World Heritage Site

I recently have been reading ‘The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World’ by Bettany Hughes. It’s a very comprehensive account of the sites on this ancient Wonder-list and is based on up-to-date research. She sets out to discover "what the Seven Wonders meant to 'them' - to our relatives across time - and what they do and can mean to us". The introduction chapter also details the ways of early ‘list-making’ – Hellenistic travellers were just as enthusiastic about groupings as we are today, frequently using lists of sevens (the most beautiful rivers, the highest mountains, etc.). An explanation she provides is that these groupings give cohesion to history. 

The Wonders

I learned quite a bit from the book and also found further links to (T)WHS, so I could upgrade the existing connection. The Seven Wonders in chronological order, what’s left to see and their link to (T)WHS, were:

1. The Great Pyramid at Giza: the oldest Wonder but the only one still standing and the main component of a WHS. Only the Romans weren’t impressed! 

The Wonder features prominently in the OUV statement for Memphis and its Necropolis in criterion i: “In Memphis was founded one of the most important monuments of the world, and the only surviving wonder of the ancient world, namely, the Great Pyramid of Giza”. 

2. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon: the most enigmatic Wonder because it is unclear whether they ever existed, or whether they were located in Babylon or Nineveh. Some early Wonder lists named the ‘Walls of Babylon’ instead.

Its wondrous elements (Gardens, Tower) are part of the OUV of the WHS of Babylon, the (very short) TWHS description of Nineveh has no reference to it. We also had Museuminsel as part of the connection with its remains of the Ishtar Gate now in the Pergamon Museum, but I removed it to keep it more to the point (maybe we can create a new Connection with WHS connected to the Seven Wonders in the second grade).

3. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus: this very large temple with a creative design at the time was a living cult site accessible to all, like the ones we now encounter in India. There's a link with the TWHS of Sardis, as this site provided the gold that funded the rebuilding of the temple in the 6th century BCE.

The Temple gets a short reference in the WHS of Ephesus OUV statement (“Little remains of the famous Temple of Artemis, one of the ‘seven wonders of the world’ which drew pilgrims from all around the Mediterranean until it was eclipsed by Christian pilgrimage”)

4. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: this huge golden statue, seated inside a temple, was visited by many, especially during the peaceful years when the Olympian Games were held. A single column of the temple is left standing, parts of the statue were later transported to Constantinople where they were displayed for some time near the Hippodrome.

The OUV of Olympia still heavily references it, even in criterion I (“The sanctuary of the Altis contained one of the highest concentrations of masterpieces of the ancient Mediterranean world. Many have been lost, such as the Olympia Zeus, a gold-and-ivory cult statue which was probably destroyed by Pheidias between 438 and 430 BC and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.”)

5. The Mausoleum of Halikarnassos: the mother of all Mausolea, named after the Karian king Mausolos. It was standing until 1400, when it was toppled by an earthquake. The ruins can still be visited in Bodrum, although most of the interest now lies underground.

The archaeological site of Halikarnassos has been on Turkey’s T List, but was removed in 1996. The current TWHS Bodrum Castle is also linked to this Wonder, as its spolia were used in building the Crusader Castle nearby and the proposed OUV partly relies on that fact.

6. The Colossus of Rhodes: this huge bronze statue of the sun god Helios only stood upright for about 60 years, before an earthquake destroyed it.

Although what has been inscribed as a WHS is the Medieval City of Rhodes, the OUV statement (criterion iv) still refers to the Colossus: “The fact that this medieval city .. commands a port formerly embellished by the Colossus erected by Chares of Lindos, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, only adds to its interest.” However, the image of the giant straddling two sides of the harbour (photo above) is a medieval invention. It is now thought that the statue stood at the highest point of the City of Rhodes – maybe where the Grandmaster’s Castle now is or (more likely) at Monte Smith where the Helian Games were held. However, no traces have ever been found.

The Colossus also served as a source of inspiration for Bartholdi in designing the Statue of Liberty.

7. The Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria: it survived until 1303 when it was felled by an earthquake as well. The foundations can still be seen and parts have been reused in the Fort.

Alexandria features on Egypt's T List as “Alexandria, ancient remains and the new library” and its description mentions “The lighthouse was one of the seven wonders of the world in antiquity. Its outline is known only from coins, a Byzantine mosaic discovered in Libya and the remains of a similar lighthouse in Taposiris Magna.”

Visiting them all

I added a new Community Ranking list of the members who have visited all 5 directly linked WHS and also 'ticked' the TWHS of Bodrum Castle and Alexandria - the closest remainders of the 2 non-WHS Wonders.

In Antiquity, Alexander the Great reportedly visited 5 out of the 7 original Wonders – the 6th and 7th date from after his death.

Since introducing the Connections feature, 1531 connections with 27,141 connected sites have been added to this website. I was inspired by Jurre, who has so diligently inventoried connections for Italian WHS recently at the Forum, to discover what the amount of connections tells us about a WHS. To support this research, I made a new Ranking page called Connected that shows the number of connections each WHS has.

