All our reviews

With serial tentative sites there is always a risk that you visit a location that gets cut in the process. If you scroll down, you will find my review of Archidona which was originally part of the nomination, but got cut. In 2021, the nomination was grouped into locations and themes. Archidona features in none.

The locations around Sevilla seem to focus on industrial production of Olives. Around Malaga, there are several historic Olive Groves which are famous for their olives. Visiting Samuel and Natasa in Malaga, they took me to Periana. And travelling between Sevilla and Malaga I stopped at Alora. Of the two Periana was the more interesting site to as we saw several old, wicked olive trees. In Alora, I couldn't spot any trees of note and would have needed a guide.

OUV

The two new locations I visited haven't improved my opinion. Travelling across Andalusia's endless monoculture of olive groves has rather made me less inclined to support this. It can't be good for the environment to convert each and every open field into an olive grove.

If this needs to be inscribed, I would prefer to include them in an existing site. Ubeda comes to mind as it is literally in the middle of a huge olive grove. And you could make a similar argument for Sevilla.

Getting There

Periana, no idea. Around Sevilla, a combination of buses and walking should take you there. Alora has a train station, …

I visited the lovely site of Joya de Ceren in February 2022, not long after its full reopening. El Salvador's one and only WHS had been closed for a full makeover and subsequent Covid measures for most of the time since late 2019. The site from a visitor’s perspective is now in a very good state. Striking is the French support that has gone into the restoration (they apparently paid 70% of the bill of 1.3 million US dollars). The museum has been modernized, good information panels have been placed (in Spanish, English, and of course in French), the site has been made accessible for the blind and the protective shelters have been made higher/larger so that you have a better view of the ruins.

I covered the 40 kilometers between San Salvador and Joya de Ceren in a genuine chicken bus: bus 108 that leaves from Terminal de Occidente. The ride cost only 0.50 US dollars and took 1.5 hours. The bus stops in front of the entrance of the archaeological site, just after crossing a large orange bridge. On the way back I had a “better” bus, with actual seats instead of benches – for an additional 0.25 US dollar I was back in the capital within the hour.

Probably as the result of the refurbishments, the entrance fee for foreigners has risen from 3 to 10 US dollars! They do practice foreigner pricing here and the locals still pay the previous 1 US dollar (notwithstanding …

On your way to Bodrum there are several stops, including the fortress city of Beçin. The fort itself is nothing special, just a rundown castle that seems to have lost a lot of history. The site's custodian tagged along to open thr museum and probably out of pure boredom, or just to impress me, but his English was poor and he just pointed out some outer walls that are much older but "I don't know" was used as almost every third sentence. There is ancient well, closed off to visitors, and a modern one with faucet on top of it.

The rest of the town is just walls, and the only one I found interesting was a domed fountain that was having some irrigation channels redone. It also clearly looked renovated.

The "highlight" of the site is the madrasah, the education house, which is now a museum. Clearly not the original building, it now contains tombstones found around the site that are somewhat interesting but nothing unique. The museum tries to educate the visitor about the madrasah with a video (subtitled) and some rather laughable mannequins not unlike other sites in Turkey.

Not worth a visit but if you are in the area and want to check it out, it's cheap and won't take more than an hour - I only recommend not to enter the castle remains because there isn't much to see and the view is the same as from the parking lot. Oh you …

I visited this WHS in December 2021. I had been chasing tickets online for months before my planned trip to Mexico, checking every week for availabilities as bookings are only possible for the upcoming 4-5 weeks, but to no avail. Lately, due to COVID restrictions and several functions at the Luis Barragan House, only about 3 or 4 daily tours are conducted, each with a maximum number of 6 visitors so tours tend to fill up very quick. Most tours are conducted in Spanish and usually one is done in English (usually in the afternoon).

