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I did this walk in early May one year thinking the temperatures would be better than summer and it was definitely a wise choice. It's not a difficult walk as the paths are well defined and it's mostly downhill to the coast. There's an area that is quite rocky and that was the only section I would say was slightly challenging but fairly easy in the grand scheme of things. Make sure you take plenty of fluids and some energy food and don't forget your camera as the scenery is quite breathtaking, especially at the "Iron Gates" area. Grab a well deserved beer at the end before boarding the ferry for the short hop along the coast. 

We have visited this big temple area in the forest on our way from Kompong Thom (base for Sambor Prei Kuk) to the BeTreed Adventures Eco Project. Actually the temple was a recommendation from Sharyn who runs BeTreed with her husband Ben for many years to stop along the way. We had to tell our private driver arranged by BeTreed to return as he had already passed the place. I only found out later that it´s a tentative WHS. I was only semi keen on visiting the temple at that moment of time as I had already seen quite a few of the Khmer WHS temples and was expecting similar.

Actually the experience was much better on site than expected. There were some guards hanging around and some local women were harvesting something from the bush. We were the only visitors. Only a small part of the big area of the temple that is marked by a rectangular moat can be easily visited. The access road leads to the entrance over the inner moat. From there it´s possible to pass through three building ruins until the jungle starts directly behind the third. According to the map the temple continues all the way through to a river, but we had only limited team and without machete and probably guide this was the area that was easy to visit. It was still a lot and we spend an hour in the ruins. Also along the paths between the main building remains …

As all reviews so far have only covered Omori, which is for sure the most interesting part of this WHS, I will focus on the other components. I visited 13 of the 14 components and it involved quite some hiking. Iwami-JoI left my car where google maps leads you off the main road. Around a hundred meters up the side road there is an unmarked path that leads right into the forest. Follow the plastic markers you sometimes find bound to the trees up the hill. It seemed not many people follow the path, so you get the real Indiana Jones feeling. The castle remains is just a spot with a bit less trees and a small sign in Japanese that says Iwami-Jo. Luckily I had data connection to translate the sign. Other than that, there were tons of insects and nothing else. Only go there if you are as crazy as I am. TomogauraIt’s a tiny seaside village. I left my car in Maji, a village next to it with a nice beach, at the only place that was officially marked as parking. It wouldn’t have been necessary. You could drive right to the village and leave it at the port. There was nobody around and the village is really just 5 houses. To reach it you have to pass a narrow tunnel. I walked all the way along the beach and through the tunnel (that includes tons of cockroaches) to admire the 5 houses and the …

Visit in August 2024. The history and individual sights of Nessebar have already been described by the other reviewers. I will base my review on two other aspects; one is a warning, and the other concerns the practicalities of visiting Nessebar from Varna with a guided tour.

First of all, DO NOT VISIT NESSEBAR IN SUMMER. Even though Nessebar is right up my alley (I am very interested in the medieval period in Eastern and Southeastern Europe), and even though the many churches, their architecture and frescoes impressed me very much (pay special attention to the use of coloured brick patterns and other decorative elements), the visitor experience of this WHS is highly affected by the fact that Nessebar is very close to (and in practice even an integral part of) the Sunny Beach resort town that is immensely popular with tourists from Western Europe (mostly Brits, Germans and Dutchmen). These tourists mostly come to Sunny Beach as a ‘cheaper’ version of Ibiza, Mallorca, or other infamous places infamous for being popular among (mostly young) people who ‘like to drink’.

Don’t get me wrong, I am in the same age category as most of them and as a Dutchman I enjoy my beer, too. However, when all lovers of alcohol convene in one large resort town and in practice colonise the full extent of this part of the Bulgarian riviera, this has an extreme influence on the livability and visitability (especially for tourists wanting to visit a historical …

In the Community Perspective it says: ‘Navigating the Canal by boat seems to evoke the most positive reviews.’

