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While I write this, the Russian army is bombing and shelling Ukraine, targeting and killing civilians indiscriminately. Whole towns are obliterated and millions of Ukrainians are fleeing the front lines. So far, L'viv being the western most major city of Ukraine has been spared the worst, but individual bomb raids have reached it. Hopefully, the precious jewel that is L'viv will remain unscathed, while the Ukrainians repel the Russian army.

One justification for the war can be found in Putin's now infamous pseudo historic treatise on Ukraine. It's major claim is that there is no such thing as an Ukrainian nation. All Ukrainians are really Russians at heart; Russians who need to be bombed back into the nation they belong to.

The whole argument is bs. Nations are constructs, not natural or historic givens. By Putin's logic, Austrians and the German speaking Swiss should be German; they decidedly are not. Listen to me and Philipp discuss the abuse of the German language that is parkieren, or try to explain to me what a Paradeiser (?!) is, and you will understand. Parken und Tomate are the proper German words if you are wondering.

In 1870, when Germany unified under Prussian banners, some felt German, but most felt they were Hessians, Prussians, Bavarians, Frisian (my paternal ancestors), Polish, Danish and what not. The German nation had to be created not just by blood and iron as Bismarck succinctly put it; and there was way too much of …

I visited this WHS in December 2021. After a long drive from Tehuacan via a very high altitude winding highway/mountain pass near Mexico's highest mountain Citlaltepetl or Pico de Orizaba at 5,636 metres, we arrived at sea level on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. You'll notice you're getting close to the river town of Tlacotalpan either by the vast flat fields with feather-like sugar cane crops or by the quite dangerous long sugar cane "tractor trains" on the road.

The area around Tlacotalpan suffers quite a lot from severe weather conditions: it can get very foggy towards sunrise/sunset, and heavy rain and very strong winds happen all year round not only during hurricane season. This can be noted also by the simple water management system with deep water channels running parallel to most of the pavements. We were lucky to visit on a sunny week towards Christmas so the atmosphere was a bit livelier than usual, and only had to be extra careful due to the fog on our early morning departure. When we visited the bigger church with a bell tower (churches here are painted in different colours every other year judging by some photos I've seen over the internet), I found the bell tower door open so I sneaked upstairs through the tiny narrow doorway for a better overview of the main square, before thanking the organist on duty who had forgotten to close the door behind him. There's a UNESCO WHS plaque in the main square …

Times are weird. It is less than 8 month ago that I visited Ukraine. I never got around to write this review, before the war started. And now it feels like writing about a past gone by.

In the summer of 2021, I travelled across Europe from Hamburg to Bucharest and on to Suceava. I stayed in the European Union, wary of travel restrictions and being stuck in quarantine. As last stop, though, I crossed the border at Suceava into Ukraine. I have a fondness of stamps in my passport and stepping outside of the EU felt like an adventure. Chernivtsi was an obvious stop being across the border from Suceava. I had also read Juha's review. Canyon, castle and marshrutka sounded lik a winning combination.

The town is split in three parts: the new town (rather boring, but green), the old town across the canyon on a rocky hill and the castle on yet another rocky hill, all connected by bridges. The old town is bordered on both sides by rivers, creating a strong natural defensive position. The defensive position is augmented via plenty of fortifications. Best parts are on the western side of the old town. There are townhouses, garrisons and churches to accompany the old town.

The most touristy part is the castle, pictured by both Juha and Tsunami. Side note: I somehow lost my pictures of the place. The castle is big and when I visited a medieval fair was ongoing. It was …

I visited the neolithic Mines of Gavà from Barcelona. Gava train station is easy and frequently to reach by regional train from Barcelona. From there you can walk for 20 minutes or take a bus. 

There you find a huge modern building which houses the archeological parc mit a museum and some of the mines entrances. The mines seem to excel in several aspects: They are the oldest (known) gallery mines in Europe (around 6000 years), they are very extended over 200 hectares, and they are the only known mines for a green mineral called varascite that I had never heard of but that was used for body ornaments. The Romans later exploited it further for iron ore. They found several burials in the mine and a few ritual objects such as the Venus of Gavà. While I find this statue interesting and would like to put it quickly in historic perspective: The Swabian Ice age art is around 40'000 years old and more complex and realistic. 