Best connected

It comes as no surprise that the large city centers with a long history dominate the Top 10 of WHS with the most connections:

Ferrara may be the odd one out, but its high ranking can be explained by the inclusion of the Po Delta with the city center of Ferrara.

Fewest connections

When we look at the 120 WHS with less than 10 connections, the following categories stand out:

Recent WHS

No less than 26 WHS from 2023 haven’t reached the 10 connections yet. The Viking Age Ring Fortresses only has 2!

This may teach us that the number of connections for a site grows over time. Or we should try harder directly after a WHC – maybe last year we were a bit overwhelmed by the high numbers getting in at the double session.  For example, the similar double session of 2021 has only 3 WHS left with less than 10 connections.

Old WHS with little documentation

During the early years, WHS were added without much documentation. One would expect that finding connections for these WHS would be difficult, but overall this is not strongly reflected in the numbers. There are a few early sites such as the Boyana Church, the Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo (photo) and the Urnes Stave Church which could benefit from a better description. Vernacular and/or rural churches like these 3 do quite poorly overall by the way, with also Vall de Boi, Pskov Churches and the Wooden Churches of the Maramures in very low numbers.

Oddities – or just very unique

When I started to look at the WHS with very few connections, I was hoping to find the WHS that are so unique that they are hard to connect to 2 other WHS. The Grimeton Radio Station surely is such a site, or the Four Lifts.

Also, ‘mysterious’ sites where the use/meaning is unknown and which cannot be linked to a major culture prove hard to connect: think of the Plain of Jars, Tiya, the Madara Rider.

Poorly rated sites

A final hypothesis was that sites with poor ratings have a low number of connections. Especially the more simple ones (where there isn't much to see), such as the Chengjiang Fossil Site or the Sangiran Early Man Site, indeed do have less than 10 connections. But we also find Khajuraho and Ajanta Caves in that category, two majestic sites. Looking at the full list though, I'd say that overall the "better" sites get more connections (although the poorly rated variations of Limes are always good for above-average numbers of connections).

Are there any (groups of) WHS that do stand out to you when you look at the list of most and least connected sites?

Our Connection ‘Neolithic Age’ groups all WHS correlating with the Neolithic period. Some derive their OUV from it, while others only have a slight link because archaeological strata from that era have been found below later more important findings.

The Neolithic is the Later Stone Age, a period that timewise differs across the continents but is characterized by the introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. It was predated by the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic and followed by the relatively short transformation period of the Chalcolithic (a.k.a. Copper Age) before the Bronze Age started.

I updated the Connection and set out to find which sites can be considered the Top Neolithic WHS. And I learned a few things along the way…

Inventory

We already had 55 connected sites. I checked them all for their rationale, updated the texts, and removed two (Vredefort Dome and Rapa Nui). I then did a query on the UNESCO website with the term ‘Neolithic’. This resulted in 42 hits, including 12 previously unconnected ones such as the Antequera Dolmens and Ephesus. The Wikipedia page on the Neolithic also has a list of sites, from which I picked Horton Plains (Central Highlands of Sri Lanka). 

5 of the final 66 are also in the connections for Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, 2 in Chalcolithic and 10 in Bronze Age, which shows that sites usually aren’t typically Neolithic only. The Americas aren’t considered to have had a Neolithic age, the corresponding era here is the Formative Stage but it has different characteristics.

Finding ‘the best’

So where do you need to go to see what makes the Neolithic Neolithic? Three WHS are so quintessentially Neolithic that they have the term in their full site name: the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, the Neolithic Flint Mines of Spiennes, and the Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük.

I ranked the list that I compiled above against the following criteria, handing out one point max per criterium:

Neolithic as an explicit part of the OUV

Here interpretation and additional research came into play. Sometimes the term ‘Neolithic’ is used in an OUV statement, but the OUV criteria on which it was inscribed point elsewhere. Byblos for example is said to be “Continuously inhabited since Neolithic times”, where the rationale behind the criteria focuses on the Bronze Age and the Phoenician era. In cases like this, I did not reward a point.

Another issue that arose is determining whether a site is truly Neolithic. Sarazm for example, does its OUV date back to the very end of the Neolithic or is it Chalcolithic? With its focus on metallurgy in crit ii and iii (see also this) I’d veer to Chalcolithic, but it existed in the Neolithic already as a settlement (it did inspire a new connection BTW: Proto-Cities). And for Malta’s Megalithic Temples, Wiki says Neolithic and UNESCO says Bronze Age. With an OUV relying on technical stoneworking skills, Neolithic seems more appropriate (also because the Ggantija temples are older than the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni, which is labelled as Neolithic everywhere). When in doubt, I rewarded half a point.

