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The Allgäu - a region renowned for its beauty, its marvelous mountainsides, rolling hills and mountain meadows full of flowers. Nothing of this matters, though, as this WHS proposal is only about some specific spots with flat, grassy marshlands. It is one of these sites where it is difficult to point out what to see and why it does matter. I choose to visit the 'Murnauer Moos' area, as it has a rather well specified location, easy access points and a hiking trail going all through the interesting area. So what's to see ? Mainly a lot of brown grass and some puddles. The on-site signs talk a lot about biodiversity and endemic species - none of which will be easily perceivable by the common visitor. Honestly, I walked the three hour trail and found nothing that looked remarkable. Marshlands might be an oddity in the alpine region, but the northern half of Germany consist of nothing but swampy flatlands. Even the mountains surrounding the marshlands seem much more interesting than these flat brown spots. And the marshlands are not some untouched wilderness - there are clear signs of human cultivation and caretaking all over it. If you have not guessed it until now, this WHS tentative site did not impress me at all. But wait, the site is actually defined as a cultural site, not a natural site. Yes, according to the official description, mowing and haymaking twice a year is already an act of human genius. Sorry, but …

I visited this WHS in January 2022. Querétaro (note the accent on the second e for the correct pronunciation!) main peculiarity among the inscribed colonial towns or cities of Mexico is its layout which is practically split in two: a rectilinear street plan for the Spanish settlers and small winding streets for the quarters of the indigenous population.

From its "historic monuments zone" the definite highlights not to be missed in my opinion are the Church of Santa Rosa de Viterbo, the Church of Santa Cruz (together with the nearby mirador over the high aqueduct with modern high-rise buildings in the background), the Former Convent of St Augustine, the Casa de la Ecala and the Casa de la Marquesa. The absolute highlight not to be missed when visiting Querétaro is definitely the Church of Santa Rosa de Viterbo, with its outstanding over-the-top interior with three gilded altarpieces and a throne-like main chair, as well as the equally interesting Mexican colonial Baroque exterior with indigenous features.

The mirador over the high aqueduct is perhaps more enjoyable after sunset when the eyesore of the high-rise buildings in the background vanishes. Here there is a big UNESCO WHS plaque of the Camino Real, There's another one dedicated to the Camino Real near the traffic lights just opposite the Church of San Francis of Assisi. On the other hand, the UNESCO WHS plaque of Querétaro is on the side of the Palacio de Gobierno.

The former church and convent of St …

I visited this tWHS in January 2022. I had already visited the interesting but most touristy place in Mexico City that is Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul as well as the lovely Diego Rivera murals which were accessible during my stay. So in a way the quiet Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo's Home-Study Museum (closed on Mondays) was a very welcome change to enjoy the different details and exhibitions on Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo inside.

However, this tWHS's focus is on the architecture and although as a non-enthusiast of modern architecture (although lately I seem to be having a change of heart) I enjoyed the overall architecture with highlights such as the stairs on the outside leading from the blue building's roof to the swivelling pane of the tall glass windows, the modern exterior staircases leading up to the front white and red building as well as up to the rear red building, and of course the bridge on top connecting both front buildings. That said, I have already witnessed and appreciated these features in other inscribed modern architecture WHS such as those of Le Corbusier, Luis Barragan, Rietveld Schroder, etc. and I failed to see what added value this tWHS would bring to the WH list. To me, again as a non-enthusiast, the whole experience and also the cold management by the personnel at this site, reminded me of my negative experience in Brno's Villa Tugendhat. Great if you have some extra time to spare in Mexico City, …

After a long closure due to Covid and a hurricane, reports came in early February 2022, while we were still in central Mexico, that El Tajin had re-opened. Not that you could tell from the government website, which still said it was temporarily closed. But reviews on Google Maps clearly showed recent visitors, as well as providing the information that the site was only open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, with a maximum of 300 visitors per day.

When arriving at the site, the impact of the hurricane couldn't be seen, although whether due to the hurricane or Covid, the area of the site that you could visit was smaller than for previous visitors. After working out only one person per group could line up at the ticket office, we then followed a set circuit route around the site, ropes and signs restricting access. (Even the Unesco plaque was outside the roped path...)

After visiting numerous pre-Hispanic cities in central Mexico, the lush green grass and forested surrounds of El Tajin made for a picturesque change. The two highlights of our visit were the Pyramid of the Niches and the panels on the side of the Juego de Pelota Sur depicting an imminent beheading. However, access to Tajin Chico was completely restricted (maybe there was hurricane damage up there?) and in only an hour we wrapped up our visit.