The archeologial Parc is basically one big hall where you can see several entrances to mines and there are exhibits about archeological finds and about human development: How humans made tools, developed religious views, started agriculture etc. I found them quite beautifully done but they aimed largely at children or beginners in this field and talked more about the general development of mankind than about the local particularities. At the end you can go into a rebuilt mine to get an …

Having had lived in Chernihiv, Ukraine, over 18 months, I was compelled to do justice to the Kyiv WHS, the country's most important WHS, by visiting all the associated sites, including the ones on the proposed extension, I had not visited before. (I had visited St. Sophia Monastery and Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in the core zone and St. Michael's Monastery and St. Andrew's Church in the buffer zone.) By doing so I have learned a little more about this WHS, and that is what I would like to talk about here. 

WHS has to do with OUV and not with politics or religion. But I feel that visitors should at least know what they are visiting. I have encountered some foreign visitors to Japan who had no idea whether they were visiting a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple. One even thought that the Himeji Castle was a Shinto shrine! 

The original St. Sophia (Hagia Sophia/Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople/Istanbul is now an Islamic mosque again. So what about St. Sophia (photo) in Kyiv? The importance of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, founded 40 years before Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, can't be exaggerated but today lies in the fact that it is sort of a neutral place of worship, as all major Christian denominations in Ukraine had made claims to St. Sophia Cathedral, creating much conflict. So it remains a museum today, just like St. Sophia in Constantinople/Istanbul was before 2020. 

If you visit St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, …

Guatemala’s 2022 WH nomination, Tak'alik Ab'aj, is a site that does not feature on the traditional Guatemala itineraries. It lies in the far southwest of the country, not really close to anything else of interest though the highlands and its indigenous villages are pretty in a Nepali/Bolivian way. I visited by public transport on a day trip from Quetzaltenango, which took 3 stages:

1. The chicken bus from the central bus station to Retalhuleu (shortened to Reu (“ray-yew”), so the bus route is called Xela – Reu, which fits so much better on the front of a bus than Quetzaltenango - Retalhuleu) (1h45, 20Q).
2. In Reu, move from La Galera bus terminal to the “Terminal de Taxis” by tuktuk. Another chicken bus was already waiting to take me to El Asintal (20 mins, 5Q).
3. From El Asintal, take a tuktuk to the archaeological site (10 mins, 15Q).

Upon nomination, Tak'alik Ab'aj may carry the epic subtitle “Mayan-Olmec Encounter”. More accurate however is that the place was an important trade town for a long period, from 800 BC to 900 AD. During that time, it has been influenced not only by the Maya and the Olmec, but also by Teotihuacan and regional Pacific potbelly sculptors. It was probably inhabited by changing ethnic groups.

The site lies in a subtropical moist forest, so prepare by applying a cocktail of sunscreen and mosquito repellent. The entrance fee for foreigners is 50Q. There were a few …

Site visited in May, 2010. Located in south-eastern part of Iran is a good base for exploring Lut Desert and nice place for admiring its own monuments. Kerman as a town (or at least its historical structure) is to certain extend similar to Yazd (general layout of mosques) or Isfahan (covered bazaars).

It was established in the 3rd century during Sassanid rule. Later in the 7th century it was captured by Muslims (Abbasid Caliphate). Taking advantage of the location at the intersection of trade routes the city the city started to produce cashmere wool shawls and other textiles. Kerman was visited by Marco Polo (XIII century) during his trip to China.

The gloomiest episode in Kerman’s history took place in 1794 during the wars for throne succession in Persia. Local residents supported Lotf Ali Khan, the last shah from Zand dynasty so the city was besieged by Qajar troops led by Agha Mohammad Khan. He was known as one of the cruelest rulers, even by the 18th century Iranian standards. In his quest for power, he razed cities, massacred entire populations but the most shocking incident took place when Qajar troops conquered the town. In retaliation they killed or blinded all the man in the town forming a huge pyramid made out of 20,000 detached eyeballs in front of the victorious Agha Muhammad Khan. Women and children were sold into slavery and the city was destroyed over ninety days. Horrible. Agha Khan himself was assassinated in the palace …

Site visited July 2013. I stopped by Chernivtsi for two days on my way from Lviv to Moldova. I didn't know what to expect about this off the beaten track WHS.

