Blog Countries
Top Tips for the wider Veneto Hotspot
Last week I was in Northeast Italy, celebrating the 10th anniversary of our immersive Art History course in Florence with my study mates (it turned out to be ‘only’ 9 years ago we found out during the trip). We were roughly in the Veneto Hotspot, covering Verona, Padua, Mantua, and Vicenza. I also added two days on my own in Bologna. These were all revisits for me. It's a region that has been popular for its treasures of art for centuries, even the French troops took a lot home from here as seen in the new Napoleonic booty connection.
Below are my Top Tips for Travel to the Veneto Hotspot as a WH Traveller in 2024.
1. Choose your base wisely
We have Venice as the center of the Veneto Hotspot and while its international airport and two inner-city WHS make this a logical choice, I’d recommend choosing a different base. Venice is the most expensive and the most touristy city in this region. For lower costs of hotels and food in restaurants, consider Verona, Padua, or even Bologna. The latter’s university crowd guarantees cheap eateries and the city has excellent train connections with the rest of Italy and a busy airport.
2. Allocate at least a day per city
During my first trip to this region in 2007, I made the mistake of combining visits to Vicenza and Padua in one day. They’re just 20 minutes apart by train! I ended up missing the interior of the Villa Rotonda (photo 1, made it this time) and my time slot for the Scrovegni Chapel. This time we just did one day, one city and we travelled there from one base (so we did not have to change hotels). There’s so much to see in all of these cities. Many of the WHS also are serial sites, so you’ll need to visit several places anyhow. You’ll easily walk 12-20 km a day within the town limits.
3. Even Italy gets digital
I fear for the future of the Italian tobacco shops! On this trip, I didn’t have to search for one as bus tickets now can be bought via an app or in some cities even by just tapping your credit card. The Trenitalia app also works well for train tickets – say goodbye to the ‘validation stamp’!
4. It’s all quite relaxed
While Venice is always crowded and summer visits to this region should be avoided all around, the smaller cities in this batch are very pleasant in Spring and Autumn. They’re all a bit touristy (Verona probably the most), but nowhere it was uncomfortably busy or too tacky. Also, in comparison to 5-10 years ago, visiting rules often have been relaxed. You can take pictures inside everywhere, even of the most precious frescoes and paintings. You can buy tickets on the spot (even for Scrovegni’s Chapel) and they will accept both cash and cards. There’s also surprisingly little security at the sights (no bag scans etc), albeit most entrances are ‘guarded’ by fierce Italian women who will scold you for any reason.
5. Padua is the best recent WHS. Overall.
It is hardly imaginable that Padua’s frescoes only were inscribed in 2021, as #57 of Italy’s 60 WHS. It is rated #9 in Italy now and #1 overall of the sites inscribed globally over the past 5 years. These frescoes will appeal to anyone, you don’t need to be an art lover or a religious person. The presentation of the major components also is very good (the Baptistery (photo 2) almost trumps the Scrovegni Chapel). The town wears its WH status proudly with notable banners stating “Padova Meravigliosa! Siamo Patrimonio UNESCO” (Italian for “Wir sind Welterbe”), and also a good new(?) plaque at its second WHS, the Botanical Garden (photo 3).
What’s your take on this region?
Els - 20 October 2024
Comments
Els Slots 22 October 2024
I think the Trenitalia tickets via the app are now all automatically validated at the train's scheduled departure time.
Astraftis 21 October 2024
Veneto is incredibly rich under many aspects. Let's not forget also part of the Dolomiti and, why not, the Prosecco and other vineyard hills.
I think each city can warrant at least a weekend trip, not to speak of Venice, so here more than elsewhere I would also advise against rushing it and to focus on each goal.
The position of Padua could be the best one for the hub, but lately it is becoming too expensive, probably as an effect of similar speculations. So maybe I would suggest the less "trendy" Vicenza as the "secret" hub. Venice is a world apart: too demanding and to... isolated to serve as a hub, in my opinion. I would not ever consider Bologna to explore Veneto, too far and different. Maybe Ferrara, but still. They are however one next logical step in exploring Northern italy.
Do not fear for tobaccos, Els! They have many other irreplaceable services, like being bars :-) Anyway, I find the local apps for public transport some of the less useful and worst done things ever, it is simply better to buy tickets somewhere. And you still have to validate some Trenitalia tickets, even if digital (yeah, really a genius move on their part...).
Lubos Lier 20 October 2024
Although I visited most of the heritage sites in the region its definitely on my bucket list to revisit (hopefully repeatedly) and spend some quality time in the region to soak up some more of the cultural atmosphere from this special corner of Italy.
CugelVance 20 October 2024
Great article!! Just too many things to see in that region! One has to plan very carefully....
Blog Connections
The Most Remote Cultural WHS
Wojciech’s recent review of the Minaret of Jam (“The road from Herat takes 13 hours…”) sparked a debate about whether this Afghan icon is The Most Remote Cultural WHS. A quick look at our “Takes more than 5 days”-connection brings up Bikini Atoll, but all other remote ones listed there are natural or mixed. In a quest to find more Remote Cultural WHS, I took a systematic approach.
The Approach
I started with a subset of sites that are rarely visited: a combination of the ‘least visited WHS’ (cutting it to 10 members or fewer that have visited) and the ones in the '1,000 visitors or fewer' connection. This resulted in a list of 46 different Cultural WHS.
Then I tried to measure the time it takes from a hub city to get to the WHS. With a hub city I mean a place with decent hotels and frequent onward connections to the rest of the country, including an international airport. I used what is mentioned in the reviews and also Google Maps. Timings are calculated under ‘normal’ conditions (no active war, no weather disruptions, not out-of-season).
I also added the time necessary to get from the hub to the international airport, as some hubs are already pretty remote. If that transfer takes 5h or more, I added a * to the site.
Finally, I divided them into 4 groups with increasing grades of remoteness.
The Results
Not too difficult
Even the 46 that are not often visited contain 34 sites that are actually not remote. They are either recent additions to the list so many people haven’t made the detour yet, or places that are quite hard to access for other reasons such as insecurity.
Within 2 hours of a hub are: Ancient ferrous metallurgy sites (Ouagadougou), Ashur (Mosul), Bamiyan Valley (Bamyan), Deer Stone Monuments (Tsetserleg*), Gedeo Cultural landscape (Dila*), Hegmataneh (Hamedan or Kermanshah), Kazan Astronomical Observatories (Kazan), Kuk (Mount Hagen), Kujataa (Narsarsuaq), Melka Kunture and Balchit (Addis Abeba), Ruins of Loropéni (Gaoua*), Sado Island (Niigata). Tadrart Acacus (Ghat or Awaynat), Taputapuātea (Uturoa on Raiatea), Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa (Sibudhu Cave: Durban). The place named within brackets after each WHS is the proposed hub.
With a bit more effort, but still less than 4 hours one way, the following can be reached: Ancient Kingdom of Saba (Sana’a), Hawraman/Uramanat (Sanandaj), Lower Valley of the Awash (Semera), Moidams (Jorhat), Sudanese style mosques (Korhogo), Thimlich Ohinga (Kisumu), Tomb of Askia (Gao, pictured below, (c)Roman Bruehwiler).