To access El Tajin, we made a three day trip from Mexico City via public transport. It's …

I risked my life to write this first-hand report so you'll don’t have to go there.

I was staying overnight in Suchitoto and could not let this nearby TWHS be unvisited. However, I couldn’t find a description online of a previous visit by anyone. Was the site staffed? Was it open at all? I had already noticed from the bus into Suchitoto that the hacienda of La Bermuda was fenced off. On the map, the other location, Ciudad Vieja, looked to be located somewhere in the fields 1.5km from the main road. When deliberating about going there to visit on my own, I actually was more scared of being raped than being robbed out there (hardly brought any money and left my credit card at the hotel).

The next morning I was on the bus towards it. Ciudad Vieja is accessible from the main road between Suchitoto and San Miguel/San Salvador, some 9km outside of Suchitoto. It is signposted and there is a bus stop. From the main road, there is an unpaved road that leads up to the ruins. I decided to just walk as far as I felt comfortable. There are a few farms along the way, but nowhere I saw people.

About halfway I encountered a guy on a motorcycle. When I verified whether the road was leading towards Ciudad Vieja, he said “Yes. But there are only some stones there.” I needed to push on though, as visiting stones is what we do.

When you drive south on the Trans-Sahara highway and arrive at the valley you won't believe there is such a bustling town here, or rather, towns. The view is nice. I'm less impressed with the old towns though.

First off, you need a guide. There wasn't a guide, I would have liked one but I think these days they just don't have people hanging around waiting for tourists as there aren't any. I just walked in, no guards, nobody minded, as long as you keep walking and don't stare around like a tourist. It's easy to get lost in these narrow passages but it seems to keep going. Felt like a mix between other sites, but it did not feel special either. I think the tangible essence of the site is not very obvious and many places around the world have these kind of living conditions. I did not enter the mosque by the way, as there was another clear sign not to enter.

I went to one more afterwards and it was the same experience. They luckily spare these housing areas from all the new development springing up all over the valley, although we aren't talking skyscrapers so it's actually well done and keeps the valley looking the same. The whole visit I didn't see a single UNESCO sign.

I visited this tWHS on several occasions in December 2021 and January 2022. It is Mexico City's equivalent of NYC's Central Park, but it really is huge with a number of museums (the best obviously being the National Museum of Anthropology), a botanical garden, a zoo, a castle, fountains, monuments, a monumental tree trunk, archaeological remains, artificial lakes, adventure sports, etc.

The Bosque de Chapultepec on Chapultepec Hill (the name Chapultepec in Nahuatl means "on the hill of the grasshopper" which is why there are grasshopper statues and symbols everywhere inside the park) is one of the largest city parks in the Western Hemisphere, measuring in total just over 686 hectares. It is considered to be the first and most important city park of Mexico City, with trees that replenish oxygen to the Valley of Mexico. The area encompassing modern day Chapultepec has been inhabited and considered a landmark since the pre-Columbian era, when it became a retreat for Aztec rulers (just below the castle, there are a few remains left). In the colonial period, Chapultepec Castle was built here, eventually becoming the official residence of Mexican heads of state. It remained so until 1940, when it was moved to another part of the park called Los Pinos. The castle is closed on Sundays and Mondays and houses the National Museum of History. The relatively modern 18th-19th century castle's highlights are the tower in the garden of the Alcázar, the staircase mural, and the stained glass windows but nothing …

I visited this WHS in December 2021. Getting there and back to Oaxaca is quite straightforward, unless there are some of the recurring demonstrations blocking off the roads to and from Oaxaca. There are a couple of pueblo magicos famous mostly for pottery on the way to Yagul.

Two main "panels" of the Yagul Caves are visible from the highway (just a few metres away from a huge stone sign welcoming you to the Yagul Archaeological Site which is about 500 meters further up a side street with mezcal fields in a lovely hilly landscape also declared as a national natural monument. These panels were most probably once cave walls above a cliff but the rest of these caves collapsed being made up of brittle sandstone and earthquakes being a frequent phenomenon here (felt a minor one when we visited!). Access to the cliff with these panels and other caves is blocked off by a rotten wooden gate which would be opened by a registered guide if you really want to head closer to the prehistoric caves (at your own risk since everything seems to be crumbling down!). There is also a raised platform to view the two panels but you would only be seeing what is already visible from the road from a little bit closer. Bring binoculars or a good zoom lens with you and you will still manage to get the gist of this rather poor WHS. Further left to the panel with a white stick …

I visited all 5 Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda in January 2022 by rental car. By departing early from Queretaro, we managed to avoid most of the heavy buses, trucks and trailers which can slow you down quite a bit going uphill through the several hairpins winding through the Sierra Gorda. Before heading up to the Sierra Gorda, we stopped en route to visit the picture perfect former tWHS and pueblo magico of Bernal de la Peña.

