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I hesitated a bit before writing this contribution, because I do not have a lot to tell. And I’m only doing it, because there’s no other review for this TWHS, yet.

My friends and I stayed in Oviedo and decided to spend a day in the country. We drove by car to Pola de Somiedo, hoping to do some hiking in the area and, who knows, spot a bear! It was about an hour and half driving. I read somewhere else on the web that ‘The park is one of Spain's most beautiful and rugged nature reserves.’ and with what I’ve seen of Spain so far, that is probably true. Just driving through the valleys with their steep, rocky slopes – and some historic sites and bridges along the way - was a treat.

Unfortunately, it was a lot wetter in the mountains then predicted, although the sun did show itself sometimes. So after starting our visit in the small but informative Centro de Interpretacion del Parque Natural de Somiedo, we filled the remainder of the day with only minor walks and some beautiful miradores. We may, or may not, have seen a distant bear, who knows for certain? But there were definitely numerous vultures circling high up in the skies.

We only saw the cows on the summer braña from a distance, and we didn't visit the other part of the THWS, the Ancares park. So perhaps my review is more about giving credit to the UNESCO Biosphere …

Visited during a group tour in April 2023.

It is important that the city was practically not affected by military actions, unlike many other ancient Syrian cities.

It is quite difficult to move around Syria, there are many checkpoints, the only chance is to join an official tour, with a strictly planned route. But in Damascus you could safely go out into the city in the evenings without the control of a guide. 

Damascus is considered the oldest capital in the world and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, but, as usual, the issues of sufficient urbanity are very controversial. But it is undoubtedly one of the greatest cities in the Arab and, more broadly, the entire Islamic world. 

From the period when Damascus was truly the capital of a superpower, the Umayyad Caliphate (661-744), only one building remains, but Umayyad Mosque has the proud title of "the first great mosque", 

The place has been prayed for thousands of years, because there was an Aramaic temple of Hadad, which gradually turned into a Roman temple of Jupiter (a piece of the wall remained), which was transformed into a Byzantine church of John the Baptist (from which the mosque inherited the saint's head).

After the conquest of Damascus during the Jihad, Muslims and Christians prayed in one temple in different halves, until Caliph al-Walid in 705-715 decided not to build a new mosque on this site, which would correspond to the Islamic …

The Saudi water management is mainly dams, but also a few wells. We found 2 out of 3 dams we planned to visit. The 2 locations we did not go for were Al-Khanaq (wrong side of Medinah for our itinerary) and Al Hasid (we thought we covered the TWHS enough after the second dam).

Sadd Samallaqi (close to Taif)The dam is marked on google maps as Al Samallagi Ancient Dam. Just follow google and it will lead you right there. The road is paved, but there are no signs mentioning the dam. It about 200m long and up to 10m high. You can easily walk on top. Next to the dam you can find some old wells. A local shepherd was kind enough to show me one I missed. 

Sadd Al-Aqrab (close to Taif)We failed on that one. It’s nowhere near a road, so we closed in offroad from the nearest road and started hiking. We were finally stopped by a river with a fence on the other side and gave up. At least we found some camels on the road.

Sadd Al-Bint (north of Medinah)Just off road 15. There is even a brown sign announcing the dam. The dam is up to 30m high but collapsed after 135m. This dam is plastered on one side, giving it a special appearance. There is now a river flowing through, which makes it a very nice landscape. You can easily walk on top of the dam, …

We visited the stone structures TWHS on our road trip around Saudi Arabia in 2024. We covered 2 of the 10 proposed locations and passed by several others.

Harrat KhaybarOf the 10 proposed locations, 5 are Harrat (lava stone fields). When you look at our map with the dots it feels like no problem to find them, but it’s actually like finding a needle in a haystack. Nevertheless we are quite sure we (and I mean our fantastic navigator Randi) found the Harrat Khaybar location. After some small roads and a short hike up to a plateau we reached an area with a clearly visible wall, countless stone piles, some with an additional stone wall and stone circles. From the road it’s an unmarked hike and there is also no path. Some rocks are loose, so be careful.