Neolithic aspects are visible

Nan wrote in his Jericho review "As a Neolithic site, this is probably as good as it gets". Solivagant's Choirokoita review makes a difference between Neolithic megaliths and Neolithic settlements, and he deemed the latter as "there is very little for the untrained eye to see". To appreciate the remains of so long ago may require using a Stoclet Pass (the oldest of the notorious Pile Dwellings are also from the Neolithic), but the best of them still offer something good to look at. Those are way more elaborate than simple dolmen or foundations of buildings.

I’ve awarded the points mostly following the site rating (0.5 for sites with an average score below 3, 1 for those at 3 or more), after making sure that what you’re looking at is indeed the Neolithic part and whether there is anything to see at all.

The Top Sites

I ended up with the maximum score of 2 for:

• Neolithic Orkney : for Skara Brae, "unparalleled amongst Neolithic settlement sites in northern Europe." (Photo 1 shows the Stones of Stenness Circle, also part of this WHS)
• Petroglyphs of the Lake Onega and the White Sea : for its "coherent image of the Neolithic culture period in the northeastern part of Fennoscandia" (other rock art sites date back to the Neolithic as well, but tend to span long periods with most visible remains of a later date)
• Brú na Bóinne : for its grand passage tombs and rock carvings (Photo 2 shows carvings at Newgrange)
• Stonehenge: for its architecturally sophisticated stone circles
• Hal Saflieni Hypogeum : the only known subterranean ‘labyrinth’ from the period, excellently preserved
• Göbekli Tepe : for its innovative building techniques
• Çatalhöyük : for its house clusters, characterized by their streetless neighbourhoods (Photo 3)

Runners-up, with a score of 1.5, are Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes, Antequera Dolmens, Choirokoitia, Krzemionki prehistoric flint mines, Ancient Jericho, Liangzhu Archaeological Site, Megalithic Temples of Malta, and the Jomon Prehistoric Sites (the Jomon period is considered "the Neolithic of Japan").

You can find the full spreadsheet here to see how I determined the scores (or calculate your own).

Missing Neolithic WHS

Europe and the Middle East seem already well-represented among the Neolithic WHS. Arabia and Africa have some too, although less spectacular. One might expect more however from the Indian subcontinent and China. A site that I came across repeatedly is probably the Top Missing Neolithic site: Mehrgarh in Pakistan (a TWHS) - "Located in the Indus Valley, Mehrgarh is one of the earliest known Neolithic settlements in South Asia, dating back to around 7000 BCE. Evidence suggests a transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a settled agricultural community, with domesticated wheat and barley found at the site."

Do you enjoy visiting Neolithic sites?

With a visit to the Vega Archipelago last Wednesday (see my review here), I finally ‘completed’ Norway. It took me 5 separate short trips during the period 2002-2024. The most memorable WHS was the Rock Art of Alta (photo 1) – I had never been as far north and as with most of the Norwegian WHS the natural setting defeats the cultural OUV. I will happily continue exploring Norway to visit the TWHS of Svalbard and Lofoten which are still on my wanted list.

But why did it take me so long to complete a European country with ‘only’ 8 WHS, no overseas ones and no new sites since 2015?

The lack of clusters

It would surprise me if any of the 31 other people who have seen all WHS in Norway visited them in one go. Looking at the map, the narrow shape of the country and the rugged landscape result in mostly groupings of 1 or 2: the Far North (Rock Art of Alta, Struve), the Central Coast (Vegaoyan), near Trondheim (Røros), and near Oslo (Rjukan/Notodden). There is sort of a cluster around Bergen (Bryggen, Urnes, Naeroyfjord) but that still takes multiple days. Nan managed to do it all in 2 separate trips and has reported how on the Forum. 

The difficulty of the last mile(s)

The domestic airline network is good in Norway, but the problem is that most WHS cannot be easily accessed from the nearest airport. Renting a car at that airport often is the most practical solution, but there still will be ferries to deal with and it is of course the most expensive option. Completing Norway on public transport only is an achievement and needs to be supported by bike rentals or lots of hiking. Read Nan’s Getting there section on Urnes to get a feel for the effort it takes.

The high cost per WHS

The main reason why I left Vegaoyan for so long is that I couldn’t fit it within my 650 EUR-per-WHS rule: I spent about 850 EUR in the end. But the other Norwegian WHS aren’t cheap either. The cost adds up due to the combination of #1 and #2: you go there for 1 or 2 WHS at the time (so no splitting of the cost of the international flights), in some cases, you need an additional domestic flight as well plus the local transport. Since you’ve come from so far I usually had 2 nights in a hotel around the WHS visit day. Plus food and entrance fees are generally appropriate to the high cost of living in Norway.

The short season

All my 5 visits were in June, July or August. While you may be able to go during other months, you will find visitor centers, restaurants, the Urnes church etc closed and even less public transport than in summer. And you may be faced with demotivating, incessant rain.

