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I agree here with Clyde. Throughout the 10h that I spent in graz I failed to see the sketchy ouv the site presents: "Historic Centre and Schloss Eggenberg reflects artistic and architectural movements originating from the Germanic region, the Balkans and the Mediterranean"

The city is nice enough with an abundance of Renaissance buildings and a nice cathedral with the rather surprising mausoleum of Ferdinand II. Apart from that the most satisfying part of the day was climbing the hill up to the clock tower.

Overall I would say that graz is a very pretty but rather unremarkable city. And unfortunately the list has plenty of these. I simply fail to see what exactly is graz supposed to bring to the table. As hard as I tried it just looked like yet another pretty central european city. I didn't see anything particularly outstanding about it. 

I agree with the general sentiment that the red fort and agra Fort are virtually indistinguishable. No doubt helped by the fact that both have significant historical overlap in their structures.

Weirdly enough, I remember agra Fort as more interesting than the red fort, but when checking back the photos I tend to like the red fort better. Overall I think both have a place in the list as examplary complexes. Imo the most diferenciating aspect, and one that I particularly enjoyed was the persistence of some akbarite architecture in Agra. In this sense I think Agra Fort showcases the changes in earlier mughal architecture much better than Delhi.

Once upon a time, two centuries and a bit, The German world was split in two, the Hapsburg Slavic lands and and the archduchess and kingdoms that would wind up under the Prussian Hohenzollerans before the whole thing blew up in the First World War. But that was later. 

Austria wasn’t much then, and it isn’t much now, but in this picturesque bit of nothing was Vienna, also known as Wein. The capital of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation for far shorter than one would expect, The downtown palace complex called the Hoffburg is where the family and their empire were headquartered for about 400 years, on and off. This was the most glamorous and expensive bit of palatial architecture ever made. Well worth a look. 

There were three phases in the construction of the complex, once in the 15th century when the schlubby Emperor Fredrick III died and his son Maximillian took over and turned out to be quite capable, this lasted until his grandson, who lived in what is now the Netherlands, managed to beat Henry VIII (he was), of the six wives, through a process know to historians as “heroic bribery,” for King of the Romans (the Pope had to crown one to make them the actual Emperor, so Chuck and his successors called themselves "Emperor-elect") Then the city became a bit of a backwater while Charles V (I of Spain) hung out in Spain and Brussels. 

The Second phase began …

When his Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, Franz Josef the 1st, by the Grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; King of Jerusalem, etc.; Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukovina; Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friaul, Ragusa and Zara; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trento and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg etc.; Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro and on the Windic March; Grand Voivode of the Voivodeship of Serbia etc., etc., etc.(the et ceteras are official) moved permanently into his summer palace complex at Schenenbrunn, just outside of Vienna, he was already well into middle age, but he had been living there all his life. 

His life revolved around there and he never ventured to far, and although it is far older than he, it is with him and his great-great grandmother that the place is always associated. 

The Palace, which had been inhabited by millionaires since the end of the first millennium CE, only came to be bought by the Hapsburgs in the middle of the 16th century when Emperor Maximillian II bought the place as a hunting lodge. Not much happened in the way …

Ping Yao is a beautiful and well-preserved old city, located in China’s Shanxi province. It was an important centre of trade, commerce, and political power for centuries, mainly during the Qing and Ming dynasties, and much of the old historic core of the city is still intact and in good condition.

There are lots of well-preserved wooden buildings, brightly coloured and with exquisite Chinese characters decorating the facades, hidden laneways and courtyards to discover, beautiful temples, a few drum towers poking up into the skyline, and of course the imposing and well-preserved city walls surrounding the historic core. Most buildings on the main streets are also festooned with red lanterns that light up in the evenings, making for quite a magical atmosphere (though of course a lot of these beautiful buildings are packed with junk shops and karaoke bars). The whole place is reminiscent of Hoi An, though on a larger scale.

Unfortunately for us, we’d inadvertently booked to stay in Ping Yao on a Saturday during Chinese school holidays, so it was very crowded even by Chinese standards. Every street and courtyard was packed like a music festival or large sporting event, so getting around and enjoying the environment was always a challenge.

The highlight for us was the City God Temple, with gorgeous aqua and gold coloured roof tiles. Lots of beautiful decorations inside, hidden gardens and courtyards, plazas and trees. Confucius Temple was also very impressive, with some fantastic buildings on show. Both of …

Visit: 4th of sept.2024,Serrahn

I took the train from Berlin-Suedbahnhof at 07.36am via Berlin-Hauptbahnhof(central station) and Berlin-Gesundbrunnen to the city of Neustrelitz, where I arrived at around 09.00am. I walked from the train station to the city center and looked around the pleasant city for a bit. About 1.5 hours later I took the bus 619 from the Neustrelitz bus station, which is right in front of the train station. I got off the 619 bus at the stop "Zinnow World Heritage Site”. Everything is excellently signposted from there...I didn't need my downloaded offline map.

I decided to take the main trail("naturlehrpfad") from Zinnow to Carpin. It was a sunny day with quite high temperatures.I had bought two bottles of water in the city of Neustrelitz which turned out to be a good decision as the only cafe inside the forest was closed to the public that day. As soon as I entered the forest the temperatures were more bearable as you immerse yourself in a shady world of trees,The path was pleasant, flat, easy to walk and very well maintained....no cars or bicycles allowed on the nature trail....bicycles are allowed on other trails through the beech forest, but no cars. 

I hiked to the park information center in the hamlet of Serrahn, where there is a cafe (only open Friday to Sunday), an old building with nature photos on display, the unmanned information center itself with toilets, stuffed animals and information boards about the beech forest …

Amudarya is closed to Turkmenabad which is one of the two places you would arrive from Uzbekistan. You COULD ask your guide to add this to the travel itinerary because you are almost passing by but there is a good reason you are not: it's closed. I believe the map on Google is just on paper and the actual site is either smaller or bigger, who knows. Either way I didn't see a road sign to say we are going there. The natural reserve pass just means you cannot go in - especially as a tourist. If you would go as a scientist or someone collecting stuffed animals for the many museums in Turkmenistan (shame!) then you might have a chance.

Because of this I mainly drove to the site, according to Google I was within the zone, then took a few pictures and left. I believe the guide wasn't even sure what I wanted or had this "I told you it would be like this" look on this phase. I feel more sorry for the driver needing to go out of the way, spend more time in the car only for me to take these cruddy pictures. Perhaps like the Repetek reserve it is beautiful in summer after the spring rain has all flowers pop up.

Like most people say: you need to visit the National Museum in Ashgabat beforehand to understand most of what went on in Nisa or why it is important. In fact almost all artifacts are IN the national museum. What's worse is that there some columns and walls underneath the rubble in Nisa because they want them to stay hidden and protected - fair enough but not cool for you visiting at all.

The guide told me that as a kid he would just come up and play ball here. Well, basically these days it's locked up but one could still go in and destroy but there is nothing here. The columns underneath the dirt aren't interested to most folk although I would find it more interesting that seeing small mounts of dirt. After a long approach you can finally waltz around a few walls remaining but it's not so special. There are some areas where you can see the old wall, even the old columns, and I don't know if everyone gets to see the inside of one of these buildings but it was definitely the highlight of my trip. Some things inside are replicas but there are indeed ancient remains. You can get closer than in the museum and people coming to Nisa as visitors aren't going to destroy these - I think. By the way if you didn't come with a guide (which isn't possible I feel) then you'd see nothing and go back very disappointed.

…

AS to the capital of Hungary, it’s not as old as it’s supposed to be. Budapest, pronounced Buda-Pescht, only dates to 1873, and most of the oldest architecture only predates it by a few years, but the commies who found the place in rubble after the war made a decision not to utilize Socialist modernism but in 19th century classical revival and art nouveau, which is why the place was inscribed in the first place.