Al-FawThe Al-Faw loctation could be easily accessible once the site is open, but currently it’s in the mountain behind the fence. We therefore did not even try to visit

Rajajil standing stonesThe main component and reason we added another 700km driving from Hail was the Rajajil standing stones. To visit them, we had to drive all the way up north, close to Sakaka. The the road off route 80 was blocked due to roadworks and as it is the only way to get there we needed to go offroad for an adventurous 300m.

When we arrived, we found a parking with a visitor center, but …

5 of the 7 proposed components are close to the mountain town of Abha (2270m). we covered 2 of them on the way to Rijal Almaa and of course Zee Ain.

Qura QaradahA small village close to Abha. The historic core is right at the beginning of the village and consists of a few historic buildings, some dry walls and a watchtower. This is your best bet from Abha I would suggest.

Rabea RufaidaWe struggled with this one. There is a old core with some old buildings (most of them in very bad shape) and also plenty of dry walls. Most of the walls however are not ancient, as they keep building them to create agriculture zones. We did not find the watchtower mentioned on the Unesco site. From Rabea we went on to the Soudah Viewpoint with stunning view over the Sarawat Mountains, before decending the extremely steep road down to Rijal Almaa.

Zee AinThe Zee Ain village is also part of this TWHS, even though it is also a separate TWHS. The village is close to the town of Al Bahah. It seems to be the highlight of the region, as it is well signposted. It is also fully prepared for inscription, with a parking lot and a visitor center. Unlike the other locations we visited, the village is only a museum. Nobody lives there anymore. It is also (over?) reconstructed, but for sure very photogenic. We enjoyed exploring it a lot.

The British started fortifying the double peaked Brimstone Hill in 1690. Sitting at around 800ft it offers commanding views of the coastline and neighbouring islands and with such a steep approach was considered impregnable, the Gibraltar of the Caribbean. Hyperbolic perhaps but it did see some action against the French over the years before being abandoned in 1853. It has since been partially restored and is a pleasant though not outstanding visit if one is in St. Kitts. 

Our visit was in Feb 2024. We were on a cruise with a full day stop in St. Kitts. There is no public transport to the fort and rather than take a tour we found a van taxi to take us to the fort and back with about 1 hour of waiting time for $100US. Entry is a pricey $15US now. It is a steep road uphill from the coast and would be a hot and unpleasant walk so we were grateful for the ride. There are various levels of fortifications as you ascend and then a final short hike up one of the peaks to the restored citadel on top. An hour is enough time for a quick look around the citadel and it's few displays, admire the views and then walk over to the barracks and ruined officer's quarters at the base of the other peak. With more time I would have wanted to pack a lunch and just have a picnic more than anything else. Surprisingly for a …

On our trip to Saudia Arabia we tried to visit Al-Faw in October 24 and did not succeed. The site is double fenced with the standard yellow ca. 3m fence with barb wire on top, the Saudis use to protect their cultural sites. The outer fence is is the problem. It’s minimum 200m from the site, which make it impossible to get to the core zone or even see more than a few walls. The building closest to the main street, about 200m from the fence, is a Ranger Station. Around 10 Ranger cars were parked there, so we tried our luck and went in. The ranger was very friendly, but would not let us pass even the outer fence under any circumstances. There are some info panels inside the station, but it’s clearly no visitor center.

We have seen a few places the Saudis have ready for visitors and Al-Faw is far away from that. I am sure there will be a visitor center, parking lot and access road to the site. None of these exist in 2024. The ranger was talking about “maybe” 2025, but I don’t think this is realistic. I would rather bet on 2030.

There is currently no legal or semi legal way to get to the core zone. As much as it hurt, we could not tick this site off (and neither should anybody else). I will try again, when the site officially opens. I will obviously also not rate it, as …

I organized a private day tour from Johannesburg to visit eight of the fourteen sites on the final inscription that are in or around Johannesburg: (a) Liliesleaf, (b) Constitution Hill, (c) Orlando West, (d) Walter Sisulu Square, and (e-h) the four Sharpeville sites. It would have been difficult to visit on my own, so I emailed several tour companies listed on TripAdvisor with the list of sites, and several responded that they’d be pleased to set up a tour. It ended up being a 9+ hour day and I could have taken longer in Orlando West and Liliesleaf, but overall I was pleased with the day and I feel like I have a good enough sense of the site to mark it as visited.