Long day trip
It gets really serious with the following ones, which take 4 hours or more to reach from the hub, but are still feasible for a loooong day trip because you desperately want that ‘tick’:
- Al-Faw – hub Abha 5.5h drive
- Dholavira – hub Bhuj, about 4h by car
- Petroglyphs of the Lake Onega and the White Sea – hub Petrozavodsk, “then 370 km by rented car via surprisingly good road to Belomorsk.”
- Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple – hub Hyderabad, 4h by car
- The Royal Court of Tiébélé – hub Ouagadougou, full day trip (~4 hours each way)
Overnight needed
In this final group, the sites are so remote that an overnight stay is required away from the hub. That night is spent in temporary or basic accommodations:
- Bikini Atoll – hub Majuro, 3 days sailing from there.
- Great Burkhan Khaldun - hub Ulaan Bator, the only reports I can find tell about spending the night at a ger camp nearby
- Kenozero Lake - hub Arkhangelsk and still a 470 km ride by rail/car.
- Mbanza Kongo – 6 hours by car from Luanda, can’t see another hub closer and the site is still unreviewed.
- Minaret of Jam – hub Herat or Bamyan, both taking some 13 hours to reach.
- Petroglyphs of the Mongolian Altai – no reviews yet, but the hub seems to be Ölgi (with a domestic airport and 35,000 inhabitants). You’d have to stay overnight camping somewhere closer to the petroglyphs.
- SGang Gwaay – hub Vancouver, requires a flight to Sandspit and at least taking part in a 2-day boat tour to get to the right island.
- Sukur - hasn’t been visited by anyone, so?? Abuja airport is 14 hours away, so definitely a * as well.
I would like to hear whether you have any “intelligence” on the sites in the two last groups and if they can be reached faster. And also when you know of any other cultural WHS that takes at least a long day trip (4 hours or more one way) from a hub.
Els - 13 October 2024
Comments
Els Slots 14 October 2024
Good find, Can. It seems that no one ever used that airport.
Can SARICA 14 October 2024
Al Faw can be reached differently. There is a major airport connected to Riyadh and Jeddah with daily flights in Wadi Al-Dawasir. In addition, there are hotels there that can be booked by using booking.com. From airport, Al-Faw is just 50ish minutes.
Juha Sjoeblom 13 October 2024
I want to add the Struve Geodetic Arc here. Some components in the north can be very hard to reach. Stuorrahanoaivi in the Finnish Lapland is in the middle of wilderness area which requires 25-30 kilometers and two days hike one way from the nearest road. And the nearest road is many hours away from the nearest airport, railway station and/or major city. The Stuorrahanoaivi trek is described here https://en.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Stuorrahanoaivi_trek
Els Slots 13 October 2024
Thanks for the suggestions!
Tsodilo and Serra di Capivara I think both are cases of there being a "minor" hub nearby (Shakawe, Sao Raimundo Nonato) with decent accommodation but they're both still far (4-5h) from a proper city and a visit is not trivial.
Wojciech Fedoruk 13 October 2024
Very interesting post, thank you for the analytical work.
I think Sukur can be done way faster from Maiduguri. Security situation prevents from checking.
Petroglyphs of the Mongolian Altai - some people claim that tick, perhaps it can be done without camping.
Others - I think Khomani, Tsodilo and Sierra da Capivara will suit.
Blog Connections
The World’s Greatest Natural Areas
Solivagant often sends me inspirational things on WH-related topics, but I don’t always have the time to do something with them. This also was the case with ‘The World’s Greatest Natural Areas’. At the 24-hour ferry back from Ogasawara, I finally found some focused hours to digest this article published in 1982 by the Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas (CNPPA) of IUCN. This was in the early years of the World Heritage Convention, and they decided to come up with an indicative inventory of natural sites with the potential to be listed. It’s interesting to see where we stand now, 42 years later.
The Inventory
The CNPPA came up with 219 different sites in its concise and well-written article, spread across the biogeographic realms as follows:
- Nearctic: 33
- Palaearctic: 42
- Afrotropical: 47
- Indomalayan: 31
- Oceanian: 14
- Australian: 13
- Antarctic: 6
- Neotropical: 33
Their WH status now
Of the 219 proposals, 115 sites have since acquired WH status and 29 more are on the Tentative Lists. Some WHS are partial representations of the proposals in “The World’s Greatest Natural Areas” – a smaller version was proposed (Marine Lakes of Palau instead of the Rock Islands eg.), or a broader version (Rainforests of Southern Mindanao instead of only Mt. Hamiguitan). Furthermore, they also included sites we now know only as cultural WHS, such as Rapa Nui, Nan Madol, Angkor, Niah Caves, Nikko, Mont Saint-Michel and Mogao Caves (I have not added those to the totals).
Findings
- With 219 considered worthy, in 1982 they were already thinking in the high range of numbers we have today (231 natural WHS to date, plus 40 mixed WHS).
- There seems to have been a focus on established ‘safari parks’ (Kruger, Perinet, and other well-known parks in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa) and other clear-cut areas such as those managed by the US National Park Service.
- Countries like Canada and the USA are extensively covered, while others such as Brazil and Papua New Guinea have very poor coverage. And it may have seemed unfathomable in 1982 that Iran could have natural WHS too and that China has reached 19 so far.
- For Antarctica, being aware of its special status, they chose a surrogate in the Australian Antarctic Territory.
- As this was a scientific exercise and not a state-centered process as is the WHC, they proposed the sensible combinations of both Iguaz(c)us, both Sundarbans, and Manas on both sites of the border. On the other hand, Bialowieza was seen as Polish only.
- The inclusion of Zhoukoudian (Choukotien) and the Niah Caves indicates that they considered early hominid fossil sites as nature, while they are categorized as cultural nowadays.
Missing Sites and Sites Missing
The list of 219 also provides inspiration for sites that are Missing from the List, but could be worthy candidates. There are 73 sites proposed by the CNPPA that we haven’t encountered yet in the WH domain. Regarding Indonesia for example, they have selected Siberut Island (isolated evolution of plants and birds) and Kutai Game Reserve (for Bornean gibbons and orangutans). In Venezuela, they name Henry Pittier NP for its spring and autumn migrations of millions of birds and butterflies.
The other way around, there have been natural and mixed WHS inscribed since that don’t feature at all in this inventory. No less than 162 of them! The more recent, niche ones (Wadi al Hitan, Vallee de Mai, Los Alerces, etc.) are all missing, and obviously no one thought about the Flow Country yet. Clear oversights include the Cape Floral region, Socotra, the big Sahara sites, any of the Brazilian Atlantic Forests, the Wadden Sea, Socotra, and Ilulissat. Sites like the Norwegian Fjords and Ha Long Bay are also notably missing: the scientists weren’t focused so much on natural beauty.
I’ve published the lists of Greatest Natural Areas still on the T List and Greatest Natural Areas with no follow-up at all at the Forum for future reference. Pictures in this post show the non-represented Greatest of Perinet (now called Analamazaotra, Madagascar), Torres del Paine (Chile) and Etosha (Namibia).
