All our reviews

Umm el-Jimal are the ruins of Nabataean, Roman and early Byzantine town from the beginning of our era. It is located in one hour driving distance from one of the biggest Jordanian tourist attractions – Jerash. Although Syrian border is only 10 km away, access to the site is not limited or especially checked (which is the case of Umm Qays, another TWHS close to the Syrian border, where everybody has to be checked on the military checkpoint).

Although Jordan is famous from its ruined towns, Umm el-Jimal is probably the biggest of them. It is really huge and if you want to see all of it, reserve at least two or three hours. It is literally the sea of ruins of former streets, houses and churches. Some of the buildings remained less destroyed and now attract the biggest attention - one of the most impressive views is the lonely arch facade of former West Church. I suspect that Jordanian government wants to reconstruct some of the buildings before attempting inscription as a WHS (aimed for 2020), as I saw a crane on the site.

Based on what I saw, Umm el-Jimal was an interesting site worth visiting. Comparing to already inscribed ruined town of Umm ar-Rasas, Umm el-Jimal is even more interesting (although without so impressive mosaics), so I would be happy to see the place as a WHS.

Vienna developed from early Roman settlements into a Medieval and Baroque city, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It played an important role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. See this new video of The World Heritage Traveler: Wien / Vienna & Schönbrunn

I only visited the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmadabad, which is a well-developed tourist site with a nice ghandi museum and the barracks of the ashram itself. The site seems to be one of the more prominent ones in the proposal, there are a lot of minor sites whose relevance is a bit dubious. The Ahmadabad ashram is certainly an interesting and moving visit - but strictly because of the political and historical background. The buildings itself are quite sober - plain barracks without decorations, fitting Ghandis austere lifestyle. While I have the highest respect for India's non-violent movement, I don't think that a WHS is a good way to honor it. It's all about the ideas and the philosophy - not about sites and buildings.

Visited: Nov 2015

Importance: 5/5 Beauty 2/5 Uniqueness 5/5 Environment 2/5 Experience 3/5

I've visited several of the belfry sites from 2009 to 2017.

Each of the various belfries is usually the tallest structure in each town, built for defensive and civic purposes. Contrary to what most people might think, the belfries were mostly secular, with only a few of the structures being associated with churches.

Visiting any of the individual belfries isn't that hard, as it is just a matter of going to the particular town where the belfry is located. Getting to all 55 would just be a matter of determination.

Read more on my website about the Belfries of Belgium and France.

This is a really nice site - a spectacular building with a rich history, off the beaten tourist tracks but well-developed for a visit. The fact it was buried for centuries and only recently excavated only adds to the charm. I like the general architecture of stepwells, but this one comes jam-packed with rich stone carvings. I rented a driver for a day from Ahmadabad and visited the site together with Modhera (also very worthy). The site itself is fenced in and guarded - which means it is clean and free of touts. It's not too big - there are no further buildings apart from the stepwell. A bit of climbing is required to reach the bottom of it. Compared to the Ahmadabad stepwells, the Rani-ki-Vav is much more decorated, but also a bit more damaged. I would recommand to visit the adalaj stepwell first to get an impression of the general stepwell layout, and than the Rani-ki-Vav for sheer beauty.

All-in-all, I think this site needs a bit more love - it certainly deserves better than scrape around the bottom of our top lists !

Visited: Nov 2015

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

Ahmadabad is not exactly a beautiful city, with the historical buildings intertwined with all kind of modern ramshackle buildings and the typical indian street chaos. It's dirty and dusty and very lively. I visited the old core with the heritage walk, which definitely leads you to places you would not have seen by your own, but was also a bit overcrowded (mostly indian students). The WHS description concentrates on the old building clusters (called pols) in the innercity. Other Ahmadabad sites like the stepwells, the sidi-saiyyed mosque and the jain temple are not mentioned. The old havelis have a very dusty charme - there are intricate carvings, beautiful decorations, but everything has a worn-out feeling. On the plus side, it definitely does not feel touristy. The proposal also seems to be the only indian WHS that concentrates not on palaces, ruins and temples, but on normal residential areas - I would therefore welcome its inscription (also as an incentive to preserve the buildings).

Visited: Nov 2015

Importance 3/5 Beauty 3/5 Uniqueness 4/5 Environment 1/5 Experience 3/5

I visited Van Nellefabriek in January 2017.

The facility is very easy to get to, located only 4km away from the center of Rotterdam. It can be reached by taxi or by local city bus.

The facility is still a working office space, so visitors can't just wander in. There is a guard station at the entrance. You need to go on one of the two days a year it is open to the public, or you need to hire a private tour guide, which is what I did.

Learn more about Van Nellefabriek at my website.

I visited Mistaken Point in October 2016.

Mistaken Point is home to the oldest multicellular fossils on Earth. They are found in a thin layer of rock which is right on the Atlantic Coast.

While the site can be visited on a day trip out of St. John's, there are several things you should know before you go, as they could ruin your trip.

The most important thing to know is that you can only access the fossils on a group tour which starts at the Mistaken Point visitor center.