I am not always a fan of serial sites like this one, but I think the final inscription has a terrific mix of sites to commemorate Nelson Mandela and to teach visitors about the horrors of apartheid.

Here is more detail about the sites I visited: 

• Sharpeville was the site of a 1960 massacre of peaceful protestors. It is a township over an hour (like 90 minutes in traffic) from downtown Johannesburg, and it is not often visited, particularly by international tourists. The tour company arranged a visit to the memorial (where the massacre occurred) and the police station, as well as some of the cemeteries. Locals say that the number of deaths is much higher than the 61 officially reported. The …

We visited Vjetrenica Cave in early October 2024. You can only visit the cave system with a guide from the site. It opened at 10.00am and we undertook the first tour with just the two of us and the guide. Cost is 10 Euro each and the tour take up to 45 min to an hour, with your ticket price including a visit to the museum to view artifacts that have been found in the cave and preserved in the museum for display. The biodiversity of the cave system one of the main reasons for its inscription and it is not a visible part or your experience in the cave, however you do see an array of different cave system structures which are pleasant but not awe inspiring in itself. In summer, which we were not there for, you can undertake a longer tour of up to 3 - 4 hours which includes a boat tour in the underground lake area of the cave. This is not open to the hourly walking tour group to either view or undertake. If in the area, I potentially will return in the summer to do so, but I would not specifically go out of my way to undertake. Whilst you only tour a very small part of the cave system, you can appreciate its value in preserving and protecting.           

I made a last-minute decision to visit Levuka when I found myself in Suva with a few extra days to spare. Previous reviewers have already described the town well. I found it more functional and active than I was expecting. Sure it is small, but the mid/late-19th century wooden colonial architecture along Beach St. reminded me of a displaced gold rush town like the ones I'd recently been visiting back home. Unlike those, which often have a ghost town "museum" feel to them, Levuka is simply trapped in time and very relaxed and friendly. I got a walking tour map from the New Mavida Lodge where I stayed (in the one remaining original structure and not the newer, larger section) which proudly pointed out Fiji's firsts: the first government-run school, post office, police station, town hall, social club, etc. In many cases the buildings have been repurposed but everything is still in use and refreshingly lacks any touristic focus. I am not sure how often it runs but on the Friday and Saturday that I visited, there was even a small vegetable market set up along the waterfront across the road from the historic core. Overall I enjoyed my visit and found it to be a great and relatively easy escape from touristic Nadi and busy Suva with 1 night just the right amount of time. 

As of Sept 2024 when I visited, there are 2 trips/day with Goundar Shipping from Suva. They have a small ticket booth at …

This is the only WHS that I have been to multiple times, due to living in California, and it truly is a highlight of not only CA but the USA as a whole. It is a beautiful and unique landscape that rewards multiple visits. I have only been in summer because that is when most trails are open for hiking, but I have heard that it is gorgeous in all seasons. I actually would not recommend a visit in high summer due to crowds and the reservation system that they have put in place. The Valley can become a circus very quickly, especially in the summer season. I would recommend a visit in fall.

I have done the hike up to Yosemite falls, and while it is amazing when you make it to the top, the trail itself is basically an endless staircase that is usually pretty crowded. We actually underestimated the amount of water that we needed as well, which led to an eventual race down to the bottom so we could get extra water from the car. So please don't underestimate this hike in particular, it is brutal! (The falls are very nice from the bottom as well).

You can hike to the top of Half Dome as well, but that requires a special permit that is awarded in a lottery system, as well as an absence of a fear of heights. 

