Quick Access
!! Limited Interactivity This Weekend Due To Website Migration !!
1205 of 1223 WHS have been reviewed by our community.
Versailles
Ilya Burlak USA - 19-Jun-25
In my humble opinion, Versailles is a must-see in one's lifetime, even though it has its drawbacks. First of all, the palace is frequently unbearably overcrowded. And, being the early inspiration of grand royal residences, it is exceeded in splendor by some of its imitators, so if you've been to places like Peterhof or Schönbrunn, you may not even rate Versailles all that high. I don't expect that many people would make a return trip to it unless they are bringing first-time visitors with them. In April of 2025, I came to Versailles for the third time in twenty-five years, for the benefit of my youngest child, who's never been before.
Read OnLuneburg Town Hall (T)
Assif Germany - 23-Jun-25
Lüneburg's town hall is considered one of the best examples of secular Mediaeval architecture north of the Alps. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside and you can only visit with a guided tour. Although the complex is fairly large you can also enter four big rooms and two smaller ones, but at least three of the rooms are impressive and worth a visit. The Gerichtslaube is the highlight with well preserved glass paintings and a wooden ceilings covered with multiple paintings.
In a different time Lüneburg would have had no trouble entring the list. Its town hall is artistically more significant than Bremen, for example. However, similar to many other former candidates, most noticeably in Germany, it has probably missed the train.
Read OnHubei Shennongjia
Patrik Netherlands - 23-Jun-25
I visited Shennongjia on a Monday in June. I took a train from Wudangshan in the afternoon to Xingshan. It takes about 2.5 hours and involves a change in Xiangyangdong.
From Xingshan, I took a bus to Muyu from the bus station which is about 5 minutes walk from the train station to the right. The bus took less than 1.5 hours. It is a beautiful ride with pretty views towards the right side for most of the trip.
I did not have much information on Shennongjia before my visit, just that there are several scenic areas and that there should be busses. The guesthouse where I was staying did not have any specific information on buses either
Read OnDutch Water Defence Lines
Alex Baranda United States - 19-Jun-25
I visited one of the locations in August 2017. I was hoping to see more locations during my recent visit in November 2024, but unfortunately, I didn't get to visit any (it was raining and the wind was extremely strong).
In 2017, I visited Fort Diemerdam just outside Amsterdam. I was staying near Amsterdam Centraal. I took the #26 tram to the IJBurg stop and walked the rest of the way (about 15-20 minutes). Fort Diemerdam has a few bunkers left on the site. The site is now an events venue. Near the bunkers, there is now a pavilion (Paviljoen Puur). There was an event happening at the time I went, so there were quite a lot of people near the pavilion, but there were still a lot of bunkers to explore away from it. The pavilion looks pretty cool, though - looks like a shell.
Read OnAsturian Monuments
Catoplayer Spain - 30-Jun-25
Recently, I made a short weekend trip to Oviedo (I live in Cantabria province, which borders Asturias). Visiting one of the World Heritage Sites close to home (and with not-so-many reviews) inspired me to write a review so here it is:
Visit to the WHS
-
Cámara Santa
First, we visited the town centre, walking along some of the streets. This way, we saw several buildings such as the Teatro Campoamor (where the Princess of Asturias Awards are given) and the cathedral, which is part of the "Routes of Santiago de Compostela" WHS. The cathedral itself is nice but not necessarily the most impressive cathedral in the north of Spain. However, it does house the Cámara Santa, one of the components of this WHS.
Read On
Blog WHS website
Updated Tentative Lists H1 2025
Every morning around 11 a.m. I do a quick check of this direct link to see whether UNESCO has registered any new Tentative Sites. When they do, I try to add the new records to our website as quickly as possible as well. The people in Paris rarely update before 11 a.m., and afternoon changes only occur when they have a lot to add. The Tentative Sites, for some reason, do not appear in chronological order – sometimes they post things that have been submitted months before. Let’s have a closer look at what the crop of the first half of 2025 brought us.
The Numbers
I have written about the trends in Tentative Sites before, trying to determine The Value of a TWHS. So does the first half of 2025 confirm this pattern?
At the time of writing (June 28, 2025), all Tentative Lists combined add up to 1778 sites. In the first half of 2025, 49 new Tentative Sites were added. 9 of those were 1-on-1 replacements of earlier ones. An additional 15 TWHS were removed and became Former TWHS.
49 new ones in the first half of the year are significantly above average, as are the 15 removals. The trend over the last 10 years was that an average of 66 new TWHS were added yearly, with a net result of 30; 66 were added, 14 removed, and 22 were inscribed and thus disappeared from the Tentative List as well.