Els - 6 October 2024
Comments
Solivagant 6 October 2024
@meltwaterfalls
I think they were always seen as "Cultural" by UNESCO. Those which had been inscribed BEFORE this 1982 report on "Natural sites" had been nominated as Cultural and ONLY evaluated by ICOMOS e.g Awash and Omom (1980). So why did the CNPPA decide to suggest that Choukoudian was a suitable future Natural site??? Conceptually there comes some point in human development at which the purely "animal" is left and the "cultural" is entered. I suspect that knowledge of and views on this will have changed somewhat since 1982 in that non humans have "cultures" too and one of the distinguishing factors previuosly used to identify "human" i.e Tool useage is now known not to be so signficant. In any case with the case law of Awash and Omo why did CNPPA suggesta site which was much closer to "moderun human" in timescale than those already categorised as Cultural as Natural
Meltwaterfalls 6 October 2024
Seeing the early hominid sites in there as natural is interesting. I’m not fully across academic classifications, is this a result of a shift in how such sites are viewed compared to 40 years ago?
Also seeing Vezere Valley on there is interesting, I’m assuming that is a reflection of the natural setting (I always thought it to be an interesting landscape but probably not world class) sure it isn’t prehistoric cultural sites being classified as natural
Solivagant 6 October 2024
The report was dated Sept 82 i.e before the Dec 1982 WHC in Paris. The number of Natural and Nixed WHS to that time was 26 (!978 - 4, 79 - 9, 80 - 3, 81 - 10). EVERY ONE of these is included among the report's list of "Greatest Natural Areas" EXCEPT Durmitor!!! Either the report didn't want to create waves by suggesting that some already inscribed WHS were not worth the honour or it genuinely did believe them to be so. I presume that the exclusion of Durmitor could have been a mistake since the Balkan Highlands ARE identified as a separate "Area" within the Palearctic. Most of the 26 ARE quite signficiant .....but Djoudj and Ichkeul? The description of Djoudj is pretty perfunctory and doesn't indicate great support for it, but Ichkeul is lauded as "N Africa's most important wetland". I fear it has somewhat degraded....
Blog Countries
Top Tips for Japan
With a four-week trip to seven of the most recent or most remote Japanese WHS, I have ‘completed’ the country, the second person on this website to do so after Zoë. It was a wonderful trip, my fourth to Japan, and I am certainly not done with it—there are still more areas to explore. I would like to go to Shikoku Island or Hokkaido in the winter, for example.
Below are my Top Tips for Travel to Japan as a WH Traveller in 2024.
1. Being in Japan is better than seeing all its WHS
Just being in Japan and taking part in its daily life trumped the quality of its sights on each of my four visits. Think of a world where people are raised to be considerate of each other. You can roam the streets of the big cities alone late at night, or leave your bag unattended when you pick up something from a counter or go to the toilet. One with the best public transport system in the world. And with an extremely rich food culture. It’s a "Land of Instructions" too, sometimes bordering on the silly (see top photo), but those make things easier when renting a car or visiting a restaurant where you are supposed to grill your own meal.
2. It's not for people who get seasick easily
I counted, and no less than 9 of Japan’s 26 WHS partially or fully cover one or more islands, not being one of the four main islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu). They can all be easily reached using ferries or sometimes domestic flights, except for Okinoshima Island which is barred to visitors overall. Most voyages stay relatively close to the shore, so the level of 'turbulence' is generally low. Only the 24-hour ferry to Ogasawara crosses the open ocean for a long time.
3. Trains aren’t always the best choice anymore
When I visited Japan for the first time in 2000, it was obvious that I should invest in a Japan Rail Pass. It was an easy and inexpensive way for foreigners to use most of Japan’s train network. However, the pass was hit by a 70% price increase last year. It may now only be useful to a first-time traveller to the country who wants to move around a lot on the main islands in a short time. Single train tickets are also expensive, Osaka to Hakata (2.5 hours/600km) will cost over 100 EUR. The train experience overall feels a bit dated (Japan isn’t great at digitizing its services in general), although the trains fortunately still run like clockwork! See also this Forum topic about which WHS are best accessible by train. Taking a domestic flight or renting a car are valuable alternatives nowadays. Japan has low-cost flyers as well which often are cheaper than long-distance trains. You need to bring a special International Drivers Licence (model 1949) to rent a car, but driving is easy.
4. You'll get a fair representation of the country
The WHS are nicely spread around the country and its outlying islands, and divided between cities and rural areas. From the main islands, only Shikoku is missing. Thematically, there could be room for modern Japanese architecture (I find the Corbusier site in Tokyo a joke). Like most countries, Japan overdoes it a bit on the subjects it values the most (industrialization in the broader sense) and its mines and industrial sites don’t do so well in our community ratings. The next ones in the nomination pipeline, Asuka-Fujiwara and Hikone-jo, are more classical Japanese sights.
5. They don’t do well on the plaques
World Heritage Sites certainly are a ‘thing’ in Japan, but especially this time I noticed that the UNESCO WH logo rarely is displayed at its sites. The natural WHS are signposted as “World Natural Heritage Sites”, but rarely with a reference to UNESCO or to why they were inscribed. Sometimes they even have their own logos with the text ‘World Natural Heritage Site’ incorporated. This violates of course of our WHS Visitor Commandment #4: “You shall have a proper UNESCO plaque” (and it is a requirement in the guidelines from UNESCO too). What they do often have is a 'selfie-point' to immortalize you at the site, with a display of the site name (see photo 3, me at Shiretoko). At Tomioka Silk Mill, they even have one where you can have the exact date of your visit displayed.
It must be said though that Japan does very well on the other commandments, many sites are free to enter (and when they charge a small fee, you’ll get a proper ticket), they supply a lot of brochures including maps, there are official websites and the opening hours and other basics are rarely in doubt. Translations into English are often given, but usually, they are more limited than the Japanese texts. Sometimes they work with QR codes but these may not be operational.
Finally, I was thinking about the top 3 Japanese WHS and came up with the two best cultural sites (Nikko and Kyoto) and the two best natural sites (Yakushima and Ogasawara). Non-WHS that I enjoyed across the four visits include Matsumoto Castle and the Kibi Plain. Which additional sites in Japan would you put forward?
Els - 29 September 2024
Comments
Lubos Lier 29 September 2024
Nikko was one of my favorites: magnificent royal structures in forested mountainous natural environment in region with special cuisine close to Tokyo.
Blog WHS Visits
WHS #926: Ogasawara Islands
My first one from the “Takes 5 days or more to visit”-list! The Ogasawara Islands are a Japanese archipelago in the Northern Pacific Ocean about 1,000km south of Tokyo and 1,800km north of Guam. They can only be visited by a weekly ferry which takes 24 hours to cover the distance. About 2,500 people inhabit its two main islands. Settlers arrived here in the 19th century, the islands were mostly uninhabited before. After having been taken by the US during the Second World War, the islands were returned to Japan in 1968.