The scarcity of tourist facilities

There is little mass tourism, and the Norwegians seem rather to be left alone. They’ve already offered up Bergen and a fjord or two to the cruise crowd. This greatly affects the accessibility of the WHS, the quality of the visitor experience and the cost. In the Vega Archipelago for example, how great would it be to take a boat cruise around the islands or visit an eiderdown farm at one of those? These are rarely on offer, or on request only at prohibitive cost. I know it’s a chicken-and-egg situation (no tourists, no tours – no tours, no tourists), but still, I feel more effort could be put into it.

How do you look back on your Norwegian WHS visits?

No, this is not about how to get into that city palace in Brussels. In a recent discussion in our WhatsApp group, Astraftis introduced the term “Stoclet Pass”. It means a visit that is good enough for an otherwise off-limits site. He wrote: “Referring to (semi)inaccessible locations like Roman limes or pile dwellings. If all you can do is to stand on the shore and to contemplate the water surface, then yeah, you get a Stoclet-pass for me".

We've since fully embraced his neonym. So for which WHS is a Stoclet Pass applicable, and what does it involve?

When not being able to enter

The most obvious group of sites to look at is the ones we have gathered in the connection “Not open to tourists”. Here we find:

• the Decorated cave of Pont d'Arc and the Thracian tomb of Kazanlak. You can peer through the fence around the original tomb or touch the door to the original cave, but for both, you need to visit a replica to see the paintings. For Pont d’Arc, it can be argued that it adds value to see the cave’s original natural setting, but for Kazanlak, as Clyde concludes, “the visitor experience can only truly be enhanced by visiting the other accessible tombs at the remarkable royal necropolis of the Thracian city of Seuthopolis (currently tWHS extension) and the worthwhile National Archaeological Museum in Sofia.”
• It also includes the Vézère Valley whose main caves are also closed to the public and have a replica cave. In this case, however, I would argue that you also have to visit one of the minor caves to earn the pass as they are quite good and have original paintings.
• Stoclet House: stand on the pavement and look at the ‘wrong’ side of the building, that’s all you can do at the moment; looking at the 289 members who have checked this site, the community has no scruples here.
• Los Katios National Park – the acceptable way to ‘see’ it is from the Atrato River by taking a boat from Turbo to Riosucio which crosses the core zone. Its OUV lies in region-specific fauna, birds and endemic plants, and I doubt that you would see any of those from a fast-moving boat. 
• Papahanaumokuakea -  Midway Atoll is the only part that ever has been accessible (until 2012). Now the only option is to visit as a scientist or become a volunteer at the annual albatross count. I can’t think of any Stoclet Pass that would be applicable here instead. 
• Gough and Inaccessible Islands: a significant marine area is included, and landings are allowed on Inaccessible Island (not on Gough). Probably this site should be removed from the Not open to tourists connection. It is similar to Surtsey where being in the marine core zone and seeing the island up close lead to a satisfying visit.
• Fully closed is the Indian Sundarbans NP. As Solivagant stated about his Sundarbans visit: “by a very strict definition we haven't visited it even though we have a. seen inside the core from a distance, b. travelled and walked through land which is essentially the same and is situated inside a protected area albeit not an inscribed one. It would seem to be "obsessive" not to "count" it!”
• Chiribiquete is a similar case. With its mixed OUV (including rock art), a fly-over tour seems hardly sufficient (although you may see its natural OUV, the tepuis). One could visit Cerro Azul, which has rock art in a similar natural setting to the WHS and lies in its buffer zone. An argument against this is that you cannot see into the core zone from there. I would say the combination of a specific fly-over and a visit to Cerro Azul earns you a Stoclet Pass.
• As we know, Mt. Athos is not open to women. The Stoclet Pass here allows a woman to count it after having seen the landscape and the main monasteries via a specific cruise along the shoreline. Men are not allowed to use this pass and have to set foot on the peninsula!

When not being able to see its OUV

Other WHS may be ‘open’ but still provide difficulties in getting a good visit. These are the WHS where the OUV is covered underground or underwater or is just not present on site anymore. Notable examples include:

• Prehistoric Pile Dwellings: Visiting a location with visible stumps seems to be the favoured way to get a satisfying tick. At other locations, you have to do what Ian did “I stared intently at the water trying to spot the merest hint of some buried rotten wood.” Other reviewers tried visiting different locations and regional museums to enrich their experience. Solivagant has written a philosophical answer to whether these detours improve the 'tick'. 
• Roman Limes: the Lower German Limes is particularly low on visible remains, there are some original stone walls here and there but none of the reviewers returned happy (which also explains the low site rating, #1180 overall). Even the museums here aren’t fully recommended. The Danube Limes comes out only slightly better. A way to earn your Stoclet pass here is to visit several locations.
• Fossil hominid sites: here the bones of the early humans will all have been taken away. Reviewers of sites such as the Peking Man Site, South Africa’s Fossil Hominid Sites, Sangiran, Gorham’s Cave, Mount Carmel Caves seem to be satisfied with getting an official entrance ticket, access to the core zone/dig site, look into “the” cave or at exposed series of archaeological strata, visit an on-site museum or even one outside where the original findings are shown.