When I had almost lost all hope, two free spots became visible on the official Luis Barragan House website, and I managed to book our visit not without any major hiccups encountered while browsing their rather unfriendly booking system. Make sure to have all your details ready and ideally more than one type of credit card as I only managed to settle the 400 pesos per ticket prepayment on the third attempt. When I finally managed to secure our booking, I received the entrance tickets by email, and I set a reminder on my mobile phone with the booked time as only 10 minutes are allowed as a grace period if you're late. I also decided to pay the extra 500 pesos on the spot to be able to take photos.

After ringing the bell at the entrance, we were asked to wait in the Jardin Barragan 17 just opposite till the remaining …

Arriving from Zerzevan South of town, I started my visit to Diyarbakir at the Ten-Eyed-Bridge. It's located a few kilometers down river from the old city and offers great initial views of the city. The walls sitting high on a hill look massive from afar and must have impressed any traveler (or army) arriving as I did from the South.

I continued my walk along the Tigris river. As mentioned by Stanislaw, you can't walk along the river, but have to follow the main road. Before entering the city at the Mardin gate, I briefly visited Hevsel Gardens. I get the idea of communal garden, but felt this would be better served as intangible heritage. There really is nothing historic to see and the local peasants were probably wondering what I was looking for.

After dropping my luggage at my hotel, I walked along most of the circumference of the walls. I was expecting being able to walk on the walls like in Lugo or Avila. This is only possible at some places. In comparison, I found both Avila as well as Lugo better preserved. And walking on the walls had me worried as there are no rails and the walls are not always in best shape. Highlight of the fortification are the Diyarbakır Fortress and the South Western corner.

The city itself offers more sites. To me the two best site were the Great Mosque and the ruin of the St. George Church. The Great Mosque …

We visited Zagori, another name for Zagorochoria, in Summer 2020 during the Corona pandemic and spent three days exploring the area. We felt it was enough time to grasp the site, but I could easily imagine spending an entire week there. Travelling with children, we could not hike a lot, but we still managed to explore different aspects of this nomination.

Steps - There are several stone steps connecting the villages. Until the 20th century they were often the only connection to the outside world. The most famous one is in Vradeto, the highest village, connecting it to Kapesovo (in the picture). We descended the steps, which was worthwhile.

Villages - From the 46 villages we only saw 7, but after a while they all tend to look the same. All of them are built of dark stone with no ornaments. The most picturesque ones were Kato Vitsa, Tsepalovo and Macro Papingo.

Hiking trails - Easy and recommendable hiking trails are the walk along the Voidomatis river starting after Aristi and the popular Papingo rock pools. A very different trail starts at the monastery of Paraskevi in Monodendri. It leads to a cave shelter historically used by the monks. The trail is narrowly located at the edge of the mountain next to a steep abyss. It is not well posted and when we were there I was the only one walking it, which was a special experience.

Museums - We tried to visit the museums in …

Be forewarned that the best part of the site, the mosaic, is covered up for all but the high season to prevent damage. It's possible to have snow up here on the mountain until early Spring too but that wasn't closing the site or stopped any sightseeing. The paths are easy to follow and the descriptions are quite good. The other highlights are the theater, facing away from the mountain but more on the average quality, the music hall in general with the mosaic and I think it was the bathhouse with the columns in front.

Cheap entry and close to a main road should make this an easy visit but I can understand that it's not as popular as others.

I went with a friend to Peninsula Valdes in Sept 2017. We flew in to Trelew and rented a car. We did need to taxi from the international airport to the domestic airport in Buenos Aires, which was a bit of a hassle and took up a bit of time. 

 The driving itself was easy and uneventful. The roads were fine and we arrived around dusk. We spent the first night in Puerto Madryn, which is a small city south of our destination, which was Puerto Piramides, a tiny town to the north. We drove to Puerto Piramides after breakfast the next day. On our way up, we pulled over many times to enjoy watching the frolicking whales, which were astonishingly close to shore. In some places, you could see 6 or more in a glance. We were pleased with this, since wildlife viewing was the purpose of this excursion.  