Despite being a group of islands, the OUV is not marine but firmly focused on land (rapidly diversifying land snails! endemic plants!) – even UNESCO seems to have forgotten that as its Gallery only shows photos of sea creatures. About 80% of the core zones of the 5 components are land-based. On Chichi-jima, where I stayed for 3 nights, the core zone of the WHS covers about 65% of this island; the coastal villages and agricultural fields are excluded.
The protected area that lies closest to the main settlement of Omura is Miyanohama Beach. And that is where I headed on my first afternoon on the island. It’s only a 1.2km walk, but I learned quickly that the hills on the island are very steep. The bay has characteristic volcanic arches and outcrops, and inland I got my first good look at the endemic, fruit-bearing Pandanus trees.
In the evening I joined a Night Tour. My main goal was to see a Bonin Flying Fox, the only endemic mammal of Ogasawara and a nocturnal creature. We started the 2-hour tour at the harbour, where we stared at some eel-like fish. Then we drove to Miyanohama Beach again, where 5 minibusses from other tour companies had already gathered at the parking lot. A long story in Japanese and a lot of anticipation followed (especially by me as I didn’t understand a word), but it turned out that we were to release baby green turtles into the sea! Staff from the Ogasawara Marine Center had brought boxes full of them and gave a box each to the tour leaders. It did feel a bit ambivalent though as green turtle features prominently on the menus of Ogasawara’s restaurants as sushi or in a stew. A licensed fishery is allowed to traditionally capture a limited number of green turtles yearly.
This all took quite a bit of time, so I hoped it wouldn’t hinder my chances of seeing a Flying Fox. We drove to the south of the island (it’s so small that this takes about 15 minutes), stopping at a dark road lined with a series of Pandanus trees. This was the perfect place to look for a Bonin Flying Fox, as the fruits of this tree are its favourites. You could already tell by the mess on the ground that one had been active. It took a bit of searching by the guide (only red lens torches are used), but there it was: hanging upside down, with piercing eyes, and a frizzy hairstyle. Mission completed for me, and a slight revenge for the elusive Shiretoko Brown Bear. We finished the tour with a look at tiny fungi that glow in the dark.
On day two I took the local bus to the last stop, the “southernmost bus stop of Tokyo” (the whole of Ogasawara is a subprefecture of Tokyo). This area called after Kominato Beach is probably the best part of the island to explore on your own. It has a lovely sandy beach surrounded by cliffs showing displays of pillow lava rock created by underwater eruptions (see photo 1), there’s a river walk along the Yatsusegawa which is good for birds and generally scenic. And it’s the starting point for more strenuous hikes. You can walk along the mountain ridges to remote beaches 2 hours away. I only went to Nakajima Pass (20 minutes uphill), which was fully worth it for its stunning coastal views (see main site photo).
Back in the main village of Omura, there is a Visitor Center and a World Heritage Center. Here you can get a better understanding of the unique evolutionary processes that occurred in Ogasawara due to its isolation. It originated from a volcanic eruption, and every species now on it came flying or floating in from different regions. The centers also are probably the only place where you can see snails: the Nomination File is full of them, but in reality, they live mostly on the uninhabited islands and come out only in the wet season. Especially the evolutionary course of the Mandarina land snail is fascinating.
The main part of the national park on Chichi-jima consists of forested mountains. There is a mountain road, but it cannot be accessed by bus and hiking or biking it seems a stretch. Furthermore, several parts of the forest need an official guide to enter. So I chose to do a Forest Hiking Tour with a company called TAKE Nature Academy. As a group of 7, we went to visit 6 different habitats across the island and did a short walk at each of them. We ended up exactly where I had hoped to go. Highlights included Iwayama and Higashidaira Sanctuary. To both specific biosecurity rules apply: there’s a platform at the start of the trail where you have to scrub your shoes to get rid of seeds and spray the soles. There’s also a creative visitor counting system by placing coral rocks into a tube (photo 3).
Iwayama lies in the easternmost part of the island, the volcanic rock is exposed here and there are splendid views along the coast again. The Higashidaira Sanctuary, to protect the endemic Red-headed Wood Pigeon, immediately intrigued me when I saw it on a map during my preparations. This is firmly closed to outsiders, it is even fully fenced – not against tourists but because of feral cats, which have become the biggest threat to native birds. When walking it is common to see traps to catch them as well. I must say that the nature trail here was a bit of a letdown, although we saw some ‘new’ plant species. No bird in sight though!
I loved my stay in Ogasawara and would have happily extended it to 5 days if it were logistically possible – I didn’t do any water-based activities as these aren’t my favourites overall, but you can go whale watching or visit the uninhabited island of Minamijima where they have fossilized snails. Ogasawara combines the good parts of several other island WHS, such as the small-community vibe of Easter Island (the Farewell Ceremony at the ferry’s departure is so moving), the sweeping beaches of Fernando do Noronha, the steep forested slopes of Madeira and the high levels of endemism in plants and animals of the Galapagos Islands. There are lots of practical details to share as well of course as information on Ogasawara in English is scarce – I’ve gathered them all in this Forum post.
Els - 22 September 2024
Comments
Astraftis 23 September 2024
Mine is not a really constructive comment, but: I envy your trip to Ogasawara islands a lot! It is something on my wishlist since eons, but I'll have to postpone it to yet another trip to Japan (by the way, I also had to renounce to Sado).
Thanks for these reports, it is clear you enjoyed it a lot!
Blog WHS Visits
WHS #925: Sado Gold Mines
One of the things I like most about visiting WHS is that it opens up lesser-known regions even when the WHS itself isn’t too great. This is certainly the case for Sado Island, a lovely example of a slowish, rural Japan. Sado's size is fairly large, it even is the second largest island (after Okinawa) outside of the four main islands of Japan. Its other major tourist attraction in addition to the WH-listed Gold Mines is the Toki (Crested Ibis), which has been reintroduced here after it had become extinct in Japan.
I started my visit at the two mines of Sado Kinzan: Sohdayu (400 years old) and Dohyu (100 years old). The combined entrance fee is 1500 yen (9 EUR). You’re not forced on a guided tour here as is so common at other WH mines, dragging yourself behind a guide elaborating in Polish or Spanish. You just walk through the tunnels and see the exhibits at your own pace. The information is displayed in both Japanese and English. The OUV of the Sado mines lies in its Edo-period way of mining, but – as with Rosia Montana which is recognized for its Roman way of mining - it is hard to ‘unsee’ the alterations and additions later mining generations made at the same spot. I also did not notice anything particularly Japanese about the methods used, although, at the end of the tour of the Sohdayu mine, a display shows that Shinto rituals were performed to celebrate the discovery of a new vein or to pray for the ore to become softer.
The iconic image of the Sado mines shows the Dohyu mountain split almost in two halves (see main site photo). This 30m wide crack already started to appear during the Edo period when they started open-cast mining from the top and went in deeper and deeper. As part of the exterior visiting route of the Dohyu mine, you can walk up to where the crack is (see photo below).