When you can use the Pass

Going by the reviews and the lists of community members who claim to have visited the sites mentioned above, when you can enter the core zone people are always inclined to 'tick' the site, even when they did not see its OUV. I would even argue that encountering gigantic statues of early hominids or the pseudo-ruins at Xanten makes us feel better about it. And those wooden stumps of pile dwellings surely do!

When you cannot enter, a few things are valued:

1. Having unobstructed views into the core zone from the closest you're allowed to go (a “from-the-outside-looking-in” visit).
2. A visit to the buffer zone with similar features.
3. In addition to (1) or (2), visits to museums or similar sites in the region – more is better to come to grips with the subject.

You can’t use a Stoclet Pass when you miss out on a site because of your own fault. Visiting a site that is always closed Mondays on a Monday for example. Not booking a tour beforehand when one is required. Not wanting to pay the entrance fee and just driving by.

Have you ever used a Stoclet Pass?

Pictures: (1) pile dwelling stumps at Fiave, (2) pile dwelling location at Bande: this rusty telescope enables to look through the ages, in a distant and blurred past (© Astraftis), (3) skull fragments of the Australopithecus africanus, found at Makapan Fossil Hominid Site and now in a regional museum

In 2017, Jarek wrote on the Forum “I guess that during next years Kazakhstan will develop a little bit their touristic infrastructure (I found it completely insufficient in many places) and adjust prices towards budget travellers (let's hope as right now they tend to overprice the services offered).”

Oh boy, was he wrong! I spent 11 days there in June 2024 and I am glad I went as it broadened my view of the country and its WHS are worthy, but tourist friendly it still isn’t. Below are my Top Tips for Travel to Kazakhstan as a WH Traveller.

1.      Don’t be put off already beforehand!

Usually when preparing for trips I get more and more excited about the destination. Kazakhstan is the only country I can remember from my recent travels where the more I learned about it, the less enthusiastic I got. It all seemed such a hassle with sights few and far between. I couldn't even finish reading the Bradt Guide on Kazakhstan as it was so boring.

2.      Its cities are a pleasant surprise

Visiting the main Kazakh cities certainly made my outlook on the country more positive. They seemed pleasant to live in, as there is lots of green, the streets are very pedestrian-friendly and they have plenty of coffee shops with terraces to watch the world go by. A wide range of cuisines is available, so it will be easy to steer away from the Central-Asian staples (which I do not like) to more common Asian, Turkish and Western options. Both Almaty (Soviet modernist) and Astana (neo-futuristic; photo 1 shows the Khan Shatyr Shopping and Entertainment Center) are worth a full day. The people generally are friendly and honest and it feels very safe.

3.      Providing transport to travellers isn’t their thing

Hurdle #1 for travelling in Kazakhstan on your own is the lack of modern public transport. The cities in the South (Almaty-Taraz-Shymkent-Turkestan) aren’t that far apart, but it can be a hassle to get between them. There’s one “fast” train per day, a bus or two on an ungodly hour, and for the remainder, you have to rely on marshrutkas or shared taxis that will make the trip when full. I always used the latter two options. When you have an early start (before 8 am) you won’t have to wait long, but especially marshrutkas aren’t that frequently available later during the day. You need to bring a certain experience in travelling this kind of way as it’s all very informal.

Renting a car is seriously discouraged (probably instigated by the tour company maffia, see #4), but to me, it all seemed doable, especially for those WH travellers who have driven ‘everywhere’ already (about the same difficulty level as Tunisia I'd say). Car rental companies will charge you by the km, so costs can add up if you’re doing a road trip. Traffic police are notoriously active. Gas is heavily subsidized and extremely cheap.

4.      The prices of established tour companies are a joke

Hurdle #2 is getting to any destination that lies more than 10km outside of a major city and is not covered by the already sketchy public transport. Unfortunately, two of the Kazakh WHS belong to this category (Tanbaly, Saryarka). If you approach a local tour company (for example those recommended in the Bradt guide or those with a strong online presence), they will shamelessly come back with a quote of 500 USD per day. I was quoted 500-600 USD for a day trip to Korgalzhyn from Astana by 3 different companies. Pricing is even more ridiculous than in the Caribbean, where the ‘cruise factor’ is incorporated into everything.

The high cost may be caused by the English-speaking guide they are always trying to add on even when you did not request it (speaking English well is a highly valuable skill in Kazakhstan, as it is rare). But it seems there’s also a cartel at work, as their prices were all remarkably similar. The cheapest alternative may be to arrange a car+Russian speaking driver via the place you’re staying at. I played it a bit safe (to be sure a car was available on the right day and I ended up at the right place with a good visit to the WHS) and arranged both Tanbaly and Korgalzhyn (Saryarka) via Indyguide.com, which is an online marketplace for freelance driver/guides.