I used the pueblo magico of Jalpan as my base for 2 nights to cover all 5 Franciscan missions which make up this WHS. Although they are all quite similar, I really enjoyed spotting their suttle differences and their natural surroundings. These types of serial location WHS (such as the Churches of the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus, the Wooden Churches of Southern Malapolska in Poland, the Tserkvas in Poland/Ukraine, the Wooden Churches in the Carpathians (Slovakia), the Val de Boi Churches and the Asturian Monuments in Spain, etc.) are among my favourite experiences while "hunting" for WHS and this one was no exception either.

The Spanish domination efforts in the region, the last to be conquered, included evangelization efforts, many of which failed before the mid 18th century. During the 16th and 17th century, there were attempts to evangelize the Sierra Gorda by the Augustinians, Franciscans and Dominicans but all initial missions were destroyed by the indigenous peoples. In 1740, the colonial government decided to exterminate indigenous resistance here to …

I visited this WHS in January 2022. Of all the inscribed colonial cities and towns I visited, Morelia was the one I found least interesting and the easiest to cover in 1 day, so much so that I decided to curtail 1 night as initially planned and add it to Guanajuato instead. In the end it turned out to be a wise choice although I still think that Morelia had enough historic sites as an ensemble to justify its inscription on the WH list apart from the fact that Morelia was the birthplace of several important personalities of independent Mexico and has played a major role in the country's history. Most probably we were just beginning to suffer from "colonial town fatigue"; I kept trying to imagine covering all of Spain's WHS in a month or so for example and I think some sites would suffer lower ratings without any "fault" of their own.

On the whole, just outside of the city centre, Michcoacan's capital Morelia is quite modern and has large Western-standard indoor parking lots on both sides of town. We parked our car at the huge Puerta Morelia indoor parking lot with full amenities (a rarity in Mexico) including free clean toilets. It is very convenient to enter and exit Morelia avoiding the traffic jams, but it is quite a long walk away. We didn't mind and seized the opportunity to discover more historic buildings and churches before arriving at the cathedral area. Another parking option would …

One of my favorite spots in Turkey. It also seems to Iike a hidden gem. Previously the attempt was to inscribe along the national park which is now excluded, I don't see anything special about the forest anyway, and sadly this led to the authorities logging a big area of it.

When you get very close to the archeological site you will be in tranquility though. There is a picnic area first which may be popular in summer, but if you are here for the site it is beyond all that. Entrance is a measly Euro and includes a very small museum and the site itself of course.

I recommend going anticlockwise as you climb up first and have a break at the gate and lookout anyway. The statues and tablets from the late Hittite period are marvelous and I'm so happy they tried to place it into the original positions. There are also excellent signs to explain each major one. There is a small path to the peak of the hill but there are no remains to be seen. You can just enjoy the forest up there. As you continue the regular path you will get to the second gate with equally great statues and stone tablets. Hittite culture is so interesting.

While not a huge site the two gates alone are totally worth it, plus you get to spend time in the forest alongside the lake and maybe you also get spared the occasional loud …

When you visit the Anthropological Museum in San Salvador, you’ll notice that the findings on show there focus on two sites: Joya de Ceren and Tazumal. An eyecatcher that was brought there from Tazumal is a full-size, anthropomorphic sculpture depicting the deity Xipe Totec. Tazumal is part of the Chalchuapa TWHS, named after the town which houses a number of archaeological sites. They are ruins from the Late Preclassic and the Classic Maya period. The place was still lived in when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century.

I started my visit at the Tazumal location. It takes about half an hour to get there on bus 218 from Santa Ana (a bus ticket is a mere 0.32 USD). The entrance fee for foreigners is 5 USD. Like Joya de Ceren, the site looks well-cared for. The small on-site museum has good ceramics.