Our excursions in Puerto Piramides included the Yellow Submarine whale viewing, and we were not disappointed. There were many, many whales and dolphins. It was a bit crowded below deck so we mostly were on top. 

We drove up to the point and hiked down to the beach the next day. There are vast sheep ranches in this area, and guanacos, burrowing owls, some kind of wild cat, an armadillo (sadly, deceased) and many birds were seen on the drive. At the beach, we saw vast numbers of sea lions and a few sea elephants. We looked …

I visited the German component of the transnational extension of Christiansfeld, Denmark, during a gloomy weekend in Fall 2004. We did a trip to Upper Lusatia (Lausitz in German), the region in Germany inhabited by Sorbian Slavic minority (Upper and Lower Lusatia were parts of the Bohemian Crown in Middle Ages). One of our first stops was Herrnhut (Ochranov in Czech, Ochranow in Sorbian language). The titles in all the languages are related to "protection". While the Slavonic ones are rather literal, the German one is more poetic and it recalls a hat of the Lord, for shielding of Brethern against their enemies, probably Catholics.

Frankly said, my impression from Herrnhut was quite lukewarm, and I have almost no memories on my visit of this place. We walked through the settlement and climb the nearby hill surrounded by the cemetery, which is also mentioned in the nomination text as the special part of the complex, and with the cute arbor on the top (PHOTO: view from the hill - sorry for a bad quality, I took only 3 photos in Herrnhut, and this is the best one I have). The place is not very spectacular. My THUMB-UP is only because of the historical importance of Moravian Brethren and their settlements, so I can see the OUV there. The transnational extension makes sense in my opinion and it should substantially strengthen the OUV of the original site in Denmark.

As regards the other components, I had "near miss" of …

Seemingly remote but must be some weekend retreat in summer months for both Istanbul and Ankara, it boasts traditional wooden houses and an old mosque (see pic). The mosque likes to wake you up at 6am and is nothing special. I stayed in a sort of home stay just nearby because off-season sees many hotels closed, and the stay was in one of these traditional guild houses so I believe I got the best view from the inside. The tall door designs, creeky wooden floors and furniture are nice but nothing like world heritage quality.

More by coincidence, I ended up staying two nights in Mardin. I had two free days left and wanted to spend them in a warmer region than freezing Anatolia. My return flight out was from Diyarbakir... And the Mardin area seemed to hold a few tentatives of unknown repute.

Looking back, I am really happy for the slight Southern detour. Mardin was a great base to explore the Mesopotamian borderlands of Turkey. The town itself is pleasant and really popular with Turkish tourists. It's built against a scenic rock with the castle on top. Scattered around town you find several old mosques, churches and madrasas along cobble stone streets.

I stayed in a nice historic hotel in the town. While I generally appreciated the experience (best part of my visit to Mardin proper), the 4* hotel left some things to be desired (hot water, internet, new towels). But they helped get a driver to take me around the area the next day.

OUV

As much as Turkish visitors enjoy Mardin, it was deservedly deferred by Icomos and referred by the WHC. It neither scores highly in terms of consistency of the old town (plenty of modern, concrete buildings in between), nor the quality of specific components.

I would assume the Turkish authorities have reached the same conclusion as they created a new nomination for Late Antique and Medieval Churches and Monasteries of Midyat and Surrounding Area. This includes the best component of the Mardin …

Can't recommend this for even a stopover, although I can't say if this site ever opens for a better look. It seems to be closed off entirely, with just glances possible from the distance, and just covered up with a roof. So while it may be a great example of late Roman architectural-engineering I can't tell at all, and it doesn't seem to be in good shape to show that off anyway.

Before I started researching for my 2022 Mexico trip, I hadn’t given the Gulf of California WHS much thought. Maybe it’s the uninspirational name or the fact that no less than 12 reserved areas all over the place are included so it seems to lack focus. In its nomination dossier, it compared itself to the Galapagos, Henderson Island, and Gough Island. While the others are more remote and pristine, after now having visited I must say there’s a whole lot of truth in this. Also, Argentina’s Peninsula Valdes came to my mind as a similar site.