5.     Despite its size, consider it as a small country 

As a destination, Kazakhstan seems to either be tremendously overrated or totally underrated. Due to the enormous size of the country (it’s the world’s 9th largest), from their land surveyor perspective Nomadmania has split the country into 14 regions and MTP even has 18 KZK locations. It’s all the same steppe, guys! For reference, Uzbekistan has only 7 MTP locations and Turkey has 12.

On the other hand, the infamous Lupine's 5 ‘Stans Tour allocates only 1 day out of the 14 to Kazakhstan – on that they drive from the border with Kyrgyzstan to Almaty, where they have a city tour that afternoon.… So they even miss out on that fabulous Khoja Ahmed Yassawi Mausoleum (photo 3).

I think the WHS are a fairer representation of the country, both in subject and in geographical spread. Kazakhstan has 3 WHS of its own, plus 2 transnational sites, which are as good or probably better seen in the other participating countries. The 3 Kazakh-only WHS are nicely spread across the regions of Almaty, Shymkent/Turkestan and Astana. Any future WHS will be very niche: some Turkic rune stones maybe, or the Mangystau Region with its natural features and rocky mosques (a nomination is being prepared apparently). Kazakhstan will participate in upcoming Silk Road serial nominations, but its components do not stand out on their own. Baikonur Cosmodrome is on our Missing List, but it is technically an exclave on Kazakh soil leased out to Russia.

On a map, the Kazakh WHS of Tanbaly (not to be confused with Tamgaly Tas!) doesn’t look to be too far from Almaty, but it takes quite some time to cover the 170km between the two places (we did it in 2h45). I went with a car & driver which I’d hired for the day via Indyguide, and we first had to navigate the busy and chaotic traffic to get out of Almaty. Then there’s a good stretch of highway west and, after the turnoff to the north which is signposted to the Site of Tanbaly, what remains is a B-road with some potholes but little traffic. The only thing you see by the side of the road are large farms, and they keep sheep and horses as livestock. As so often with rock art sites, Tanbaly lies in a remote river canyon that once had special meaning for people living in or passing through the region but lost its significance later on. It’s also the only piece of exposed rock in an area of steppes and offers protection against the sun and wind.

Our first stop was at the museum, which was given a proper building in 2021 and even comes with a museum shop. They show a few findings from the site, such as pottery found in the graves. Otherwise, it is mostly large photographs of the rock art on display. They also explain how they cleared the rocks of graffiti, which has been a real problem at this site in the 1990s when there was no oversight. WH collectors can also find the original WH certificate on a wall inside the museum.

About a kilometre further along the road you enter the fenced reserve where the rock art and associated archaeological sites are. There’s a large parking lot and at the reception area, you must pay the entrance fee of 500 tenge (1 EUR). We were surprised that we were not the only visitors – a large bus was already parked there. It belonged to a group of art students, who were painting ‘en plein air’ at the site for a competition. We found them sitting everywhere with their canvases.

A visit to the site itself is done on foot via well-marked trails. Not all rock panels were open (they have 7) – we did 3, 4, and 5, and watched panel 2 from a viewpoint. Contrary to what I read online beforehand, you do not need a guide and no guides are available at the reception area. I was with a driver/guide who had been there before, but she wasn’t a specialist in the subject. She did know where to look though for the more special engravings such as the pregnant cow, the fighting dog, dancing people and some sun-deities.

I had brought my superzoom camera, which came in handy as the rock art often could be viewed better from a distance than when you were standing right in front of it. The specific kind of rock found here seems very suitable to keep the rock art preserved and the way it was done (chiselling or picketing the objects out of the rock with the use of tools, not carving) seems to be beneficial for the viewing conditions as well. You can see them well and they are not as weather/sunlight dependent as other rock art sites around the world. I especially liked their silvery backgrounds.

The main trail, which takes about 1.5 hours to complete, ends at some Bronze Age burial sites. These are stone ‘boxes’ in the ground (see 3rd photo). Both adults and children were laid to rest here in crouched positions, and some graves are considered to be cenotaphs (so having had no body at all). A few of the boxes hold interior engravings similar to the rock art.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit - it gets you deep into the Kazakh countryside, the rock art is well-visible and some of it is very old. The site seems well-managed nowadays and there was a pleasant atmosphere with the visiting group of students. We brought our own picnic lunch (there are no restaurants or other amenities in the area) and ate it sitting on one of the benches in the parking lot.

As Solivagant has written, China is a new country every 10 years. I hadn’t been there since early 2019 - and even since then it has changed again. It has started to look more and more like Japan, especially in the most prosperous part of the country. If you look closely you may still notice an elderly person spitting into a garbage can, and I even spotted a group of pensioners playing cards (or gambling?) under a bridge in Hangzhou. But the younger generations in the cities seem like a different breed.

