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1180 of 1199 WHS have been reviewed by our community.
Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysala
Shandos Cleaver Australia - 03-Mar-24
After booking cheap flights to the southern India city of Tiruchirappali (or Trichy for short), we were disappointed that we didn't have quite enough time to visit Kochi. However, I realised that with our spare day, we could visit one of the temples comprising the recently inscribed Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysala, just outside of Mysore.
Keshava Temple is located in the village of Somanathapura, a 45 minute drive outside of Mysore. It was quite easy to get there - we asked at the taxi stand opposite the main bus station and close to our hotel, and were immediately offered 1500 rupees for the afternoon trip (only slightly more than the 1200 rupees listed in the 2023 Lonely Planet). Lonely Planet also lists the option of taking a bus to Bannur and then a tuktuk to the temple.
Read OnOld Town of Lijiang
J_neveryes Canada - 29-Feb-24
Memories are fickle beasts. When I look at my photos from my 2019 trip to Lijiang, I see that it was a beautiful city with intriguing narrow water channels and narrower streets. However, what I remember - at least on an emotional level - is that Lijiang was an old town that once had a soul, but it is now a fiction, a mere pretty setting for a sanitized version of Chinese history. Lijiang is not a city; it is a souvenir shop.
There are other cities in the world that long ago pushed [...]
Read OnOrheiul Vechi Archaeological Landscape (T)
Clyde Malta - 27-Feb-24
I visited what can be described as Moldova's best tWHS (much better than its sole WHS Struve location for sure!) in 2023. The Archaeological Landscape of Old Orhei or Orheiul Vechi in Romanian is a perfect half day trip from Moldova's capital Chisinau, approximately 60 kilometres away.
The ancient city of Orheiul Vechi is a natural and historical complex located on a narrow bend of the Raut River. It is best visited by car as the different components are quite far from each other on foot. The natural landscape of limestone rock, eroded by the river, is combined with archaeological vestiges of the ancient Trypillian civilization. As a result of archaeological excavations, cultural layers were discovered from different epochs, such as the Paleolithic, Eneolithic, and Iron Age, so it really has potential as a Cultural Landscape. In theory, a ticket must be paid once you approach Orheiul Vechi, but this is only applied for its main component, the Orthodox monastery and the several caves with inscriptions
Read OnRila Monastery
Clyde Malta - 26-Feb-24
I visited this WHS in 2023 as a full day trip between Sofia and Pirin. Since I was convinced to leave my car outside the monastery overnight, I decided against sleeping at the monastery, so I drove out of Sofia very early on purpose and I arrived at the monastery before the parking officials on duty (after around an hour and a half of exploring the place practically on my own, I went back outside to pay for a parking ticket when they arrived) and well before the improvised security officials who make sure tourists don't climb upstairs in the monastery or take photos inside) - well I obeyed them since I had already took more than enough photos from every angle possible
Read OnCorfu
Hubert Austria - 04-Mar-24
Most of the previous reviewers visited Corfu as a day trip from Albania or arrived directly by plane. This is reasonable, as the Old Town of Corfu is a remote site for WHS travelers in Greece. For a long time, it was the only WHS in the northwest, the sites in Albania are much closer. But since Zagori Cultural Landscape was inscribed on the list in 2023, more visitors may be heading to Corfu from mainland Greece.
I visited Corfu as a day trip from Ioannina. I left Ioannina early in the morning by rental car to catch the first ferry from Igoumenitsa at 7am. The drive to Igoumenitsa takes an hour, the ferry to Corfu takes about an hour and twenty minutes
Read OnBlog Connections
Centres of Plant Diversity
In its evaluations, IUCN over the past years has shown a tendency to refer to a site’s inscription on another list or similar accolade to substantiate its importance. As they say in their 2023 update to the WHC: “systems such as WWF’s Global 200 Priority Ecoregions, Conservation International’s Biodiversity Hotspots and High Biodiversity Wilderness Areas, Birdlife International’s Endemic Bird Areas, and IUCN/WWF Centres of Plant Diversity, provide useful Guidance”. For floral sites, the go-to-list is ‘Centre of Plant Diversity’. As plants are underrepresented anyway among the connections, I created a new one around these Centres.
What are Centres of Plant Diversity?
Centres of Plant Diversity (CPD) are regions of the world that hold a significant number of plant species and/or have a high number of endemic species. The criteria used are: “Most mainland sites have in excess of 1000 vascular plant species, of which at least 10% are endemic, including some that are termed ‘strict endemics’- those endemic to the site. Island sites typically have fewer species, but a higher percentage of these are endemic.” (source)
They were defined in collaboration between the WWF and IUCN and published in a three-volume publication (1994-1997). They are not being further updated. I’ve found it impossible to find a full list of them, but apparently, there are 234 (there may be global and regional ones, it’s unclear). No form of special protection or management seems to be attached to the label.
Connected Sites
I found the following connected sites by doing searches on the UNESCO WH website, the UNEP-WCMC datasheets and in the evaluation files of sites we have put in the category ‘Wildlife habitat – Flora’.
- Agastyamalai and Nilgiri Hills (these may be 2 separate CPD’s): Western Ghats
- Afroalpine: Simien Mountains, Bale Mountains
- Altoandina: Los Alerces, Los Glaciares (photo 3).
- Blue and John Crow Mountains (name unsure): Blue and John Crow Mountains
- Cape Floral: Cape Floral Region Protected Areas (photo 1)
- Chiribiquete-Araracuara-Cahuinari Region: Chiribiquete
- Drakensberg: Maloti-Drakensberg Park
- Kinabalu (name unsure): Kinabalu Park
- La Réunion: Pitons of Reunion (photo 2)
- NZSAI and Macquarie Island: New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, Macquarie Island
- Primorye: Central Sikhote-Alin
- Shennongjia: Hubei Shennongjia
- Socotra: Socotra Archipelago
- Valley of Flowers: Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers NP
Central Amazon Conservation Complex, Manu National Park, Mount Kenya, Lagoons of New Caledonia, and the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan are also part of a CPD, but it is unknown which one.
Do you know more about Centres of Plant Diversity? Or have you come across additional WHS that can be added to this connection?
Els - 17 March 2024