The most striking thing about the Tazumal ruins is the way they were restored: they were coated with cement in the 1940s and 1950s. It really doesn’t look good, and the concrete has started to wear and tear as well due to heavy rains and tree roots. I did enjoy walking around the site though, as the only visitor on a Wednesday morning. Tazumal is now being further excavated by a Japanese university, there seems still a lot to uncover although most will be hidden under the modern town.

The older site of Casa Blanca lies an easy walkable 1.5 km to the north, …

I visited this WHS in January 2022 focusing on the Islas Marietas National Park. Depending on the tide and weather conditions, the boat tour companies with the most expensive prices from Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco (full day trips) and Punta Mita, Nayarit do half day trips including a stop and swim in the instagram famous hidden beach, and two more snorkelling and swimming points along another beach of the Marietas Islands.

Make sure to allow more than one day just in case weather isn't good, and when booking at least a day in advance, stress that you would like to visit the hidden beach at the earliest time in the morning to make sure the daily limit isn't reached. Just outside the rocky outcrop leading to the hidden beach from the sea, national guards patrol the area to make sure only visitors with 2 appropriate bands on their hand are given helmets and lifejackets to swim to the hidden beach. From the time you start swimming to the beach you're allowed around 30 minutes and then you have to swim back to your boat. We booked a private tour and knowing that most tours leave the hidden beach as their second or third stop during the Islas Marietas tour, we specifically asked to head straight there, ignoring the whales and dolphins other boats had spotted far out at sea, in favour of getting to the hidden beach first. Drones are not allowed any longer to protect the birds so …

Quite a ride to get there, being the most remote site in terms of access from any nearby town with an airport. From Algiers it takes 3 hours and even from Setif still 2h for just 100km. Reason being bad traffic, speed bumps, fog even, twisted roads as you get closer and the good old truck that likes to go 20km on single lanes.

So you get there and can make out the minaret of what used to be a very large mosque. The mosque only has a few groundstones left, and the lake palace beyond also just shows some walls. Overall that is too little in my opinion, it's pretty much gone. A French-speaking gentleman pointed out some other sites as we were on top of the minaret. This is not an easy climb. The last bit requires crouching while climbing outside, and as you can see from the picture there are no guardrails and it's quite small so not for the faint of heart.

There is small entrance fee but you could potentially just see everything from the fence. During my visit I was also asked to provide proof of covid vaccination which seems rather silly for the small site where nobody followed social distancing and you'd think the small village enjoys any little income from ticket sales. As I didn't understand the Arabic sign the guard wanted to let me through anyway but at the last second Google translation did its job and I understood …

I'm gonna go right out and say it: Ani is better in winter. I'm Canadian so -17 degrees is like, "warm" still. The main attraction are the white layers of snow all over, covering the rather barren fields and the gorge. Hard to imagine what people did in winter before. I also wasn't the only "crazy" visitor. There were many tour groups from Ankara that flew into Kars just for this. In fact, that's the sensible thing to do. The road trips can be fun but it's quite far east with nothing much on the way. Getting to Van also takes quite a bit of time. It could have saved me 2 days and just miss some rather mediocre tentative sites.

So what else can I add to the info already well described before? The road to the site is officially limited to 50km/h but I don't see why. There are some driving instructions at the gas station but that's about it. Maybe there are cows in summer.

The audio guide isn't bad. The info panels have nearly all the same stuff written if still readable, but it also helps to guide you around the circular path. It had info on the city walls (which I didn't even expect because most people just photograph the church) that is not described anywhere though.

Shame about the vandalism inside the iconic church, with everyone seemingly wanting to leave their names carved into the stones.

Before I always wondered …

I visited this WHS in December 2021 and January 2022. I must confess that it was the most pleasant surprise during my Mexico road trip. While Mexico City has already exceeded all my expectations, Guanajuato was really mind-boggling in every aspect: first of all its underground labyrinth of roads, intersections, stairs, etc. on different levels, its coherence and top-notch ensemble of historic sites, its university, its mines, and its fun yet also romantic nightlife in a way (it reminded me a lot of Coimbra, Portugal) - Guanajuato is a real melting pot of traditions and culture.

Guanajuato is situated in a narrow valley, which makes its streets narrow and winding. Most are alleys that cars cannot pass through, and some are long sets of stairs up the mountainsides. Many of the city's crossroads are partially or fully underground. Some of the bridges also have hanging wooden or stone houses built over them. I think that this feature alone of Guanajuato and how well it has been preserved already possesses enough OUV to justify its inscription on the WH list. It's incredible that still today the river continues to flow under the streets of Guanajuato. I spent hours exploring the different tunnels and in a way studying my way out since I had managed to immediately find my hotel in the very centre without any mistakes (pure luck!).