As part of the inscription of the Sado Gold Mines, Japan agreed to acknowledge the fate of the Korean labourers who were sent to work here during the Second World War. I didn’t see any of this displayed at the two mines that I visited, but if it is there it would be more appropriate to the mines from the Meiji era (such as the Kitazawa Flotation Plant, which lies a bit further downhill). A separate section at the Aikawa History Museum was also promised.
What is acknowledged in the presentation of the Edo-era mines is the fate of the “unregistered” or “homeless” people who were sent to work here from 1789 onward. These were Japanese men down on their luck that were rounded off the streets of big cities such as Edo, Osaka and Nagasaki to do hard labour as drainage workers for 10 years in the mines on Sado Island. There’s also a memorial shrine to them along the road just south of the main mines.
From Sado Kinzan, I walked down for 30 minutes to the town of Aikawa. This is a pleasant hike, with views of the bits and pieces of mining history scattered in the surrounding landscape. A major stop is the Sado Bugyosho: a reconstruction of the former Magistrate's Office (photo 3). The importance of the Edo-period Sado mines is partly derived from the many administrative records that have survived about its production and management. The Office comprises a vast complex, surrounded by a moat as all the precious gold was kept inside. At the exhibition in the Sohdayu mine, you can see a model of how it worked at the time, with offices, a mint and a smelting plant. Exhibits at the main office building are very sparse at the moment, or so understated that you must be Japanese to understand them. There is a bare room for example with only a sign ‘Oshirasu’ – later when I googled it, I saw that it means “Court of Law during the Edo period, in which the parties sat on white sand“. The second building that is open to the public has exhibits on the smelting process that was executed here.
Getting there on public transport
Although it’s not far from Tokyo, it’s a costly detour. A single train journey on the shinkansen from Tokyo to Niigata (2h) costs 68 EUR and the return jetfoil ticket to Sado Island from Niigata (1h) is over 80 EUR. Practically, you'd need to stay at least one night in Niigata. From Ryotsu port on Sado, bus #1 leaves about once an hour for the town of Aikawa. The schedule (which may change monthly) and routes can be found here. Some of those buses, including the 9.15 one that corresponds with the arrival of the 7.55 jetfoil from Niigata, continue directly to the Sado Gold Mines. Tickets can be purchased on the bus, using the old-school Japanese system paying the fare corresponding to a display above the driver, or you can get a one-day pass (1500 yen/9 EUR) at the Tourist Information Center at Ryotsu port. Catching the first jetfoil out and the last one back plus the bus inland, you will have about 5 hours in and around Aikawa and the Gold Mines, which is more than enough.
Els - 15 September 2024
Blog WHS Visits
WHS #924: Shiretoko
It has been a long, hot summer in Japan this year. It still affected Hokkaido’s Shiretoko NP when I visited in early September – with daily temperatures of about 26 degrees, it wasn’t what I had expected. No mist and clouds, and it looked more like Central Sweden during Midsummer than a place notorious for its seasonal sea ice.
Before going, it is important to understand which of the ‘seasons’ you’re in: this strongly affects which activities you can do and what animals you might see. There’s the ‘Drift Ice Season’ (mid-January to early March), the ‘Bear Active Season’ (May-July) and the ‘Eco Preservation Awareness Season’ (August to mid-November). Outside these tourist months, everything will be closed and roads are impassable due to snow. I flew into Memanbetsu Airport and rented a car from there (it’s a 1.5h drive). You can also get around on public transport but there aren’t many buses a day.
In September, the main trail at the Shiretoko Five Lakes can be walked independently (in ‘Bear Active Season’ you may not). You do need to get a permit though at the Shiretoko Goko Field House (costing a nominal 250 yen) and they make you attend a 13-minute presentation about the do’s and don’ts in the forest, and especially how to behave around bears (Don’t run!). The 3km long hike mostly follows a trail through the forest, which occasionally opens up for each of the five lakes. Several of the Japanese hikers that set off at the same time as I wore bear bells, so that probably scared the bears away if there were any present at all. Bears had been seen about every other day in August and September along this trail. During my hike, I only saw deer twice. The trail ends at the exemplary elevated wooden boardwalk, which entails the shorter hike you can do here.
A few km southward, a short trail leads from the Nature Center (one of the many interpretation / visitor centers of the park) to Furepe Waterfall. This is a fine hike in a more open setting than the one at Five Lakes. It provides good views of the higher mountains inland. The waterfall itself may be disappointing at first, as it trickles out of a crack fed by underground water from snow and rain (resembling “flowing tears”). However, the cliff has a steep drop of 60m into the Sea of Okhotsk.
In the evening, from 7.30-9.30 pm, I joined a Wildlife Night Drive with a company called Picchio. In a minivan, kitted out with binoculars and spotlights, we slowly drove the roads around the Nature Center and the Five Lakes access searching for animals. We quickly did find a young deer (a ‘Bambi’ also in Japanese), and later on a fox. We went looking for bears near the river, where the guide said they start coming this time of the year to eat the salmon. But we didn’t find one, and neither could we spot an owl.
The next morning I drove the Shiretoko Pass to the other, eastern side of the peninsula. But not before I had made a little detour to the road which according to last night’s guide is best for bears in this season; it’s the road signposted to the onsen, parallel to Iwaubetsu River. Unfortunately, I came up empty (again). Driving the Shiretoko Pass isn’t anything spectacular this time of the year (it’s closed because of heavy snow from November to March). From the parking lot at the top, there’s an impressive view of Mount Rausu and the islands ‘floating on the clouds’ in the distance. I drove to the town of Rausu and then north on the coastal road, but this area isn’t nearly as developed for tourism as the Utoro side of the park. There are mostly fishermen’s villages.
My final act for Shiretoko was joining one of the boat tours along the coast from Utoro. The tours are conducted in the open waters of the Sea of Okhotsk, which are often rough, and the coastline is very rocky. Over 50% of the cruises were cancelled during my first 2 days. Since the disastrous boating accident in 2022, where 26 people died, the operators may even have become more careful before sailing out. I had booked a 2h15 long tour with Aurora to Rutsha Bay at 9.15 am on my last morning. Not just to see a bit of the coastline, but also for the last opportunity to spot a bear: they like to visit Rutsha Bay (the company advertises an 87% success rate of spotting one). Well - my fate was the same as that of Randi & Svein Elias a year earlier: the boat turned around well before it reached its final destination. In this case, after about 35 minutes. We still got to see the funny rocks and caves included in the regular short tour, but we were back at the port an hour early (and got a partial refund).
Overall, Shiretoko is a pleasant national park that doesn’t present its unique qualities easily. It has a fascinating ecosystem where sea ice, phytoplankton, krill, salmons and bears play their part, but it is hard to witness this in action.
Els - 8 September 2024
Comments
Durian 9 September 2024
If I remember correctly, there is a condition that when the boat reaches the waterfall, captain will make a decision upon sea and wind conditions to go further or not. They announced on the boat twice (in Japanese), but in my case, no cancel happened.
Els Slots 8 September 2024
No, they did not give any explanation (at least not in English). The other (Japanese) passengers all seemed to accept it. It was probably because the sea got too rough, although it was a bright sunny day and the ride so far had been smooth.
Jay T 8 September 2024
How odd that the boat tour doesn't always run its full length. We're you able to get an explanation why?
Blog TWHS Visits
Sites of the Busan Wartime Capital
I guess few people outside of the Koreas often think about the Korean War (1950-1953). Still, it was a very bloody struggle with 3 million casualties, it saw a confrontation between China and the USA during the Cold War and its repercussions (such as the continuation of the Kim dynasty in the DPRK) are felt until today. To refresh my knowledge, I listened to two recent episodes of the podcast ‘Empire’ during my flight to South Korea, which dealt with the Korean War and the period leading up to it.
As only one of two cities in the South never captured by the communist insurgents, Busan was the de facto capital of South Korea during the war period. It also hosted 500,000 refugees from the rest of the country, more than its regular inhabitants. The TWHS ‘Sites of the Busan Wartime Capital’ aims to illustrate that particular period in the city’s history via 9 component sites. I visited 3 of those.
I started at the Busan Citizens Park, which was a horse race track during the Japanese occupation of Korea and later the US Army Camp Hialeah. It was used by the US Army until 2006, but the grounds have since been returned to the City of Busan which transformed it into a public park. I strolled around it in the early evening, accompanied by joggers and people walking their dogs. A few signs and odd constructions give away its former use. There are guardposts and various forms of housing, including the remarkable Quonset Huts (photo 1) – prefab huts that were quick to construct but more durable than tents in the Korean climate.
Close to the Toseong metro station are two further components, which I visited the next day. The Temporary Presidential Residence (now also known as the Provisional Capital Memorial Hall) was the residence of Syngman Rhee, at the time the president of South Korea. It is an interesting building that mixes Western and Japanese elements. You can walk through its rooms freely, and they have 2 videos of 7 minutes each (also in English) on show which give more context to the situation in Busan during the Korean War. For me, it helped make the period come alive (as if the war itself wasn’t bad enough, the city also was hit by a terrible fire in 1953 which led to even more casualties and more homeless people).
Not too far away lies the Ami-dong Tombstone Village. It takes a steep uphill walk, if you’re not keen on that there are also local buses. Ami-dong is one of the areas where the war refugees flocked to when the refugee camps in town were full. During the Japanese occupation, the area held a hillside cemetery, but the refugees transformed it into housing. What you’ll encounter nowadays is like a ‘favela’, with narrow passageways, lots of stairs and colourful tiny houses (but much safer to walk around in than in its Brazilian counterparts). People still live there. There are some signposts to notable buildings, but it’s such a maze that I didn’t find them all. The reuse of tombstones as spolia isn’t very visible.
Overall, the selection of components has a somewhat similar approach to that of the Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites – together the parts form a narrative about that period in history. However, the Busan Wartime Capital is not proposed as a Site of Memory (which would be criterion vi), but as a criterion iii site (‘testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization’ - like Ayutthaya, and also the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region). This is odd, certainly taking into account that one of the components is the UN Memorial Cemetery. It might be an effort to avert opposition by China, Russia and the DPRK against the inscription of a site connected to a recent conflict that they view differently from the South Koreans. So for most of the components, the focus lies on construction techniques and urban planning (pragmatic ways of quick construction). Inscription chances seem quite low to me, but still, these are important places in South Korea’s history and I found it worthwhile to learn about them.
Els - 1 September 2024
Comments
Frederik Dawson 1 September 2024
Temporary Presidential Residence is one of my favorite spot in Busan. I was really surprised to see really well preserved "Taisho era style" house in Busan. The mix of western and Japan of this period is my favorite.
Joel on the Road 1 September 2024
For another podcast recommendation, Season 3 of Blowback was about the Korean war and is both great and horrifying.
Solivagant 1 September 2024
Not just "between China and the USA" (and Koreans of course). UK lost 1100 soldiers and Netherlands 125...here is a full list of "allied countries" with casualties.. https://www.mpva.go.kr/english/contents.do?key=987
Some surprising inclusiond
Kyle Magnuson 1 September 2024
I would be surprised if additional criteria were not included, especially vi. When criteria iii was outlined and decided for this nomination (as far back as 2016-17), many of the 'Site of Memory' inscriptions were only aspiring nominations.
As the nomination currently stands:
Criterion (iii): The nominated property offers exceptional testimony to a temporary seat of government of the Republic of Korea that served as the country’s capital for 1,023 days during the Korean War, the first proxy war of the Cold War era. This wartime capital of the Republic of Korea was expeditiously established making use of existing facilities in Busan. The nine components of the nominated property attest to the functions of this wartime capital in three categories: maintaining the operations of the government, providing support to refugees, and facilitating international cooperation.
Blog WHS website
Country Statistics
After having already introduced pages showing community member statistics and those for each of the WHS sessions over the past months, I had similar ones for the countries left to do. Of course, countries can also be ranked on their 'performance'. Kyle (winterkjm) already shared a nice appetizer at the Forum this week, as he compared countries on 10 key data points. It is remarkable how similar South Korea and Portugal are in their patterns.
The country statistics are spread across 3 different pages, which can be accessed here. I will introduce each of them below.
Core data
The main overview page shows:
Size: the State Parties ranked by geographical size. I could have chosen population numbers or GDP as well, but (as did Kyle) I found ‘size’ the most interesting denominator. The largest countries with relatively few (<10) WHS are Kazakhstan, Algeria, DR of Congo and Saudi Arabia.
Country: a list of all ‘countries’ that have ratified the WH Convention. New is Nauru (see its pretty flag above), of which it was confirmed this week that they ratified last July. It became our 196th “country”. The Cook Islands and Niue (both associated states with New Zealand) are the odd ones out, as they aren’t UN members (all others are either full or observer members). 5 out of the 196 are on all-zeros: no WHS, no TWHS, no other activity.
The numbers of WHS and TWHS per country.
The number of times the country has been a Member of the World Heritage Committee. Mexico and Egypt have the most occurrences; at 27, they have been present at the WHC for over 58% of its years. An outlier here is Lebanon, a country small in size, that nevertheless was a member at 22 sessions. Austria and Czechia are fairly large countries that never have participated.
The number of Community Members that have ‘completed’ visiting all WHS in the country. We have shown those already on individual pages, but this is the first full overview. 17 countries have been uncompleted so far, with Australia, UK and France suffering from remote islands syndrome and 5 countries where no one could even ‘tick’ their two WHS (Nigeria, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Gabon and the C.A.R. (photo 2 shows my 1 out of 2 for this country)). No less than 1052 people completed all WHS at the Holy See!
The number of reviews: it does say something about the popularity of a country. Germany is the number one here, probably due to the easy access to its WHS and many community members living nearby.
The average rating of the WHS in the country, already publicized earlier. A new one is the average approval rating of its TWHS; the future potential of Denmark, Belgium, Hungary and The Netherlands (to just name a few) doesn't look good.
Most per decade
I also added a page 'Performance by Decade' where you can see the countries that added the most new WHS per decade. The ‘winners’ are:
- 1978-1987: USA & India (both 17)
- 1988-1997: Italy (21)
- 1998-2007: China & Italy (both 16)
- 2008-2017: China (17)
- 2018-now: Germany (11)
If we consider the maximum of 1 new inscribed site per annum as the optimum, we notice that 13 countries overperformed in one or more decades. France, Spain and China even did so across 3 decades, and Germany in 4!
