Ten days or so ago we learned that Indonesia is preparing a serial (transnational?) proposal for a Spice Route WHS. They have been at it for years, similar news items can be traced back online to 2016, a major conference was held in 2022 and hopes are up for spice tourism in Aceh Province. It leads to the question of to what extent ‘Spice’ is represented already on the WH List.

Aspects to consider

Finding spice-related WHS, or creating a brand new one, isn’t so easy, as ‘Spice’ is a multi-interpretable subject:

Framing : In the world of UNESCO, the Spice Route is part of the Silk Roads programme and is loosely mentioned in the Silk Roads Thematic Study. Usually, the distinction between the two is made between land-based routes and maritime routes. The image above shows the Spice Routes in blue and the land-based Silk Roads in red.

Era : There are at least three stages in history where the international Spice trade was important: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Age of Discovery. It seems logical to focus on one period to create a cohesive proposal.

Flavours …

At the wrap-ups of the past WHC meetings , I’ve tried to incorporate some trends regarding the WHC process. These were based on ad-hoc queries of elements that stood out, such as the number of sites with a name change or those inscribed only on 1 criterion. I’ve now turned these into a proper page, where you can compare these key data against all years a WHC session was held. The page - best viewed on a laptop-wide screen – can be found here . What trends can we derive from it?

Notable years

The year with the most inscriptions was 2000: 61. Imagine the number of ‘armchair ticks’ you could have had from that! A further 13 were not inscribed at that session, so 74 were discussed at the meeting overall. That must have been a long session, although we don’t have a record of that since the live streams started only in 2012. On the other hand, 1989 only had 7 sites inscribed.

This year (2024) was the smoothest in history, with only 4 sites from the initial batch not being inscribed (I am counting those withdrawn right before the session as …

Since by the year 2024 “everyone has been everywhere” and many have become serious about WH travel planning, it is hard to find a place and time for a WHS meet-up. The best chances are those special opportunities that unlock places where access isn’t common. This year we have Astraftis a.k.a. Stormur to thank for pointing out the opening up of Hôtel Tassel, one of the Major Town Houses of Victor Horta , on the 3rd of August.

It led to a meet-up of 8 WH travellers. Brussels is of course the hotspot among WHS hotspots, so community members residing in Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK signed up. Hôtel Tassel is very little visited - 100 visitors a year were given when the WHS was inscribed in 2000: it is in private ownership and in daily use as an office. They usually open it once or twice a year via a guided tour. On the morning we visited, 5 groups, divided into French/Dutch/English language tours, were allowed in (20pax each).

Hôtel Tassel is the work with the most historic value among the 4 Horta Houses. ICOMOS started its review with the …

The 2024 WHC Session went along swiftly, thanks to the Indian chairperson and some further measures to prevent lengthy discussions. Having to submit written amendments a day before the discussion is a plus, but limiting third-state parties or NGO’s taking the stage is more questionable and I think the WHC should avoid becoming like a Communist Party Meeting from the 1970s. Successful pre-meeting diplomacy was continued from last year, in this case between Japan and the Republic of South Korea regarding the Sado mines .

24 new sites were selected (photo 1 shows one of them, Lençóis Maranhenses ). Find below some aspects that warrant a closer look.

1. Missing WHS

We did not see one removed from our Missing List , but with the inscription of the Marquesas Islands at least for a small part the Rainforests of Polynesia has been filled in.

2. Most and least connections

For the first time, we tried hard to find connections for the possible new WHS already beforehand. Thanks a lot to all who contributed – I’d gladly continue this next year. Despite all efforts, Vjetrenica Cave and The Flow Country stayed hard to connect – they seem very specialized WHS. Schwerin …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …