalgo to …

I visited the Chaîne des Puys during a trip along the enchanting Dordogne. We drove up the highest peak of the chain, the Puy de Dôme. From there you have a fabulous view over the whole chain that is quite impressive. There are dozens of vulcanos of different shapes: domes, maars and cones like the wonderful Puy Pariou. They are not very tall volcanic formations but I have never seen so many in such a small area.

Beyond the value of the building itself there were 2 aspects of our visit to the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in May 2017 which we found of interest – first, the extra insight and impetus it gave us for understanding the developing place of religion in contemporary Kazakhstan (a theme we followed throughout our tour of the country) and second, the way in which the UNESCO site had been defined and presented. First the building itself and the logistics.

The Mausoleum dominates the town of Turkistan - we drove up from Shymkent in the morning, stopping off at the T List site of Otrar and the Arystan Bab Mausoleum (another nearby pilgrimage site) for an hour or so on the way, had lunch in Turkistan, gave the mausoleum and the surrounding area a bit over 2 hours and then drove on to Aksu-Zhabagly, by-passing Shymkent on the way back by following the main highway. The mausoleum is set in the centre of what was once the old city of Turkistan and is the only extant original structure from the city’s pre-Russian era. Various buildings nearby and a part of the walls have however been recently reconstructed but, around the Mausoleum and within the boundaries of the old city, lies a vast archaeological zone of decaying mud walls of ruined buildings and abandoned “digs”. The nearby museum was once a barracks and was constructed by the Russians from bricks ransacked from another of the tombs inside the perimeter. The …

One of the many delights of this stunning site, an easy day trip from Kyoto, besides the the two huge carved wooden guardians of the temple, is the admonition near the entrance gate to be careful a deer does not eat your ticket.

Even for those who might feel "templed out" the site is unique and worthy of its world heritage status.