To stimulate the return of international tourism after COVID, the Chinese government has allowed a 15-day visa-free entrance into the country for a select group of nationalities (the group seems a bit random but a major factor appears to be the country's appeal to visiting Chinese tourists). So fortunately the Chinese love the Dutch flower fields and I was let into the country without questions. 

Please find below my Tips for visiting WHS in China on the 15-day visa-free scheme.

1.      You can pack in a lot in 15 days

China is so huge that it doesn’t matter whether you have ‘only’ 15 days or 3 months. You need multiple return visits anyway to see most of its provinces and cover all its 59 WHS. There are plenty of clusters of about 10 WHS that are suitable for this kind of short trip. The hotspot connections of Beijing, Fujian, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Luoyang, Nanjing, and Sichuan can inspire you to decide where to focus. Although I had visited China already 5 times before and had spent some 5 months in total covering 41 out of the 59 WHS, I easily found a cluster of 8 ‘new’ WHS for me to do. My itinerary can be found here.

2.      Plan, plan, plan

Draw up a detailed itinerary beforehand to get the most out of the 15 days. Check the Chinese (school) holidays (+ and – a few days) and avoid weekend trips to the busiest sites (usually those with cable cars). Research the train routes and schedules, and avoid overly long transfers – you can get quite far in 2 or 3 hours already on a high-speed train. Write it all down into a day-to-day schedule and stick to the plan.

3.      Be sure the itinerary is varied enough

To keep the journey enjoyable instead of just ticking the boxes on high speed, the itinerary should have a mix of sights. Try to avoid too many (sacred) mountains, as although their sceneries vary a lot, the visitor experiences often are similar. Also, keep an eye on the site ratings – be sure to have some of the very good (4+) ones in there. An excursion into the countryside adds another perspective (this time I did Tusi’s Laosicheng which fits the bill, but Fujian Tulou also is a fine choice in this category).

I would also suggest including two or three days in one of the major cities (such as Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, or Hangzhou, Xiamen for example) – this will give you access to city attractions which can be explored on foot or a bike and allow you to enjoy more non-Chinese restaurants than the average provincial city offers. After 10 days or so, you will start craving some non-sweet bread and cheese, or that craft beer.

4.      Download a select group of apps

China operates in a different digital universe from the rest of the world, and you’ll have to join it at least partly as otherwise you’d not be able to do much. For a short trip such as this, one method of digital payment (Alipay is the easiest) and a foreign sim should be enough: no VPN, no special maps, no WeChat. Train reservations aren’t needed long ahead either. More on this can be found in the Forum post.

5.      Expect an excellent ROI

A short trip to China delivers both quantity and quality at a low cost. You can all DIY as virtually all Chinese WHS are very accessible. Sites are usually open every day of the year, with reasonable hours and no pre-booking required. And there are few WHS among China’s 59 that aren’t worth visiting: there are only 5 sites with an average rating of less than 2.5 stars. Travel costs are low: public transport (including taxis), food and hotels are all inexpensive. Entrance fees usually are a bit pricier (especially when you want to use all of the site’s additional ‘attractions’) but there’s no foreigner pricing. I managed to average 275 EUR per WHS (all-inclusive, even international flights), which is way below my usual budget of 650 EUR and in the range of Turkey (only Tunisia and Morocco so far have been cheaper).

China usually doesn’t have much trouble inscribing sites, but it did have a hard time with China Danxia. “Danxia” is an elusive subject, even Wikipedia isn’t able to define it in one sentence (it calls it “pseudo-karst” consisting of red-coloured sandstones from the Cretaceous and limited to China). ICOMOS and IUCN couldn’t really wrap their heads around it either – IUCN basically saying there isn’t such a thing as a globally acknowledged Danxia landform and ICOMOS insisting that this should be a cultural site (criterion VI, rich cultural associations) instead of a natural site (criterion VII, natural beauty).

Eight out of the nine locations that comprise the WHS of ‘China Danxia’ have so far stayed unreviewed on this website. I visited a ‘new’ one – the Guifeng section of Longhushan National Park. This site is separate from the main Longhushan park (both in geographical reality and in the inscribed list of components), but they share the same site management and Global Geopark status. The strength of Guifeng is that it is very compact, so you can get a good impression of what Danxia entails within a relatively short amount of time.

Unlike other Chinese mountain WHS, this is not a place to wander endlessly. There is one main trail that everybody follows. Here and there you can choose to skip a specific detour to a peak or an ‘attraction’ (more on those later!), but in general, you all start and end at the same place. I walked 8.7 km in total and the loop took me 3.5 hours with plenty of stops. I went on a Sunday morning and there were many day-tripping families and groups of friends around, but nowhere it got too crowded. Drinks, ice cream and other snacks are sold from stalls along the route.

After some initial climbing of stone stairs, you reach the flat, paved walkways that were attached to the sides of the Danxia ‘inselbergs’. This is the best part of the site, as from there you get panoramic views of the landscape of isolated, eroded peaks, which – when the sun is out – show their red colours well. The name Dan Xia was derived from a Chinese poem and means “vermillion sunglow”.