I can only confirm this, here is my personal story with the Canal du Midi:

In 1999, I went on holiday on a houseboat on the Canal du Midi. We travelled the stretch between Agde and Port-la-Nouvelle (on the Canal de la Robine side channel) there and back. That would have taken us about 3 hours by car, but it took us 1 week by boat! And it was wonderful!Houseboats without a licence can only travel very slow, so we cruised leisurely through the beautiful French countryside, regularly interrupted by a lock where we had to crank our boat up or down ourselves. I highly recommend this type of holiday!

In 2020, I became part of the community of this website and of course rated the WHS I had visited so far. For the Canal du Midi, I knew it had to be 5 stars!Sometime later I discovered the ‘Rating Stats’ and realised that my 5 stars were massively higher than the average rating. So I questioned my judgement: Am I even allowed to give 5 stars for the Canal du Midi? But yes, I stuck with it, after all I only had wonderful memories, although on fading analogue photos (see above).

I have visited the Canal du Midi several times in recent years, unfortunately no longer by boat. The area around Béziers is the perfect place to …

Coming from the north (Uzbekistan) this will be the first site to visit. I honestly did not enjoy visiting here even though the minaret is impressive to stand for long (including Mongolian invasion, earthquake). Most of the site is still under ground, some is still recoverable but it seems they don't want to and UNESCO is against it too.

You'll visit a mausoleum, the minaret, and more mausoleums as you pass through the area. While the first mausoleum is impressive and the minaret definitely is, overall it's not so great.

It will probably be the reason you are coming from Uzbekistan in the first place.

The first part of my two weeks field trip in Cambodia and Thailand exploring pre-Angkorian and Dvaravati arts with ICOMOS international experts was focusing on Funan Culture, the first kingdom of Southeast Asia. We started our journey at Phnom Penh National Museum to admire beautiful and realistic Funan period Hindu god statues to understand how Southern Indian art and architecture existed in Mekong Delta area via ancient maritime trade route that connected India, Nicobar Island, Sumatra, Java with communities around Gulf of Thailand. On the next day we went to Angkor Borei, a typical Cambodian town with nothing special apart from many canal that some historians pointed out that was a part of ancient canal system connecting Angkor Borei with Oc Eo and the sea in modern day Vietnam. The star attraction of this historic town is its small Angkor Borei Museum with some fine artifacts of Funan and early Chenla that discovered around town, the museum activities and Funan study were funded by an American university.

We continued to Phnom Da which is a small mountain south of Angkor Borei. We hiked to the top of the mountain to see an Angkorian temple named Phnom Da Temple. The highlight of this temple is the quality of laterite that is probably the best in the whole Southeast Asia, and with this high-quality material, ancient artisans abled to chisel and make beautiful motifs on laterite, a real one of a kind. Also from here I could see the …

I visited Lenggong Valley in March 2023. In planning my trip, I contacted the guides and resources mentioned in previous reviews on this page. However, given the excessively high cost charged by the only guide who replied to me, I chose to go on my own. So here are the instructions for visiting these caves without a guide, permits or car hire.

I started my day in Georgetown, from where I took the ferry and train to Kuala Kangsar. I imagined I could charter a cab at the station. However, it was deserted when I got off. It was finally at the bus station that I found the local drivers. A man there spoke English and was able to help me negotiate with the drivers on hand. An old man directly offered me a price that suited me (100 MYR) and we set off in his beat-up old car. He didn't speak a word of English and had no idea where we were going. Although I knew very well and showed him the map on my phone, he stopped a few times to ask for directions. This was quite unnecessary, however, as all the sites we visited were well signposted from the main road.