Full make-overs
Generally, it’s a steady trickle of new sites popping up. But now and then we see full make-overs, where countries are replacing their complete Tentative List. Countries generally don’t seem to like to drastically get rid of outdated entries; they just let them linger forever (looking at you, Egypt!).
- Austria took a bold move in January and removed 8 of its 10 TWHS. It is working on a completely new Tentative List, with only the Iron Trail still in the queue for a WHC (Preliminary Assessment 2025, so 2029?).
- Portugal did something similar, removing 7 older and vague entries from its list, such as the Route of Magellan and Sites of Globalization. But with 11 sites left, there is still plenty to choose from.
- Algeria refreshed its full list last week. All 6 previous sites were renewed, but seem better defined now. The Royal Mausoleums of Ancient Algeria (photo 2) is its most urgent candidate, possibly going up for nomination in 2027. Also, they included 5 completely new sites, such as the fortified granaries (Ighamaouen) and Djurdjura National Park.
- Guinea did a major update as well, although it couldn’t withstand holding on to some of the old ones. 4 new sites were added.
We also learned that New Zealand is seeking candidates for a new Tentative List; results are expected in 2026.
Notable individual new entries
When we look at the individual new entries, there’s a lot of preparation for upcoming nominations. We see:
- Victorian Goldfields: with a solid budget behind it, this might become Australia's candidate around 2029.
- Belgian Workers’ Assembly Halls: the final candidate of the first group that will take part in the transnational nomination of these Assembly Halls, scheduled for 2028.
- The Mongolian section of the Great Tea Route: as the name already suggests, this is part of a serial transnational effort together with China and Russia, who still have to put forward their candidates.
Among the more imaginative new entries are:
- Phra Prang of Wat Arun Ratchawararam: This is Bangkok's landmark temple complex Wat Arun, and it would lead to a first WHS for this great and popular Asian capital.
- National Museum of Qatar (photo 3): a 21st-century building, encapsulating a restored older palace. It would become the youngest WHS ever with its opening date of 2019.
- The Secondo-Lido Lighthouse in Mogadishu: overlooking the Indian Ocean and once guiding sailors, merchants and pilgrims, it would be the first WHS of Somalia. Unfortunately, it partially collapsed 2 years ago.
Furthermore, India, China and Türkiye keep on adding and adding individual entries to their already long Tentative Lists without removing any.
Looking at the list of sites added in 2025, are there any Tentative Sites that stand out for you?
Els - 29 June 2025
Comments
Ian Cade 29 June 2025
I had completely missed the Qatar National Museum.
It looks really interesting and I think something that does actually reflect the culture and financial power of the 21st century.
Twobaconsandaboston 29 June 2025
Thank you for your insight. Agree, there certainly large Tentative lists and I can see the local advantage of such. Some more to add to the planning.
Nan 29 June 2025
Yep: Adding to a tentative list is a virtue of itself. Turkey shows Tentative Sites on Location as Unesco sites.
Personally, I dont mind long tentative lists if the tentative sites are worthwhile. At least, in Turkey I found most of the tentative sites I visisted pretty great on their own merit. It's just that they are up for tough competition from the prior Turkish inscriptions.
Els Slots 29 June 2025
And regarding "why each state party does not progress existing TWHS to get their first inscribed site, rather than just adding to the Tentative List?" - in my earlier blog post The Value of a TWHS https://www.worldheritagesite.org/blog/id/498 I suggested that "These unrealistically long T Lists seem to serve mostly a domestic purpose: getting on a Tentative List is already a prize for some local or regional authority within a large country."
Els Slots 29 June 2025
Hi Twobaconsandaboston! There is indeed a strategy to give preference to countries that have not yet had a site inscribed. Within the yearly maximum of 35 new WHS to be discussed, they get a higher priority than the 61st site of Italy. However, this system does not work very well as (a) often there are fewer than 35 new candidates, so no prioritization has to take place, and (b) the 'new' countries often submit dossiers that are either incomplete or lacking (because they are inexperienced or don't have much budget).
Twobaconsandaboston 29 June 2025
I have not digested each site yet to determine if any in particular stand out to me, other than potentially mapping out my visit list. I do note though that both Kuwait and Somalia have continued to add to their tentative lists whilst each of them have yet to have an inscribed site. It may have been covered in other blogs (which I have not found) but is there a trend to prioritise countries nominations that do not have any inscribed sites, similar to the policy (it appears) of prioritising sites in conflict zones? And further I would wonder why each state party does not progress existing TWHS to get their first inscribed site, rather than just adding to the Tentative List? There are only 28 State Parties out of 196 to the WHC that have no inscribed sites.
We're moving!