In other words, in good taste.

The city was originally two cities, Buda, which is on top of a thing midway between a hill and a mountain, and Pescht, which was a smallish flat suburb before the nationalists decided to make it the national capital in 1867. The iconic chain bridge was already there, built in 1856, and it was near there that they decided to build the gaudy-but-cool capital building (make sure to get your ticket in the morning, because they sell out quickly), and a bunch of parks. Then there was the grand promenade, which has a bunch of museums and statuary of legendary and revolutionary heroes and is part of the WHS.

One strange thing about the Pescht side is that a bunch of insurance companies built palaces, which are office buildings with attached hotels and shopping malls, and they still are used for much of the same purposes and and well worth a visit. The newer buildings follow the same pattern, post-modernist palaces that look the …

My first one from the “Takes 5 days or more to visit”-list! The Ogasawara Islands are a Japanese archipelago in the Northern Pacific Ocean about 1,000km south of Tokyo and 1,800km north of Guam. They can only be visited by a weekly ferry which takes 24 hours to cover the distance. About 2,500 people inhabit its two main islands. Settlers arrived here in the 19th century, the islands were mostly uninhabited before. After having been taken by the US during the Second World War, the islands were returned to Japan in 1968.

Despite being a group of islands, the OUV is not marine but firmly focused on land (rapidly diversifying land snails! endemic plants!) – even UNESCO seems to have forgotten that as its Galleryonly shows photos of sea creatures. About 80% of the core zones of the 5 components are land-based. On Chichi-jima, where I stayed for 3 nights, the core zone of the WHS covers about 65% of this island; the coastal villages and agricultural fields are excluded.

The protected area that lies closest to the main settlement of Omura is Miyanohama Beach. And that is where I headed on my first afternoon on the island. It’s only a 1.2km walk, but I learned quickly that the hills on the island are very steep. The bay has characteristic volcanic arches and outcrops, and inland I got my first good look at the endemic, fruit-bearing Pandanus trees.

In the evening I joined …

I was privileged enough to trek to Kangchendzonga back in 2002, well before it was a WHS.

It was a genuine wilderness experience at that time - nothing like the teahouse treks you experience in Nepal.

It was a real adventure with the scariest part being an early morning trek to viewpoint in darkness. On the return journey, it became clear that we walked on slippery glacial moraine above a very long drop!

It was a truly wonderful experience and well worth the 5 stars. I do hope that the climate crisis is not completely destroying its natural beauty.

Longmen Grottoes is a large collection of Buddhist carvings into caves and grottoes, in a kilometre-long series of cliffs above the Yi River. There are several thousand caves and grottoes here, with tens of thousands of carvings; everything from a 19-meter high Buddha statue, to minuscule figurines scarcely 10cm high. Most of the carvings date back to a period between 500-700 AD. Like many cave art sites, it’s been subjected to centuries of weathering, looting, and vandalism, so the overwhelming majority of the statues are damaged in some way - eroded, faded paint, faces smashed off, looted, and so on.

The highlight here is the main grotto, home to an enormous 19-metre high Buddha statue, flanked by a pair of boddhisatvas, kings, and fierce guardians. I loved the artistic style on display here, particularly the guardian on the northern wall, glaring furiously at anyone who dares enter. Small wonder it’s survived the centuries mostly intact.

Overall it’s a great example of carved religious art, though perhaps not quite as impressive as similar-ish sites in India like Ajanta, Ellora, and Elephanta caves.