Also, only a small part of the Mistake Point Ecological Reserve is part of the world heritage site.

Read more about Mistaken Point on my website.

I visited Nice, France during the later part of October 2007. The holiday crowds were gone, the temperature required a light jacket, and the day I spent the most time by the Promenade, it was overcast and gray. There were however, a couple highlights.

Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, a beautiful Eastern Orthodox Church that was built for the Russian nobility who visited Nice during the Early 20th century. The nomination description includes a full section on "- Places of worship and cemeteries", which relates to foreigners who "Wintered" in Nice.

Another highlight was the National Museum of Marc Chagall, which is a wonderful small gallery dedicated to an artist who lived just outside Nice for decades. Its worth noting the nomination includes justification for criteria vi, "The city is thus directly associated with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. This is particularly true for painting with Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Raoul Dufy, Max Beckmann and Edvard Munch, who lived in Nice and represented the city in major works."

I was not overly impressed or awed by Nice. I appreciate the creativity and the persistent ability of France to pursue new nominations. Perhaps Nice has a shot.

Several shell middens dot the banks of the Cagayan river. Between the two towns, Lal-lo is more interesting as it was the site of one of the four earliest cities in the Philippines, Ciudad de Nueva Segovia; its decline and demise, however, started with the transfer of the Diocese of Nueva Segovia to Vigan, an already WHS. These ancient garbages tell us more than the diet that early inhabitants in this area had. It also illustrates the material culture and lifestyles that they had through bones, beads, shards, among others, found together with the middens. Despite the sites' archaeological importance in the region, they still clearly struggle in being relevant and meaningful to travelers and even to the people living in the areas themselves.

I visited Nan Madol in 2007 and ever since I had thought it was not only worthy of world heritage status but probably the most deserving site I had been to which wasn't listed.

Getting to Micronesia isn't easy, and getting to Nan Madol takes a bit of effort once you are on Pohnpei, but it is well worth the effort. Expect to be alone when you visit or be among a very small number of tourists.

It has been called the "Venice of the Pacific" for good reason. The small islands and structures separated by canals evokes images of Venice.

I think that Nan Madol is the top attraction in the Pacific, perhaps even surpassing Easter Island.

Read more about Nan Madol: Ceremonial Centre of Eastern Micronesia on my website.

I visited the Burana Tower which is approximately 70km from the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek.

The Burana Tower was a stop on the silk road and served as both a minaret and an inland lighthouse for caravans.

The site is very easy to visit and is right outside the town of Tokmok. Any taxi in town should be able to take you there. There is a small entry fee.

In addition to the tower, there is a small cemetery with headstones with engraved images of the person who is buried.

Read more about my trip to: Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor

I visited this WHS in March 2017. Having visited most of the 'beehive' sites on the list and knowing that the cost of this visit would be quite steep at 11 euros per person, I had low expectations.

Upon arriving at the Su Nuraxi parking lot, just outside the village of Barumini, I immediately spotted the highest nuragic structure and what seemed like circular structures which are quite similar to the ones of Choirokoitia in Cyprus. So to actually 'see' the site you can stroll by the street and view the nuragic site with the 15th century castle remains of Las Plassas in the background.

However, you'd be missing out on the very interesting guided walk through the nuragic complex and most importantly inside the nuragic 'fortress' which offers an unbeatable panoramic view of the whole site from the highest tower. Moreover, included in the entrance fee to this site are visits to Palazzo Zapata, which houses a limestone (whitish) nuraghe and several important remains found in Su Nuraxi and Centro Giovanni Lilliu which has an interesting collection of excavation photos and 3D models. The most important remain in Palazzo Zapata is the limestone model of a nuragic tower which was found in 'hut' 80 as it gives an idea of how the upper part of the towers must have looked like. It also helps to appreciate the signifance of the numbered basalt stones scattered around the site's perimeter which most probably belong to the uper parts of the towers.

…

Visited February 2017.

It is not easy to get there – west of Kedougou there are no roads and I can hardly imagine how they travel in the rainy season…

This inscription contains three parts: Bassari (Salemata village as a starting point), Bedik (Bandafassi) and Fula (Dindefelo). The closest to the city of Kedougou is Bedik Bandafassi which in my opinion is the most interesting – some small villages on the top of the mountains, with only 3000 people living there. It’s good to visit at least three, four of them but you need one day of very intensive walking and a guide because they are not easy to find. It is not a tourist trap and the Bedik people are very friendly. Just give some money to the chief of the village and walk freely, take as much pictures as you want. Bedik speak their own language, belonging to Niger-Congo family and has some similarities with some Tenda group languages. Their religion is a blend of animist and Christianity, and their most important village – Iwol. The Bedik came here possibly in the 18th / 19th centuries from Mali, and most of them bear Keita as their family name. Most of their original villages are deserted now because of the lack of water.