I travelled six hours from Lviv to Chernivtsi by train. On the train I met three young Ukrainian fellows with whom I chatted and drank beer the whole journey. It was very interesting to hear their insights about life and politics in Ukraine. In hindsight, many threats and fears those young men told me about became reality in the upcoming months.

The buildings of The Recidence of Bukovinian and Dalmatian Metropolitans belong nowadays to Chernivtsi University. The complex is located in the centre area of the city. When I arrived to the gates of the university it was crowded by students who were enrolling for academic year. There was 100 meters long queue in front of the gate and the guards let the students in to the courtyard. I didn't find a way how to pass this crowd and the guards so I decided to explore the centre of Chernivtsi and come back later.

Chernivtsi itself is a charming city with its art nouveau and baroque architecture. I recommend to include it to an itinerary if visiting Lviv or travelling around Ukraine. The highlights include for example central square with city hall and museum of fine arts, theatre square with drama theatre, old Bristol Hotel and Kobylyanska pedestrian street with its restaurants and cafes.

In the afternoon I went …

Some practical advise for a visit to the Lagunas de Atillo and Laguna Negra out of Riobamba. I organised a car with driver for USD 70.- from a small travel agency that is located right at the entrance of Rayuela Restobar (probably one of the best and cleanest restaurants in town) in Riobamba. The contact person is Mrs. Maria Del Carmen Baez, and she did it for the next day, so no reservation needed. We drove even a bit down direction Macas, into Morona Santiago province, experiencing a great change of vegetation with the sudden sighting of palm and banana trees amid tropical temperatures. 

Empuries is about one hour by bus from Gerona. I found only one connection that made sense which left Gerona around 9am and returned from L'Escala around 2pm which gives you plenty of time to visit the ruins. From the bus stop Empuries it is about a twenty minute walk to the site and it is worth walking the small detour along the beach since Empuries is located on a lovely bay with beaches everywhere. In February swimming was no temptation for me but I enjoyed it nonetheless. 

The access to the archeological site is via a very modern looking Libeskind like visitor center. The entrance fee was very modest with 6 Euros and the excellent audio guide is included. There are lockers, toilets and vending machines. From there you walk over to the first area: the Greek town. This is impressive in so far as it is very extended and the foundation walls are clear everywhere. With the audioguide to get a feeling for the function or different areas as markets, temples, private houses etc. Best preserved are the subterranean structures like cisterns and reservoirs. It adds hugely to the experience almost to the point of being distracting that you have always the deep blue sea and the beautiful bay around you. So it is a little like Pompei as you can walk the streets and get an idea how people lived here. But other then in Pompei there is really very little left that is higher then …

Lviv (Lvov, Lemberg) is a beautiful Central European city, but you shouldn't expect a grand majestic city like Prague, Budapest or Cracow. It is much more intimate in character. Its historic centre portrays medieval and Renaissance architecture, while its surroundings is mainly made of Neoclassical boulevards (prospects in Ukrainian) and churches (like the prominent St. George Cathedral). Some art nouveau architecture is present too (as for instance, the railway station) whereas Stalinist style buildings are surprisingly sparse.

In the centre there are numerous churches, the most special of which are, in my opinion, the Boim Chapel and the Armenian church. The Boim Chapel is an impressive family church, built in the 17th Century entirely of black stone and is artistically interesting.

The Armenian church is hidden in one of the smaller streets of the old town. Its entrance is hidden behind a barber shop. It has beautiful medieval frescoes and an atmospheric courtyard.

Look for the impressive sculptures of Pinsel, a local German artist of the 18th Century. His works are found in several churches and there is even a museum entirely dedicated to his oeuvre.

An important museum is the National Museum where you can admire the history of Ukrainian art. Its most important feature is its collection of historical icons.

When I arrived at the archaeological site of Copán at 8.15 am, a man was still busy removing the rain coverings from the statues. I had to wait for him a few times when I did my circuit. The many sculptures, statues, and stelae are the highlights of this site, so it’s worth waiting for.

There is a main trail through the forest to guide you around the site. Very little is fenced off: you are free to take side paths, climb the old stairs and discover what lies on the other side of those stones. It was still quiet of course this early in the day, and this freedom of movement only makes it easier to avoid people.