I visited location #5: Bahia de Loreto National Park. From La Paz, where my plane landed, I first drove 3 hours through nothing. It was such a boring drive that I was afraid to fall asleep behind the wheel. Then the landscape suddenly changed: it became a kind of Grand Canyon with cactus forests, the Sierra de la Giganta. Only behind this massive mountain range, the Gulf becomes visible. There’s a great viewpoint along highway 1 (Mirador Chuenque), where you have an overview of several of the islands in the bay. There are 5 larger islands in Bahia de Loreto, and many smaller islets.

For an easy tick of the site, you can walk along Loreto’s malecon or on its beaches. I did so on my first evening in town and especially enjoyed watching the Brown pelicans fishing. They are pretty creatures with their reddish and ochre neck and pouch. When …

Great theater, lesser great aqueduct. You also get some ruins up the hill behind the theater which are actually easy to miss if the crowd flows into the theater entrance, but you won't miss much out there.

Well preserved, not as good as in France or Italy of course, and nowhere near as impressive decorations. I am not sure how exactly it is trying to keep unique but it's worth a visit for sure.

While I was visiting there was also some filming done as you can see in the pics, which meant having to hide out in the upper tunnels like not having paid for an entrance ticket back in the days? :))

With the theater facing north you will need to pick a good time for taking photos by the way .

In 3 trips over the years to Mexico City, spending in total some 15 days there, I never had the urge to visit Xochimilco. There seem to be so many better things to do in the Mexican capital. And the colourful party boats and mariachi bands that define the popular image of this area did not appeal to me at all. But I kept looking for an alternative way to visit, as there must be more to this important part (and second location) of the inscribed site.

I eventually found a tour called “Pre-Hispanic Floating Gardens & Foodie Fest”, which promised “visiting one of the best-kept secrets of Xochimilco, an oasis south of Mexico City”. It was expensive, certainly for one person, but when I had an unforeseen spare day in Mexico City, I decided to sign up. The tour brings you to the village of San Gregorio Atlapulco, 25km outside of the city center and some 5km beyond the tourist boat landings. Looking at the official map, I believe that the village lies in the buffer zone of the WHS and its floating gardens (chinampas) in the core zone.

We started at the daily farmers market, a pleasantly relaxed affair with stalls selling mostly vegetables, but also fruits and (the omnipresent) chickens. A specialty of the villages in this area is also the creation of garments for the statues (or dolls) of Christ that every Mexican family has in their home, and the …

THE Bodrum Castle is a poor excuse to inscribe something in this faux Mykonos. While not a bad place to visit I don't think seeing the castle, more of a fort really, is worth it especially at this horrendous price. I believe they try to justify the entrance ticket price as they pad the fort with all sort of other museums, things like underwater archeology research, which are surely seen much better elsewhere and explained better. Besides, I didn't want to come and visit for that.

You can see the fort in like 20 minutes and it's mainly walls now. There are a couple of mosaics and some interesting towers but that's about it. The mosque doesn't fit into the castle and surely wasn't there when it was first built by crusaders.

The only highlight I see is that it contains building blocks of the Maussolleion which means I have now been to 5 of the original sites, 6 if you count just visiting Rhodes and of course it's spectical if those blocks in Alexandria you can see diving are really the original Pharos. Seeing that Babylon was just a mythical site that concludes my Wonders travels which I hadn't even planned on in the first place.

I understand that the castle has a lot of history but I don't think that's enough for it to be inscribed. There are plenty of better examples of crusader castles and nowadays where comparison studies are done it will show …

On January 2nd and to kick of 2022, I went to look at a mud hill, i.e., Çatalhöyük. A 30min taxi ride from downtown Konya had taken me to a archaeological site in a rural village with gravel roads. And all there was to see was a muddy hill with a large tent on top. Not sure, what that says about my life ;)

The site is free, but guarded. The guard first made me visit the on site museum. He was so kind to turn on the light, but there was little content to illuminate. The exposition reminded me more of an exposition at my high school than of a museum for one of the most important global archaeological sites for early human settlements.