We finally arrived at the museum. In the spring of 2023, the museum was still being renovated and only a small temporary museum was accessible. However, the museum was excellent. It explained the importance of the discoveries made at the site and displayed key …

I hadn’t planned in the Sado Mines for my trip to Japan. But then the site was inscribed during while I was in Osaka region and I could not resist to reorganize my Tokyo part to squeeze it in.I added Sado as part of my Tokyo loop by rental car, driving straight from Tokyo to Niigata.The next morning I took the hydrofoil to Sado. It makes no sense to bring the car to the island as the ferry is slower (2.5h compared to the 1h by hydrofoil) and it’s more expensive to bring your car instead of renting one on the island for a few hours.Car rental was very easy and uncomplicated. There are more companies in and around the port than I ever saw at any airport in Japan. I rented a small car for 9 hours for around 40 USD. The alternative would be using a bus, but I only saw 1 single bus the whole day I drove around the island, so plan this well, if you go public transport.It takes longer than you might think to get around, as the max speed on the island is 50km/h and this is how fast other cars usually drive. I visited all 3 components, plus a scenic spot with cliffs (Senkakuwan Bay). Aikawa areaThis is the main location and it seems to be the island’s main attraction. There were tons of tourists, a museum and a big souvenir shop. You can get into the two mines Zoe mentioned. …

This is a site with rather strange OUV which you can partially excuse or explain because it was such an early nomination: 

Like the Reichenau this was one of the most important (and powerful) monasteries of medieval Europe with a great and widespread territory, one of the most important collections of manuscripts and books in the world and a famous writing workshop. It also lends its name to the most important architectural plan of the middle ages: the St. Gall monastery plan. 

So far, so great. The problem is that not much of that contributes really its OUV: The church and the monastery nowadays are completely baroque and therefore not from the time when the monastery was at its peak but built far later. While this complex of buildings is grand and impressive it is in the whole not better or grander then a considerable number of great monasteries that were rebuilt in the baroque era, especially in southern Germany and Austria. The church has been restored a few years ago and I find the color scheme rather disturbing though it is supposed to refer to the original colors: While most ornaments have strange combination of turquoise and orange the large painting in the cupolas are still extremely dark like darkened by centuries of candle soot even after the restoration.

The only part that may have OUV as a building is the famous and wonderful library but even this has strong competition by a number similar baroque …

I guess few people outside of the Koreas often think about the Korean War (1950-1953). Still, it was a very bloody struggle with 3 million casualties, it saw a confrontation between China and the USA during the Cold War and its repercussions (such as the continuation of the Kim dynasty in the DPRK) are felt until today. To refresh my knowledge, I listened to two recent episodes of the podcast ‘Empire’ during my flight to South Korea, which dealt with the Korean War and the period leading up to it. 

As only one of two cities in the South never captured by the communist insurgents, Busan was the de facto capital of South Korea during the war period. It also hosted 500,000 refugees from the rest of the country, more than its regular inhabitants. The TWHS ‘Sites of the Busan Wartime Capital’ aims to illustrate that particular period in the city’s history via 9 component sites. I visited 3 of those.

I started at the Busan Citizens Park, which was a horse race track during the Japanese occupation of Korea and later the US Army Camp Hialeah. It was used by the US Army until 2006, but the grounds have since been returned to the City of Busan which transformed it into a public park. I strolled around it in the early evening, accompanied by joggers and people walking their dogs. A few signs and odd constructions give away its former use. There are guardposts and various …

Visited Kenozero in July 2024 during the days, when it was inscribed (and the news was read out by the guide).Kenozero National Park is a remote place requiring 1,200 km drive (including 80 km of gravel roads) from Moscow or flight to Arkhangelsk and still 470 km drive by rail / car. This seclusion resulted in the preserved mix of cultural, ethnographic, spiritual and architectural heritage coupled by natural landscape and rich biodiversity of the region. Cultural landscape is integrated with the pattern of lakes and adjacent agricultural and forest lands.The park is divided into two sectors: Plesetsk sector (northern part) and Kargopol sector (southern part). Plesetsk sector with the visit center in Vershinino is culturally more interesting and provides broader coverage. The unique local feature of the religious monuments – is “heavens” or “skies”, painted wooden ceiling in the form of celestial sphere with the stars, sun, moon and the kingdom of God. There are 17 complete “heavens” complexes in Kenozero (dating to 18-19th centuries), including 7 in situ in the churches and 10 in the museums. Special museum space with dome-shaped pavilions will be constructed in 3 years to host these 10 “heavens” as ceilings like they were placed originally. A number of churches were restored in 1996-1998 with the generous support of Norwegian specialists and use of their “lifting” technology, when the whole construction is lifted by special jacks and each log is changed / restored staring from the bottom. Visit center in Vershinino is quite well …

Hartenfels Castle takes forever to visit. Plan 3 hours if you want to see all including hanging out at the bear cage. I actually think the castle would be better world heritage than the castle chapel but it is ONLY the chapel within the walls that wants to be inscribed, well noted by the ticket seller here, and it is free to visit. So if you just want to see the chapel it will take you a lot less time.