The first monumental complex you encounter is the Square of the Jaguars. From here, tunnels (closed to the public) led to the rest of the city. By climbing over a pretty ruin twisted by tree roots, you get your first look at the main plaza. Here lies the famous hieroglyphic staircase as well as the ball game court. Many stelae and other statues are dotted around the open areas. Those under shelter are originals, those without are replicas. It's a fine place to wander around or find a nice spot to sit down. You’ll hear birds (macaws) screaming at you all the time from a corner of the plaza, where they are fed.

A side path from this main plaza will lead you to Núñez Chinchilla. This is …

I visited Gerona as a day trip from Barcelona in February 2022. This is a city with a lot of history: it was one of the most important jewish cities around 1200, important enough that a WH nomination from that perspective wouldn't surprise me, though I didn't find much that I could clearly link to this except the jewish museum. But it was a Monday and I missed that. Gerona has certainly the most impressive old town I have seen on this two week trip in Catalonia. It is not huge, basically arranged around the cathedral hill but it offers what you would wish for: narrow steep lanes, arcades with arches, several massiv churches and it is quite lively with shops and cafes mainly in the lower part. In comparison the so called Barrio Gotic of Barcelona is boringly flat and at least half of the buildings are from the 19th century or later. Gerona offers also several very interesting museums of history, archeology (in a romanesque convent), jewish history, art, a cathedral treasury, an nice Arab bath and a Caixa forum. I missed most of them since I used the only midday in town to travel to Empuries. But I think it is certainly worth another day trip. The cathedral is impressive: huge stairs lead to its renaissance facade and the gothic nave is one to the widest in the world (supposedly second only to St. Peters in Rome), I found it very dark nonetheless and as intimidating as …

My first visit to one of the plethora of small wooden churches in this corner of Europe that provide three separate World Heritage Sites, was a rather enjoyable, if short experience, in a town that I would otherwise have no real reason to be in.

I hadn’t planned to visit this site, but an early landing at Lviv’s new airport and very swift passport control meant I was curbside about an hour before I thought I would be. Off the cuff I looked at the map on my phone I realised that the Tserkva of the Holy Trinity in Zhovkva was only about 45 minutes away, all that time our coommunity put into plotting sites on a map suddenly paid off!

A quick negotiation with a taxi driver, in some combination of English, Ukrainian, Russian and me taking wild stabs at the few words of Czech I know and hoping they would make sense meant I was soon in the back of a Skoda heading over the potholes and cobbles of the Lviv ring road.

About 35 minutes later I was deposited at a this tiny church with reassurances that the driver would be back in 15 minutes.

This 15 minutes was actually probably three times the amount of time I needed. As it was a beautiful Sunday morning there was a service happening inside. Even if I was of a mind to visit during the sermons, the church is so small there wasn’t even a …

I visited this WHS in January 2022. As my 550th visited WHS, it will always have a special place in my memories, but my experience was further enhanced by meeting up with Zacatecas' director at the UNESCO World Heritage Regional Institute who was directly involved in Zacatecas' nomination and inscription on the WH list and is now mainly managing awareness-raising efforts at schools on UNESCO WHS and collaborating with Caribbean and Latin American states to promote existing WHS and add other tentative ones.

Just like Guanajuato, Zacatecas owes its historic monuments to the wealth generated by its silver and gold mines. It is also situated in a valley but not as narrow as in Guanajuato, and there is the Cerro de la Bufa's cableway which is an easy way to have a panoramic view over the city. For those that are not good with heights, be aware that the ride takes around eight minutes and one of the cablecars has a glass bottom too! From here the main tourist attraction, apart from the view, is the underground train tour inside the El Eden mine and the many bronze statues honoring important figures from the Battle of Zacatecas. Zacatecas is at an altitude of almost 2500 metres so exploring its many churches and sites was slightly more strenuous than other colonial cities and extremely cold in the morning (a bit like in Cusco, Peru).

The city cathedral at the heart of the historic centre is one of the best …

Antigua Guatemala got inscribed really early, in a time when no significant substantiation was necessary: “A fundamental site, a well understood history, an appropriate inscription”. It has been on the tourist trail forever it seems, and – similar to Oaxaca – the town has geared itself fully to tourism. The indigenous people have been pushed to the fringes, making space for a boutiquey kind of international lifestyle. Antigua also has the appeal of the language schools for foreign students, so naïve 19-year old US Americans are an important target audience too (read the wikivoyage page for example, which seems to be written with worried parents in mind: “Don’t drink the water. You will die!”).