While you’re there:

The site is on both sides of the river, and has been organised so that you walk north -> south on the western side, cross a bridge over the river, then proceed south -> north on the eastern side, before crossing back over the river to the initial entrance. The western side is by far the more impressive, featuring both the highest number of carvings, and …

Although I visited the same location (Suncheonman) as the other reviewers, I have a few additional observations to share from my visit in early September 2024:

1.    Viewtower is closed for renovation: the Yongsan observatory, from where you could take the pretty sunset pictures of the salt marshes as Clyde did, has been closed for renovation since the end of last year. It is unclear for how long, but they even have the fact printed into the booklet you receive at the entrance so it will be a while. Without access to the tower, a visit is hardly worth it and I think they should at least give a discount on the entrance fee (now 10,000 Won (7 EUR) – expensive for Korean standards).

2.    Core zone fetishists will have a hard time: the inscribed area of this component only comprises coastal waters (with sediments and islands), which are underwater or all-mud depending on the tide. It’s not possible to put your foot inside. You have a view of it from the tower (when it’s open) or (like I did) you can walk the ‘World Heritage path’ which starts to the right just before the main bridge leading to the reeds boardwalk. But even from the viewpoints along that path, all you’ll see is a sea of reed.

3.    The name of the WHS is odd: even for a natural site they felt the need to add “Korean” to the English title as they …

I had the opportunity to visit Nicaragua this summer (August 2024), and with that, its two world heritage sites. I would like to share my impressions of this place that left a great impact during the two days I was in the city and that also allowed me to get to know its streets and other monuments and museums. The enormous cathedral of the city of León is a great monument that surprised me by its size and the thickness of its walls, by its width and its horizontal shape, designed to resist the earthquakes that frequently hit the region, these features allowed the church to reach our days intact. It is striking, in addition to the dimensions of its naturally illuminated interior space, the fact that no piece of iron or other metal was required to support the building, since it is built mainly of stone, lime, salt, sea sand and the clear of thousands and thousands of bird eggs. It is actually an example to admire for all its visitors and an object of study for contemporary architects anywhere in the world.

To fully enjoy the experience, it is necessary to purchase the three tours offered by the cathedral in the rear (eastern) part of the building. These are, one that gives access to the roof of the cathedral, another that covers the Patio del Príncipe, the art gallery, the baptistery and the tabernacle chapel and the last one to the basements of the cathedral.

There …

Mixed feelings. I traveled from Prague with the main intention of seeing this monument, only to discover that the column is currently under renovation, obscured almost entirely by scaffolding and white cloths!

From what I could make out through the coverings, the intricate details of the column were barely visible. Despite this, I spent as much time as possible absorbing what I could barely make out underneath the renovation works, reading the displays around the site, and doing additional research online to understand its significance better. Even under these unfortunate circumstances I found the column's history and the reasons for its inscription interesting.

So it’s really disappointing but I’m considering this a valid visit, based on the guidelines discussed in the community post, "When does a visit count?"—especially the idea that if one sincerely tries to appreciate the site's value, it counts as a visit. I was there, I engaged with its history, and I left with memories, albeit not the ones I had hoped for.

Beyond the column, Olomouc itself was a charming place. The town center is full of hidden gems, and even after all these years (see previous reviews) it feels so untouched by tourism unlike Prague. I also saw 5 of the Baroque fountains and the smaller plague column nearby, and I actually found the square containing this smaller column a lot nicer to pass the time in. All of these nearby monuments which were part of the original proposal for the site …

Sluice gates aren't a common thing on the list. This weir that has protected the nearby city of Magdeburg since its introduction in 1875 and won prices at the Paris expo, then got used as an example for other sluices to do the same around the world. I find this worthy already. Some pictures on the site show similar sluices closer to the cities which for me would be better visits; however, as this is the first sluice it's important by itself. This sluice gate is a bit of a drive from Magdeburg and there is nothing else nearby. The building at the opposite of your parking lot is still in use by the workers so it's not a visit. At first sight I figured that's a small museum/visitor center, perhaps even a ticket and I took the wrong exit to reach but no, it's off limits. You do want to walk over for more plaques and another view onto the sluice from that side of the river though.