Despite being a Global Geopark and a natural WHS, there is little explanation on site about the geology of the area. The park is much more geared toward providing a fun day out. As if the landscape itself wasn’t pretty enough, several manmade attractions were added. At the far end of the loop, there is a Glass Skywalk. Closer to the end of the trail, you can risk your life in the sleighing on grass or on the giant water slide. The trail ends at the dock, from where a (heavily overpriced) ‘sightseeing’ boat will take you back to the visitor center. I had opted out of that when I bought my ticket but had to succumb to it in the end as I saw no other trail to walk out.

My visit made me think that these kinds of Disneyfied natural sites prevent Chinese city dwellers from coming in contact with ‘real’ nature. If you look closely, there is some left though, I even saw a few animals when I walked on my own - first a squirrel and later a stick insect crossing the paved footpath. At least the latter made me smile – I had never seen a stick insect run but this one did, perhaps to keep its time out of the bushes as short as possible.

Practicalities

Guifeng is an easy half-day trip from Shangrao, which itself is a good hub for the WHS of Sanqingshan and Wuyishan. Take the fast train to the city of Yiyang from Shangrao (17mins) and from Yiyang railway station you can take bus #2 or a Didi taxi (15mins/40 yuan) to the site, known as ‘Guifeng Scenic Area’ or ‘Guifeng Mountain’. Trains run fairly frequently but with some gaps in between certain departures; I left Shangrao on the 7.30 train and got back on the 13.01 from Yiyang. The site entrance ticket costs 60 yuan (for some reason I did not have to pay this), plus 20 yuan for the shuttle ‘train’ from the visitor center to the start of the mountain trail and 80 yuan for the boat ride.

The WHS of Mount Wuyi has not been covered well by reviews yet - at least I think they do not do justice to the complexity of this mixed WHS. After reading beforehand about what to see and do in the area I decided to spend more than one day here and explore various parts.

On my arrival day, I moved straight to the second location called “Ruin of Han Dynasty City”. This lies some 15km outside of the Wuyi scenic area. From Nanpingshi railway station (formerly known as Wuyishan East) I took the recently installed tramway and got off at Chengcun, from where it’s a 3km walk to the ruins (it’s signposted and you can use the bike path). It’s a location of interest in the inscription history of this WHS, as ICOMOS in 1999 actually considered it a separate site and thought it would be better to split this cultural archeological site from the more nature-focused main site.

The split didn’t happen though and now the Han City Ruins are part of the Wuyi WHS, and they proudly display the WH logo everywhere. Strangely, access regulations are different between the two locations – while the main site requires quite costly one or multiple-day passes, the entrance here is free. The ruins lie in a sleepy village and at the sites (I went to the museum and the palace ruins) no one else was around except for one person at each reception. The museum is quite a grand building and was modelled after Beijing’s Imperial Palace. The Han City dates from the 1st century BC and testifies to the time when the region became incorporated into the Han state and the local ruler became a vassal to the Han Emperor. These city ruins are considered unique for China as later constructions have never overlaid them. What remains though are hardly more than the foundations of what once was a walled city. Photo 1 above shows the ‘Bath Pool’.

The next morning I was up early and managed to be among the first to enter Wuyishan NP. The park opens already at 6.30 in the main season. For some reason, I only had to pay for the shuttle buses (70 Yuan (9 EUR), which even became 65 after an inexplicable Alipay discount) and not for the entrance (which is listed as 140 Yuan for 1 day). I had read online that they had given free entrance until April, but maybe they continue this practice.

I had chosen to visit the Da Hong Pao area first – it turned out that I was the only one wanting to go there at this early hour and I sat alone at the bus. That was fine by me as it resulted in a very pleasant and quiet hike. This area in the northern part of the park is known for its growing of tea plants. The so-called Tea Trail, 4.5km long, connects Da Hong Pao with the Water Curtain Cave via a narrow path through valleys and up and down stone stairs. The area was used as an Imperial Tea Farm and still produces a specific red kind of tea. A key spot is its remaining set of 6 original tea trees that are over 300 years old.

Along the way, you will also pass a fine 18th-century temple and ancient cliff dwellings high up against the cliff wall. As it was so quiet, I saw several birds such as a red-headed trogon and the very pretty Silver Pheasant (which is mostly white). The trail ends at the Water Curtain Cave, which is a steep waterfall that in this dry season only trickles from the top. Maybe it's not really worth the steep climb to get there, but there’s a Neo-Confucian shrine (infested with bees) at the bottom end of the wall so you can ‘tick’ the Neo-Confucian part of the OUV as well!

After 2 hours of hiking, I took a shuttle bus back to the main area near the park's South Entrance. Here I did another short walk: to Zhi Zhi An nunnery. This easy path starts at Wuyi Palace and follows the bending river. There’s a good viewpoint from where you can take pictures of the bamboo rafts floating downstream against the backdrop of the cliff walls.