There are other areas of the park that are nice and free of …

There seems to be an issue in the use of Domus de Janas in this nomination as some components are strictly not rock-hewn tombs. What Italy seems to be gunning for in this nomination is to represent a larger picture of pre-Nuragic cultures of Sardegna, which includes a natural cave considered as "The Cradle of Sardinian Man", structural constructions like altars and dolmens, and even stone tool workshops. If anything, the Domus de Janas are only the most representative monuments from a vast period before the Nuraghes started appearing on the island. I managed to see the Necropoli a Domus de Janas di Brodu (ca. 3,200BC) in Oniferi. My friend and I drove from Barumini heading for Orgosolo, and the entrance to the necropolis was conveniently situated a few kilometers from the highway. I purposely chose to see this necropolis as it has been described as a site where artistic carvings can be seen blending with functional architectural features. In this case, the symbolic ox horns were decoratively placed above the doors, thus the doors became representations of the ox's head. The fusion of these two elements is considered as an artistic milestone, and is referred to in the draft dossier as Transitional Type XIX.

In visiting the site, we had to open three farm gates (these are private properties, but being with a charming local eased things out so we never had any problem with the cork farmers and shepherds we encountered), and walked some 20 minutes …

Using the map on this site and the nomination file and having a rented 4WD for our trip on the southern side of Issyk Kul, we went to see Khan Dobo, Tosor and Barskoon. Well it didn’t work out well. For Khan Dobo there is a 6 km paved road out of the highway but after that the last km it’s unpaved and almost inaccesible. There is nothing marked till the end of the road in open field. At some point on the shore of a little lake we could spot some pitiful ruins, only because we were able to climb on a little mound nearby. No markings of any kind. We couldn’t find anything in Tosor except an old cemetery with no marking of anything. We didn’t have time to make it to Barskoon, the whole road to Karakol has been under construction for three years and the trip takes a very long time. 

From the 5 locations proposed as Oil Heritage, only the Trans Arab Tapline is accessible. 

Well 7, KFUPM and Dhahran Camp are all within the Saudi Aramco Campus in Damman and the guards would not let us in. Only if you work there or get an invitation by someone who works and lives on the campus you get access. 

The Jeddah Refinery is part of the Luberef Oil Refinery campus. Access for employees only.

The only “visible” component is the Tapline. It runs mostly underground along the Tapline Road from Damman to Jordan, but becomes partially visible from around 20km along the Tapline Road after the junction to the airport. Unfortunately, when planning a visit I did not focus on the pipeline (I really counted on the Well no7) and only saw that on the map back home.

I had a day to spare between flights and like sand dunes so made a quick visit here in Sept 2024. This is an easy day trip from Nadi on public transport even on a Sunday when I went since there are still regular buses traveling along the southern route between Suva and Lautoka. The ride is a little more than an hour from Nadi and there is no official bus stop at the entrance to the dunes but the driver was able to pull over at a reasonably close distance so I could walk back along the road. On the way back to Nadi be prepared to walk a few hot km back to the Sigatoka bus station or get lucky as I did and get a lift there from a friendly local. 

Sigatoka Sand Dunes are Fiji's first national park and a visitor here would be forgiven for never realizing that it wants to be a cultural site. In the entrance room/museum where you buy your ticket is a small display of reconstructed pottery (by my old university!) and brief explanation about the early inhabitants but most of the focus is on the natural aspects of the dune environment itself. 

There are 2 loop trails starting from the same spot and I'd recommend the 2-hour loop over the 1-hour one to be able to be able to visit the larger dunes at the eastern end of the park and have a bit more time along the …

Whilst Mostar appears to have been traditionally been a day trip to visit from either Dubrovnik or Split in many posts, we choose to stay overnight in a visit in October 2024. We stayed in the old town and our bedroom window had a view of the Bridge which was wonderful. The old town is very commercialised with mass UNESCO inscribed awnings hanging over each of the shops along the old cobblestone roads. The commercialisation took a bit of shine of the site, but it was pleasant to wander the streets and appreciate the old town itself. I would recommend an overnight at least as this was you can avoid some of the large crowds early in the morning and late in the afternoon. It also allows you the opportunity to visit Blagaj Tekke on old Turkish monastery a short drive away which is currently a Tentative UNESCO Site as well. Whilst I could appreciate the sites worth, the commercialisation and the fact the bridge itself is a reconstruction took some of the gloss away from the site for me. Bridge diving / jumping has seemed to create a small economy for local jumpers, who offer tourists the opportunity to pay them money and when they think they have enough, jump into the river below.       