Overall I took maybe 30 minutes to see everything and is only because I walked along both sides of the sluice gate with the opposite side not allowing a pass-through. One also cannot visit the interesting top which I find a bit sad but I understand there are people that would leave trash or even damage it if left unattended. After all this gate is useful. At least, I think so. When I was visited the water was very low …

I don't understand this attempt to inscribed a natural place around a cultural wall. The wall is not there anymore and a lot of land has gone back to agriculture use. I went to visit the Monument DDR-Grenzbeobachtungsturm near Hof and I saw very little that it could represent. How can it still be a 1,393 km long, continuous zone after all these changes in the last 25 years?! I also went to the old border post at Stapelburg and it was more natural and wild but in no way would I inscribed this as a site for being a landscape. A rather poor decision.

Just FYI the place in Hof is not free but if you arrive after the museum is closed (5pm?) nobody will really stop you. Also you are looking at the landscape and not the DDR border so I don't quite understand the costs.

Complex of travertine waterfalls in Martin Brod - Una National Park– site visited in July, 2024.

Bosnian proposal for inscription in 2026. It is not fully clear if they want to inscribe the full park (quite big in fact) or just the area with waterfalls around Martin Brod (as the name suggests). Whatever the final decision would be it can easily be linked with Plitvice National Park which is located in Croatia some 40 km west of the park borders.

Una National Park is the biggest national park in Bosnia (198 km2), western part of the country, near the town of Bihac and embrace the rivers: Una, Unac and Krka and the valley. It protects karst activities with waterfalls and cascades. Martin Brod (a small town) is located centrally in the park on both sides of Una river. According to the legend it is named after local girl Marta who was in love with a soldier. When crossing a river in order to meet him, she was pulled by a strong current where Marta drowned. Brod in Slavic languages is the equivalence of a shallow. In Martin Brod there are two areas of waterfalls: around Small Waterfall and Milančev buk.

Mali Slap (Small Waterfall) – access through Jovin Bridge (google coordinates 44°29'19.1"N 16°08'29.1"E), free of charge, there are several waterfalls on main Una riverbed, ruins of old mill (just on the right of footpath). Some 200 meters further on there are mixture of karst activities, waterfalls (including …

You can tick this site very easy, or you can go tryhard. The easy version would be to take the train from Osaka to Mikunigoaga station, cross the road and take a picture of Genemonyama Kofun. Done.Me, on the other hand, I went tryhard. In honour of the legendary Iain Jackson, I panned to visit over 50% of the components, even though after seeing a few, there is little reward in seeing more.

Furiuchi clusterI left my family in Osaka and first went to the Furiuchi cluster. From Osaka I took the train to Hajinosato station, started with the one north to the station and then walked all the way down the cluster, ending at Furiuchi station. I covered 19 components along the way. Way more than necessary, but at a certain point my competitive streak kicked in. There is really not much to see. The bigger ones have some kind of medieval water trench around the mound. Those bigger mounds are completely covered in forest. They are all not accessible, but I doubt there would be something to see besides trees. The smaller ones are naked mounds or with a few trees on it. Nabezuka Kofun just next to Hajinosato station can be climbed. The rest is fenced off. It felt weird to cover this cluster, as most mounds are entirely within the suburbs, between houses. Without any knowledge about the existence of these Kofun, I would have probably mistaken them for unused patches of land, where …

First of all: If you have less time, it`s worth to come to see.

Why? Because there is nothing you can`t see somewhere else. 

Moroni: The Medina is very small and not well maintained. The old friday mosque is very narrow and fully white, and simply furnished.

Iconi: The old palace is tiny. Only old walls made out of local stones are left. The Medina is very clean :-) and in good shape. On the Mountain there are only some walls left. Worth to climb up.

Ntsoudjini: Nice walk along the old citywall, which is in good shape. The old Gates are missed :-( There is only a wall to see.