Dindefelo is less interesting and I think half day moto trip from Bandafassi is enough to see the most representative villages and the waterfall, the biggest one in this part of Africa – but it is …

My cousins highly recommended an overnight visit to Wadi Rum, so when I visited in March 2015, I doubled down and spent two nights in the Jordanian desert. I was greeted by the film set for "The Martian" at the park entrance, but inside the park I was soon transported to the historical setting of Lawrence of Arabia's travels. The Bedouin tour company I traveled with provided a fantastic overview of Wadi Rum on the first day, with visits to petroglyphs and Lawrence's spring, desert canyon hikes, rock bridge climbs, and sandboarding down a giant sand dune. I signed up for a camel ride on the second day, but while I enjoy camel riding for short distances, I was a bit sore after five hours. Nevertheless, the landscape I traveled through was awe-inspiring. I stayed in a Bedouin camp both nights, and the food and opportunities to learn about Bedouin life were amazing. I love stargazing, and Wadi Rum offers some of the best night skies I've seen in my travels. Even more impressive were the sunrises and sunsets, which painted the rock formations in brilliant shades of red and orange. Wadi Rum is a must-see World Heritage Site in Jordan.

Logistics: Private transportation is the best way to reach Wadi Rum. I highly recommend taking a Bedouin tour of the site, and, time-permitting, staying overnight at least one night in the desert.

The Climats, terroirs of Burgundy is a fairly recent addition to the evergrowing list of wine-related WHS. The site covers a large area in the east of France, with officially two components: (1) the over 1,200 viticultural parcels called ‘Climats’ with villages and the town of Beaune and (2) the historic centre of Dijon. The site so far has only attracted one review on this website. And no one has written about the Beaune component yet. So that’s where my focus was on my weekend trip to Burgundy. An early warning: I am not going to write about wine!

Beaune once was the seat of the Duchy of Burgundy, a medieval state (or more precisely: a personal union of many lands) that originated in the current French region of Bourgogne. The power of the Burgundian dukes stretched into what is now Holland and Belgium – the Burgundian Netherlands is still part of history lessons in the Netherlands. The Burgundian dukes managed to impose a central rule on the various provinces and city-states of the Lowlands.

During exactly this period, the 15th century, the city’s one true highlight was constructed: the Hospices de Beaune. This hospital for the poor was founded in 1442 by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Burgundy, Nicolas Rolin. He wanted to spend part of his money on social work, but the building also displays his wealth and is somewhat of a shrine for himself and his wife. The Hospices are a masterpiece of art …

Once you have figured out how the booking system works (you have to order tickets around 3 months in advance), and if you are a bit flexible about the date and time of your visit, it works quite smoothly and you can leisurely walk to the counter in the building next to the church (past the rows of tourists who have not made a booking and are told by the staff that they are full for the next weeks) to pick up your tickets (an alternative option seems to be available - book a guided tour of Milan with one of several agencies, and many of these include the church; this can apparently be done on shorter notice). At the appointed time, you walk into the church and then are left alone for about 15 minutes (audioguides are available) to admire one of the great masterpieces of the Renaissance, done by one of humanity's great geniuses - Leonardo's "The Last Supper". I found the visit very pleasant and enlightening, and well worth the effort to book a ticket. The complex of Santa Maria delle Grazie is in the centre of Milan, only a relatively short walk from the Duomo (which would be a WH site in any other country).

I spent a week in Tel Aviv in February 2017. It was my first visit of Israel and I enjoyed my stay in Tel Aviv a lot! I must say: I would not have a temptation to leave the city and go to a tourist trap of Jerusalem even after one week at one place.

My impression was that Tel Aviv is a blend of Berlin with a mediterranean spirit.

That is true that the condition of some houses is poor (however, it has been improved a lot) and their appearance have been changed, but what I found unique in Tel Aviv is that there is a huge ensamble of such houses. In Czechia, we have only limited number of buildings in the international style and only few billionars would afford to have a house in Bauhaus style...

Highly recommended!

I visited Okinawa island in March last year. According the locals, March-April would be the best time to visit and explore the island in order to avoid winter cold, summer hot&humidity, monzoon of May, and typhoons of fall.

The Yanbaru forest is located in the norden part of the island, and Nago is the best place to stay&go further to north. This part of the island is quite remote, and due to the infrequent public transport - which I used to visit Hiji falls protected area, renting a car would be better and more efficient alternative.

It was a bit rainy day, however for visiting of subtropical rain forest it was an appropriate choice...

I like very much such areas, and I can compare my experience to Laurisilva of Madeira, or in a certain extent also to beech forests of Slovakia (both are WHS). So, I enjoyed my visit a lot, but I have to admit that no everyone would enjoy seemingly boring densely forested areas with a minimum of viewpoints or spectacular flora and fauna.

In the summary, I strongly support the inscription to protect the forested area inhabited by numerous endemic species that might be endangered mainly by military preasures in the area.

I visited the gardens and shrine in Haifa and I agree with the reviews below: There is a great view over the Haifa bay and the place itself looks spectacular, but I cannot see any OUV there.

In summary: it is a tourist trap, I can see reason of inscription only to attract the tourist for visiting of Haifa, that is perfectly located but do not offer anything that can be called as a world class site.