I will review here Altyn Emel National Park, visited in October 2024 as a tour from Almaty. We combined it with a trip to Tamgaly Petroglyphs. The cost was “outrageous” but we paid ($830 for 3 days in a van) and in the end we were happy with the result. It was a “minor” misunderstanding between the company who arranged it and us and the driver, he wanted to take us to Tamgaly Tas which is on the way to Altyn Emel, we caught it early and he took the Almaty ring road to Tamgaly WHS, then returned to Almaty and drove all the way to the village of Basshi (on Google maps Kalinino). It is 260 km from Almaty and generally an easy drive but in our case it was a day with 580km and we got there in the dark, not pleasant. As usual Google maps messed things a bit because it shows a road up North between Tamgaly Petroglyphs and Basshi, we only did a couple kilometers on it and it was horrible, don’t try. Since I didn’t know that I accepted the plan to see Tamgaly and get to Basshi in the same day and the driver and the tour company surely came up with this plan because they thought we are only going to Tamgaly Tas. 

In Basshi there is the visitor centre to the Altyn Emel park, cost is 800 tenge per person per day plus something extra for the car (200 tenge), …

Visited on a group tour to Syria in May 2023.

Although the city is controlled by the Free Syrian Army, but there are mutual agreements, and foreign tourists are brought here from the territories controlled by Assad. Everyone needs money.I really wanted to visit this city, because it is the last capital of the Nabataean kingdom, and after visiting Petra it was logical to get here as well, although there is little left of the Nabataeans here, only a huge gate, the same type as in Petra.In fact, the Romans built a new city here, which became the capital of the province of Arabia.The most important building of the Roman era can is the well-preserved Roman theater, although it is not so big (about 8 thousand spectators), but the stage and the rows of spectators have perfectly survived to our time. Maybe because basalt was used as the main building material, and the Muslims rebuilt the theater into a citadel after conquering the city, thus preserving it.There are also traces of the Byzantine era, a basilica that was the center of the bishopric. From Islamic times, the main object is the Omar's Mosque, it claims the status of one of the first mosques in the world according to local tradition, although historians have doubts about this.In general, there are many different layers, but it looks complete, because the material is the same - basalt, and the architectural continuity is visible.

I made my first trip to China in June 2024 and Temple of Heaven got the honour of being my first World Heritage Site in China. And what a fantastic site it is! I arrived by bus to the east gate of the temple (there's also a metro station here), and as there were no queues to the ticket counters, I was quickly inside of the temple area. You have option to buy a general ticket that only includes the entrance to the park area or the "all inclusive" ticket that includes the entrance to all the altars and halls of prayer. I obviously got the all inclusive ticket.

When you enter from the east you will immediately see the roof of famous Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests directly ahead of you. However, I didn't head directly to there as I wanted to visit the temple in correct order, and that is to start from the south entrance! It's possible to walk along the eastern edge of the temple area to the south entrance, and in the summer heat it was a pleasant walk under the pine trees. In the more remote parts of the temple compound like this, you will encounter locals doing traditional dances or physical exercises. The temple compound is huge so it took some time until I arrived to the Circular Mound Altar that is located at the southern entrance. Most Chinese tour groups seem to start their visit from the south gate, but …

I was driving here in the off-season which isn't a good idea in general. This is off a small road leading from Kermanshah to Sanandaj and there wouldn't really be any reason to go here but for the world heritage site. It doesn't usually drop below zero Celsius much here and you shouldn't expect snow but it's still quite chilly. You can see the valleys from this road. The actual spot to visit is called Palangan Tourist Village just aside this road. It is made very touristy on purpose although the Kurdistan formalities don't mean it's tacky or selling out. Because I came in the off-season nobody was really here or expecting tourists. The main point of interest will be viewing the valley plus the houses that rise up the mountain. I've seen similar in Saudi Arabia just definitely not with the Kurdistan ethnicity. Normally there are sellers with shoes, cloths and other baskets, snacks among the collected food, but everyone was staying home during my visit.

Palangan Rural Museum was open and it shows off some tools as well as medical plants found nearby. It helps to understand people do around here a bit better but not really worth the trip. The journey through the valleys, as treacherous as the roads are, was definitely better.