Martin Luther (maybe you know him for translating the bible but who knows) is credited for how the church looks like, and in fact how ALL evangelist churches should look like. There is a document (not here) that describes this better. If the document would be on display I would like to have this incribed but without and being VERY renovated I am totally against it. There is one corner of the original church that seems to fit the bill but the rest is modern and not worth seeing. I enjoyed the bears sitting around more than the church.

Schôningen means museum. You can visit the DDR border around here but for the spears you need to enter the museum. I arrived quite late so the lady gave me a discount to visit. It's a good museum and has lots of info on the flora and fauna for the last 300,000 years. It should take you 2h to visit thus I appreciate the discount as I only went to see the spears in detail.

You get to those in a while as you waltz past all the stuff you saw in other museums before, or at least you would have as a world heritage visitor. All displays are very detailed and in German and English - totally worth seeing. The spears are only one room next to flint stones and horse remains. There is also a video on how they are important and more details as you may guess.

Schöningen gave us an overview of how spears were important to humans, not just for hunting. It also explains why the spears when damaged or not hunt worthy were still used for other purposes. Other sites will just see skulls and maybe other bones but spears are a new discovery and definitely with such an amount.

If you don't have interest in even the small amount of prehistoric animals and human remains then the spears won't interest you much either. It's an easy drive otherwise, with a huge museum in the middle of nowhere, a small playground …

If you are bored with Venice you are surely bored with life. I've been there 5 times and I never find it boring. It's become very overcrowded in the summertime, something of a victim of it's own success but go in the winter when it's cold and foggy and practically deserted and you'll see a totally different city. It's so much easier to get around in winter too, there aren't so many vaporettos but the ones that run are less crowded.I can't say that there's any one thing that you really should see or one thing you should do, just being there is enough. It shouldn't exist, it's a crazy notion to build a city in the middle of a lagoon, especially 1,500 years ago and then to go on to dominate trade in the eastern Mediterranean but they did it. Venice's fall from grace was equally spectacular and they are now "just" a major tourist destination with all the problems that brings. The locals can get fed up with hoards of tourists and I don't blame them but I've always met nice locals there. It's not for everyone, my friend is a great traveler and supporter of World Heritage and she was unimpressed, I still don't know how, but for most of us it's a magical place that should be on everyone's bucket list.

Bhojpur Temple, as it is commonly known, is situated between Bhopal and Bhimbetka Rock Shelter. I did not know about this site earlier, but it was recommended by my friend I was staying with in the regional capital. I took a bus from the latter and just mentioned that I wanted to alight in Bhojpur to see the "linggam temple". From where I was dropped off on the highway, I hired a tuktuk for a round trip with a waiting time of 45 mins to see the site. The main temple is really massive and can already be seen from afar. The complex is easy to explore (doable in 30 minutes) but there are fine details that really stand out and deserve closer inspection. The carvings from memory, for one, almost life-size, are visually what impressed me the most. The images appear plumpier than others I have seen before. The main shrine, despite being an unfinished project, commands equal admiration for its sheer size. Bhojpur came to mind when I was in Mingun in Myanmar as they are similar in being incomplete ambitious undertakings. Upon stepping inside, the attention is drawn completely to the enormous linggam. The ceiling is well adorned with carvings but with low light late in the afternoon, this might be better appreciated during the day. I particularly spent some considerable time looking at the beams and the vault.

Located in a rocky outcrop, there are various structures around that are typical to most …

It’s likely we are the first visitors from our community to visit this site after inscription at the 2024 session.