A visit to its core area takes half a day at most. The places that I visited:

• Santa Catalina Arch: the most iconic structure in town, build for the nuns to cross the street between two parts of their convent without being bothered. Photos are better in the morning, as the volcano in the background is usually covered in clouds later in the day.
• La Merced: one of the few buildings in Antigua to withstand the Santa Marta earthquake. It has the prettiest façade of all town with intricate stucco work. Best in the afternoon for photos.
• Las Capuchinas: a good example of a ruined convent, of which there are several in town. Q40 entrance fee.
• The Cathedral: the façade is still intact after the earthquake of 1773 and it …

Visit in July 2020

The Pandemic of 2020 completely demolished any hopes I had of ever attempting to visit any of the European Pile Dwellings locations, and it did its best to similarly affect that other collection of unobtrusive artifacts in obscure, out-of-the-way locations, the Struve Geodetic Arc. However, in the latter case I refused to be defeated. I originally had planned to see one or two of the locations in Lithuania, as many others have already done, but since that became problematic I needed to find another alternative. As luck would have it, the cluster of triangulation points in central-western Ukraine were not far from where I expected to be in late July, so I salvaged the opportunity to claim my Struve site visit by heading in that direction. Since it doesn’t seem that any of these locations have been seen by others here, I will add another Site review.

There are three points surrounding the city of Khmelnytski, one to the south, another to the southwest, and the third to the northwest. Whoever added the points to the Google map here on this site put the makers in the exact spot where the Struve points are, so a big thank you is due to whomever worked on that (you know who you are.) The point to the south of the city appears in Satellite View to be in the middle of a crop field at the moment, so I decided not to try for that one. …

I visited this WHS in December 2021. After we were forced to change plans and sleep in a motel close to Xochicalco instead of Cuernevaca, we woke up early to be the first visitors of the morning and also avoid any possible disruptions from the nearby demonstrations and protests. Not only were we the first visitors but we were also the only visitors till we left a couple of hours later.

Xochicalco's heydays came after the fall of Teotihuacan and it has been speculated that Xochicalco may have played a part in the fall of the Teotihuacan empire. The architecture and iconography of Xochicalco show affinities with Teotihuacan, the Maya area, and the Matlatzinca culture of the Toluca Valley. The absolute highlight of this WHS is without any doubt the Temple of the Feathered Serpent with fine stylized depictions of the Feathered Serpent deity in a style which includes apparent influences of Teotihuacan and Maya art. I was also surprised by the number of huge pyramids, platforms and ball courts as well as residential or cerimonial buildings which lack the intricate decorations of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent but are still worth viewing as an impressive series of complexes which once made up a sizeable city with a population of around 20,000 people.

Most if not all stelae and statues can be seen at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and although the small museum of Xochicalco (usually included in the entrance ticket) was closed …

Another of Egypt’s tentative sites that blows many listed sites out of the water. Abydos was a very important city and is ancient even for ancient Egypt. It was buried under sand until about the 1800s, which means that it is very well preserved. In particular, it is known for having preserved colorful paintings on the inside of the Temple of Seti I.

It and Dendara, another tentative list site, can easily be combined on a (long) day trip from Luxor. Both are worth visiting.

I visited this WHS in December 2021. Puebla is the fourth largest city in Mexico after Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara, so it is always going to seem crowded when compared to other cities or towns. That said, the incredible amount of churches, monuments, historic buildings and squares Puebla has on offer, paired with the never-ending gastronomical possibilites, make it one of Mexico's top WHS and colonial cities so I was glad to allow 3-4 days here.

Although the cathedral's sheer size is impressive, I was more attracted to the surrounding colonial buildings with several spires, balconies, stained glass and stucco decorations. The highlight here was the Biblioteca Palafoxiana (free entrance), known as the first and oldest public library in the Americas, It has more than 45,000 books and manuscripts, ranging from the 15th to the 20th century, and it was listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2005. In the middle of the square, you'll surely spot the UNESCO WHS plaque on a yellow marker. In front of the San Cristobal Church there's also an information board with a copy of the UNESCO WHS inscription certificate.

The main highlight, surely not to be missed when visiting Puebla is La Capilla del Rosario in the Templo de San Domingo (closed on Mondays and open only for 2.5 hrs in the morning and 2.5 hrs in the afternoon; but better double check online with quick communication on Facebook Messenger!), described in the 17th century as the Eighth …