In front of the museum is a replica hut, so I visited that, before making my way up the hill and the tent to see the excavation. The whole hill actually covers the ancient city, but only portions have been permanently excavated. It's strikingly obvious why when you see the open parts: The mud walls are crumbling and the archaeologists are fighting to stabilize them.

The excavated parts under the tent give a good view of the densely populated village. Houses were build wall to wall with garbage dumps in between. And even on top of each other over the centuries. Humans were buried below the houses, possibly in the old houses which is a reason for the rich finds.

You …

The Huichol Route is Mexico’s most likely next nomination. Being a cultural route and cultural landscape belonging to a surviving native tradition, it will tick all the boxes quickly. It’s not an easy site to grasp though. And most of the 5 locations are far off the beaten track in the mountains and deserts of central Mexico and need permission to visit from the community. But there is a relatively easy one near the city of Guadalajara: Xapawleyeta is located on Isla de los Alacranes in Lake Chapala. The lake area itself is a weekend destination for the city people and a popular spot for American retirees due to its sunny and warm micro-climate. (Side note: I wandered into a nice looking place for lunch in the town of Ajijic, noticed that there were many elderly Americans already seated when the restaurant manager said to me: “You’re not here for the bingo, are you?” I was out really quick!)

Direct buses to Chapala leave every half hour from Guadalajara’s old bus station. At the pier of Chapala, there’s a kiosk where you normally should be able to buy a boat transfer, but it was closed when I arrived at 9 am and stayed that way all morning. At 10, a boatsman started privately selling tours in front of the kiosk, he had a list with destinations and prices. The cost for Isla de los Alacranes (Scorpion’s Island) is 520 pesos (23 EUR) for a return, including a …

Absolutely stunning. The view from the theater alone is worth the trip. It's not unusual for the theater to have a dramatic view, but this one easily tops other sites.

If you can't drive up to the parking lot yourself (entrance is really cheap) you can take a taxi and let it wait. After a 10 minute drive up without any blindspot mirrors and plenty of honking, you can start your ascend which isn't for the unfit. It will take at least 20 minutes to reach the lower city walls, which a British person would probably call "built proper", and then another 5 minutes to reach the top.

The city walls were built for the ages, real solid. The other walls on the hilltop faired a little poorer but the masonry is still noticably great. The highlight is the theater though, and the signposts lead you there without much deviation. You can take a detour though, to see the Temple of Artemis and some rubble, nothing which is explained or signposted. I would think most people will just go to the theater and maybe hang around at the entrance rubbles, which must have been an impressive town in its haydays, and that's fine because the theater alone is worth all of this. According to the official description there isn't much known about the place so I think that will make inscription for culture a little difficult.

As for the natural part of I don't think that deserves …

My previous visits to Sevilla had taken place, before Italica was chosen as site of the dragon pits of Game of Thrones and way before the Spanish added Italica to their tentative list in 2019. As such, I was not aware of the site and never visited.

On my latest trip to Spain, Samuel argued that the mosaics are great and that Spain would nominate the site soon. As much as I enjoy another reason to spend late autumn in Andalucía, I figured I should tick this off while at it. So... I did a pretty long day trip from Ubeda via Cordoba for the Medina to Sevilla. The next morning, I took a local bus to the site.

Italica is one of those sites where the impression I got on TV and the impression I got on site were different. While the center of the amphitheatre with the basement is iconic, the ranks are more humble. To me, the site is less about the theatre and more about the planned Roman city (by emperor Hadrian) with town houses etc. Across the street, there is also a Roman theatre. I am not sure, though, if it's part of the nomination.

OUV

Had the last season of Game of Thrones not been such a bummer, I think the media attention and the fans would have carried it to inscription, disregarding any consideration for OUV. With the series going out on a low note, I think the drive …