Level of success
Another page shows the most successful (and unsuccessful) countries in the nomination game.
- Perfect inscriptions: the countries with the most WHS (China, Italy) also have the most ‘perfect’ inscriptions (so without any debate: a recommendation of inscription by the advisory body, then inscribed at the first attempt.).
- Sites that are or have been In Danger: here we find mostly countries tainted by war. Tanzania stands out as it has struggled with Ngorongoro, Kilwa Kisiwani, and (still) Selous.
- AB overruled: the countries that had to fight the hardest to get their site inscribed. If you have followed the debates in recent years, it’s no wonder that Iran tops this list. Since the inscription process has been smoothened over the years, it may tell us that Iran isn't successful in the pre-meeting exchange of ideas with the Advisory Bodies. India, Russia and Türkiye don't do well in that respect either.
- Incomplete dossiers: some countries just keep on trying without much result. Pakistan and Uzbekistan must be mentioned here. On the other hand, as I concluded in an earlier blog post, sending in an Incomplete Dossier isn't the end of the world - countries like Russia and Portugal got their sites inscribed on a later date anyway.
Do you have suggestions for other country-related WHS data that we could keep track of?
Els - 25 August 2024
Comments
Els Slots 27 August 2024
@MoPython - you are correct, country is optional (and free format) so a comparison is not easily possible
Astraftis 26 August 2024
PS: it might be trivial, but maybe a differentiation between cultural, natural, and mixed sites? To see which country is stronger in which. Also, differentiated ratings by these types?
Further, a measure of the delta between WHS ratings and TWHS appreciation?
I am browsing the statistics and it is interesting to see how some countries perform overall badly, while their TWHS lists are appreciated, so it seems that they are doing good in "correcting their course", e.g. Finland. Maybe by selecting their more congenial types of sites?
While other countries do seem to have reached the bottom, like Latvia.
MoPython 26 August 2024
Thanks for that! I love statistics!
My wish is more of a community wish than a country wish:
I would be interested to know how many WHS I have compared to other community members in my country (Switzerland in my case).
But you probably can't find this out, as the country is not mandatory and it is even a text field. Is that correct?
Astraftis 26 August 2024
I have just contributed to the low potential of Belgium by thumbing down the Hôpital de Notre Dame in Lessines 😬
As for the ranking of countries, I think that the most relevant parameter, in this predominantly cultural context, is population density, much more than size. You see a correlation between it and the number of sites.
What would be even more relevant, but extremely difficult to compute, is some summary of a country's populatio ndensity history. It is not too surprising that Italy and China are topping the list, given how much and since how much time they have been continuously inhabited, each age and population leaving its mark.
Els Slots 25 August 2024
See the explanation at the top of that page: only TWHS with 5 ratings or more are included.
Frédéric M 25 August 2024
How is the average approval rating of TWHS computed? I noticed Malaysia has a 100 rating while some of its TWHS are rated below 100. Same is true for Kenya and Buthan that has some at 0%.
Kyle Magnuson 25 August 2024
Thanks Els for the kind words! I learned something knew from your post, I was surprised the U.S. had such a high percentage of 'perfect' inscriptions 21 of 26. I am certainly keen to find out if this trend continues with their 2026 (Okefenokee) and 2027 (Civil Rights) nominations.
Blog Connections
Spice (Route(s)) WHS
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: ‘Spice’ is just a general term that groups specific products like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove, and turmeric. It also includes chili pepper and vanilla, which originated in the Americas.
Types of sites: Spice goes through different phases, from agricultural production to (sea) transport, ending up at consumer markets. So what will the proposal be? A 'cultural route'? A cultural landscape?
Current WHS with Spice OUV
We do have an existing connection for ‘Spice Route’, It is one of our earlier ones and not very precise in its description or rationale of the connected sites. Having a second look at WHS where “spice” is mentioned in the OUV statement, we only find:
- Petra (“a major caravan centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India”)
- Qalhat (a market town for “its own produce, dates, Arabian horses as well as spices and pearls”)
- Jeddah (“The goods the pilgrimage brought with them from Asia and Africa and sold in the city, ..., the spices, the food, and the intangible heritage of the city were all related to the pilgrimage”)
- Shibam (“Located at an important caravan halt on the spice and incense route across the Southern Arabian plateau”)
Digging a little deeper, into the AB evaluations and nomination files, we encounter:
- Incense Route of the Negev (“reflect the prosperity of the Nabatean Spice trade over five hundred years from the third century BC”)
- Tabriz Bazaar - "Tabriz is the most famous trade city of Asia, because caravans bring all types of goods. They bring silk, diamond, pictured cotton, cinnamon and spices from Tatarstan, Uzbekistan, Tibet, China and eastern India." (Nomination file p. 261)
So we find only a few references and mostly superficial ones. The Nabatean Spice trade from Antiquity may even be better represented than the later global spice trade stages. Interesting is also the link with South America (clearly outside of any historical ‘route’), for Rio de Janeiro is mentioned: "an acclimatising garden, destined to introduce the culture of spices from the East Indies to Brazil in June 1808, was the starting point for the Royal Garden" (Nomination file p. 374) (thanks to Shwabb1 for finding this and other rare occurrences).
What is more remarkable though is the many WHS where “spice” isn’t mentioned at all, but where it played an important role. Anywhere in South (East) Asia with Portuguese or Dutch colonial remains is likely to have played a part in the Spice trade during the Age of Discovery, eg. Galle (no reference in AB ev, but Wiki has it as the main entrepot for cinnamon around 1400). Zanzibar was a major site for clove production and its Stone Town was an important market. Macao, Hoi An, and Melaka are considered "part of the spice trade route and settlements of Western Traders" (AB ev of Melaka only).
Identifying possible future Spice WHS
The Tentative Lists include more sites where spices played a role. Turkish Niksar and Ukrainian Bilhorod (Akkerman) are related to the Black Sea route of Spice trade. Silhouette Island (Seychelles) was a crop producer, as was Zee Ain (Saudi Arabia). Khor Dubai had a similar market function as others already mentioned, as did Dhaka (a market for the turmeric trade). The Historic and Marine Landscape of the Banda Islands (Indonesia) is the clearest of them all: "the original and sole location of the production of the spices nutmeg and mace during the most prosperous years of Dutch, English and Portuguese colonization" (see photo 3, © Collectie Tropenmuseum).
But there are also sites much further away: San Juan de Ulua (Mexico) and Port Royal (Jamaica) show evidence that they were connected to the global spice trade already in the 17th century. And what to think of Mayo Chinchipe - Marañón archaeological landscape, the cocoa site in Ecuador and the Pre-Hispanic Hydraulic System of the San Jorge River (a medieval site in Colombia that produced peppers)?
What will Indonesia propose?