On our southern Etiopia tour this was our first stop. The site is anonymous, with no signs leading to it from the main road. At the site itself, there were no indications of its recent status as a World Heritage site.

We visited the Gombore site, which has five excavation sites, with #2 displayed as an open-air museum. From the entrance, it is a few hundred meters walk along an overgrown path.

This excavation site is approximately 800,000 years old. We saw several tools, fireplaces, and the bones of hippos and gazelles. A Homo erectus skull was also found here, which is now displayed in the National Museum in Addis Ababa. According to the site mananger there are also some old footprints, that testify a long existence of life in this area. 

The site manager told us they have identified 65 possible sites in the area, with half of them currently been excavated. The findings range from 2 million years old to 150,000 years old Homo sapiens. There is certainly much more to discover in this area. 

The site we visited appears to be a primary site. There is a small museum in a traditional house, displaying mostly tools from the surrounding excavation sites, along with some replica skulls from other parts of Africa. There are several tools made of obsidian from the Balchit site. …

Wadi Al Helo is best combined with Hatta and Malhelo as you are heading to the southeast and almost hitting Oman on the way. The problem for my visit was that the area is under heavy construction in 2024. It's hard to see much beyond the nice town that was built up on the mountain. There's not much to be seen in terms of copper production and even if there was I don't think the copper production counts as unique and overwhelming that I would inscribe it as a site. I think in general the sites in the UAE need a bit higher standards, I know they exist, and nobody should be afraid to propose sites that include cultural heritage. Just seeing some copper extraction from who knows when doesn't make it worth seeing.

If you do make it here you'll be funnelled onto the valley top to see the nice town and look below where you just see road and rocks. Not quite the tourist spot I would expect. The good news was the road back to Dubai was through the mountains and quite interesting.

I've just recently realized that one of the oddest episodes of my 2002 South Africa trip became a WH site. That time somebody from ZA convinced some Central European tour operators, that Durban could be an ideal holiday destination for the middle class of New Europe, who are much less safety sensitive - and much more price sensitive - than the Westerners. A Slovak charter airline - with the least creative name ever: Travel Service - launched a weekly service from Budapest to Durban - with Boeing737s, absolutely incapable of long-haul trips. We had two interim stops - in Aswan and Zanzibar - to refill the plane, during the 12-hour flight in seats designed for the Spanish Inquisition.

For the inauguration flight, a group of Central Europan journalists, tour operators and other experts was invited by the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Board for a two-week field trip. The first week was ok - we visited the must-see destinations of KZN from St Lucia Wetland Park to Drakensberg. Most of the group flew back after this week - only some of us remained. That week we were introduced to tier-two sites, that had - according to our partners - "great potential". Some of these - like Hluhluwe - were really interesting, but some were rather disappointing like sidubu cave, that's now on the list We just stopped once at a place that was said to be sacred for the Zulu people and - we were told - that important archaeological excavations were …

In her review, Randi explains that she visited Niah during the same year as Els, so their visits are very similar. In my case, I visited Niah the day after Els' visit! We even had dinner together in Miri and I was able to benefit from her advice following her visit. My account will therefore also be very similar to hers, but my appreciation of the site differs greatly.

Like Els, I travelled to the park by bus. However, unlike her visit, cabs were waiting for tourists at the junction in my case, and a driver found me before I even started looking for him. The return journey was equally straightforward, with a bus waiting at the junction when the driver called by the receptionist dropped me off. After registering, I crossed the river by boat and began my visit to the museum. The museum is informative, but not particularly well presented. There's little structure between the many panels, some are redundant and most seem to have been created by students with no sense of synthesis. Artifacts are unfortunately few and far between. The temporary museum in Lenggong Valley was even better than this one.

The hike to the caves, however, is very pleasant (I can't remember if the sidewalk was slippery). The forest is dense and lush. I saw insects, millipedes and lizards all along the way. The first cave (which is more of a rock shelter), Traders Cave, contains scaffolding used by bird nest collectors. Even …