The "estudiantinas" (student music groups) with traditional "callejoneadas" (alleyway strolls), which we enjoyed almost every night we spent here, transport all …

Mamure, meaning Prosperous, is a nice castle. It's huge, lots of space, walls are well intact, and entrance is free because I'm Zoë and can charm the guard into letting me in while it's officially under restoration. Well, there was nobody around doing work, and the drive along the coast is long and treacherous (Turkey is slowly digging tunnels to make overtaking trucks actually possible) so I figured I should try and get something out of the visit. The guard gave me 5 minutes to look around which meant not being able to really explore this vast fortress, but gave me an impression how grande it is. Like many antique fortresses it's now empty of all but the layout.

While I understand the history of having changed rulers many times over the centuries might seem important, that's with many castles throughout the European and minor Asian area, even beyond. I can't see it as being unique but makes for a good visit nonetheless.

This site hasn’t been reviewed for 13 years, so I think Quiriguá deserves to be put into the spotlights. With this visit, I also completed the list of 9 WHS connected to Mayan culture. And every time you think: “I’ve seen so many Maya sites already, what can this one possibly add?” But they all have different qualities. Quiriguá has the best-preserved sculptures.

The Quiriguá archaeological park has suffered severe hurricane damage from Eta and Iota in 2020 and has only reopened in June 2021. They had to remove 12 swimming pools full of mud and water, which left certain areas flooded up to 1.8m. 

During my visit in February 2022, nothing of that damage was visible anymore and the site looked very well cared for. At the entrance, you get a site-specific ticket and a booklet in English (both rare in Mexico or Central America). Signage is in both Spanish and English. There is a (new?) boardwalk that takes you along the monuments, so you don’t have to walk on the grass. It had been raining for 2 hours before my visit, and the ground had turned soggy again.

The site comprises a plaza where the sculptures have been resurrected and an acropolis with a few ruined buildings and a ball court. Parts of the site are also unexcavated, you can see unnatural hills where something must be hidden underneath. The sculptures often had fallen down or were broken when they were rediscovered in the …

I visited this WHS in January 2022. The whole area in front of the entrance to Hospicio Cabañas is a modern jewellery trading center and would have serious issues for inscription nowadays, especially with all the telecomunication aerials in most buildings. That said, the quality of the preserved exterior one of the oldest and largest hospital complexes in the Americas, and especially that of the striking Orozco murals inside, warrants its inscription on the WH list.

The Hospicio Cabañas is open everyday except Mondays, and on Tuesdays entrance is free. There is a UNESCO WHS inscription certificate just behind the security personnel checking your tickets just before you go in, and a UNESCO WHS plaque on the right just after the entrance. An "early" visit (first entrance was at 11am) when we visited on a Tuesday (they still give you a free entrance ticket if you collect them) meant that we had the whole place for our own for a few minutes, so we made the best of it by heading straight to the area with Orozco's striking murals. The first one on the right bears Orozco's signature, the highlight mural is the central Man of Fire on the dome, and from the minor ones I really liked the one with all the gods and idols in the world. If you want more information on the murals (great as an audio guide when you visit), make sure to bookmark the official video explanations of each mural on youtube (search …

Big yes! Surprised I'm the first to review this, seeing that it's potentially inscribed soon. At first it seems like a generic museum with a mount, but it's actually one of the most important places in history, having been settled for almost 4,000 years including by Hittites, Greeks, Romans, and many more. The amount of variety this culture went through is astounding. The museum isn't very big and not spectacular but gives you a good idea about that. I'm also happy they haven't shifted all the goodies to a museum in Ankara.

Speaking of, it's an hour away from the outskirts of Ankara (add A LOT more time if you are still going through that traffic-laden capital) in a small farming village. It's a nice village though, not the one that has sheep herds and cow dung all over the place. If you are coming from the West or stayed on the D road you would hit the outdoor site first. The small roads coming from the East were perfectly fine, only very few potholes and the one that goes directly south from the site to the D road was almost worst. It's free by the way so if you are really tight on the budget just see the antique city ;)

The entrance to the museum is cheap though, less than a Euro, and gives you access to the museum and the tumulus across the street. The MM tumulus isn't much to look at, containing a strong …