The official website shows a ‘trail’ and a map with over 20 locations on different islands: Atjeh, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Celebes, Moluccas, Banda, and even West Papua. Sites that stand out are the Trading port of Makassar, the Banda Islands, and the Maluku Islands such as Makian Island, the Biggest Clove Producer in the Spice Islands, and Ternate .
Even for a national site, it seems complex. Extending it into a transnational site requires choices (which period, which OUV and appropriate types of sites) and lots of international cooperation – of which I do not see a coordinated effort. The closest ties are with Qatar and Malaysia.
The question for a nomination of any kind is whether there are enough tangible remains. I would like to see them stay away from the colonial forts and focus on the cultural landscapes of spice production.
Have you visited a spice-related site on your travels?
Els - 18 August 2024
Comments
Christravelblog 24 August 2024
These “large” inscriptions are for me always a discussion with myself if I like it or not. At one point I understand but at the other hand what serial sites you want to make more. In my opinion it works if single sites would not suffice and or to small or uninteresting on its own. If however several sites together make up a good value then yes. But, also, if most major sites are already inscribed on its own I would see to reconsider if they need to be single listed or have more UOV being in the serial.
Els Slots 24 August 2024
Thanks for the insight, Dwikusuma. That indeed seems like an awful lot of locations.
Dwikusuma 23 August 2024
I want to comment on Indonesia's proposed spice trade route. As I understand, there are 150 sites identified as part of this proposal. The proposed sites include all locations connected to the spice trade from the 13th to the 18th century. These sites consist of graveyards, mosques built by traders, fortresses, palaces, and so on. I estimate that this nomination will encompass at least three sites from Indonesia’s tentative list, such as Banda, Semarang, and Jakarta, as well as one former tentative site, Banten Ancient City. The nomination will also include other historically significant sites, such as Fort Rotterdam and Barus, as well as sites with the potential to become World Heritage Sites independently, such as Ternate-Tidore, Buton Fortress, and Lasem.
I believe that proposing 150 sites could pose a problem for the nomination due to concerns about authenticity. Many of these sites are living heritage, such as mosques, which have undergone unauthorized renovations without archaeological or architectural assistance, thereby compromising their historical integrity. Additionally, there is a management plan issue, as Indonesia may need to improve its capacity to preserve and manage such a large number of sites.
Solivagant 18 August 2024
and of course the Western Ghats are linked to Spices.....The Cardamom Hills produce....Cardamom! Both wild and cultivated...numerous references in the nomination
Solivagant 18 August 2024
this specifically links the Qasabeh Qanat of Iran at Gonabad to the production of saffron
https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/eba99b12-2d28-4a75-8b02-dab8303593de/content
Solivagant 18 August 2024
The name of the town derives from "saffron" and the Greek word polis (πόλις) meaning "city", since Safranbolu was a trading place and a center for growing saffron. Today, saffron is still grown at the village of Davutobası to the east of Safranbolu, with a road distance of 22 kilometres".
Iran produces over 90% of the worlds saffron - mainly in the NE and is "Qanat grown". Today particularly around Gonabad - but that Qanat seems primarily to have been inscribed for its history....
Unfortunately neither Safranabolu nor the Qanats have a referable Nomination File
It could be that mixing all the "spices" together gets too large?
Solivagant 18 August 2024
Both Liverpool and Hamburg were significant ports for the import of spices.....The former is now irrelevant but the latter has a modern spice museum in the Speicherstadt telling the story
https://www.hamburg.com/visitors/museums/spicys-22752
It is referred to in the Hamburg nomination file and there are several references also to the spice trade as a part of the site's history e.g "Traditionally, coffee and tea, cocoa, dried fruit, nuts, spices and other such precious delicacies were the most important goods stored in the Speicherstadt. For more than a hundred years, the storage, transhipment
and processing of these products were
the main occupations of specialised merchants and independent storage managers and quality surveyors (Quartiersleute)."
Jay T 18 August 2024
On the marketing side of spice, I have fond memories of the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, with its piles of
turmeric and pepper.
I've visited two components of The Incense Route of the Negev, but as far as Nabatean trade goes, I don't remember the information panels highlighting spice trade as much as trade in frankincense and myrhh. It's been a couple years since I visited, though.
For Indonesia's proposed spice trade route, while I'd like to see cultural landscapes, it might become a bit unwieldy unless they choose a best example or two for cloves and for nutmeg and mace. I'd be interested in buildings that show off the wealth from the spice trade, too (similar to Bahrain's pearling path); perhaps mosques or buildings associated with the sultanate of Ternate (the current kraton was built in the early 19th century, though; I'm not sure what remains of the earlier palace). If there are any existing storehouses, I think those might also be of interest.
Blog Index
Books
- Book: Seven Wonders (21 July 2024)
- Book: Saving Yellowstone (10 September 2023)
- Book: Natural Wonders of the World (30 July 2023)
- Book: Heaven on Earth (21 May 2023)
- Book: World Heritage Craze in China (26 March 2023)
- Possible Antarctic WHS (5 February 2023)
- Book: Cultural Heritage and Mass Atrocities (25 September 2022)
- Book: India: UNESCO World Heritage Sites (3 April 2022)
- Book: Great World Wonders (7 November 2021)
- Book: Chinese Heritage Sites and their Audiences (13 June 2021)
- Book: Coastal WHS (3 January 2021)
- Book: Atlas Obscura (10 February 2019)
- The Rebirth of Bodh Gaya (10 February 2018)
- Books: Modern African Architecture (18 February 2017)
- Books: Wonders of the World (28 November 2015)
- Book: Chasing 193 (8 July 2015)
- Book: The Heritage Universe (27 June 2015)
- Book: Japan's World Heritage Sites (26 October 2014)
Connections
- The Most Remote Cultural WHS (13 October 2024)
- The World’s Greatest Natural Areas (6 October 2024)
- Spice (Route(s)) WHS (18 August 2024)
- Connected (14 July 2024)
- Top Neolithic WHS (7 July 2024)
- Strict Nature Reserves (12 May 2024)
- Centres of Plant Diversity #2 (14 April 2024)
- Centres of Plant Diversity (17 March 2024)
- WHS in TCC Territories (25 February 2024)
- Gorilla (T)WHS (28 January 2024)
- Foreigner Pricing Analysis (14 January 2024)
- Best Visited on a Bicycle (19 November 2023)
- Minor Boundary Modifications (29 October 2023)
- Smaller than they seem (20 August 2023)
- Himalaya (4 June 2023)
- One thousand visitors or fewer (23 April 2023)
- Canopy Walkways (2 April 2023)
- Invention of sweets and pastries (22 January 2023)
- Transnational WHS in the making (16 October 2022)
- Obelisks (21 August 2022)
- Threatened by Oil and Gas Exploration (7 August 2022)
- Byzantine (24 July 2022)
- Critically endangered fauna species (12 June 2022)
- Petrosomatoglyphs (1 May 2022)
- Fossil sites (17 April 2022)
- Cable cars (27 March 2022)
- Erotic Art (19 December 2021)
- Silk Road(s) (14 November 2021)
- Diluted by an Extension (31 October 2021)
- WHS and Beer (12 September 2021)
- Buildable in Lego (22 August 2021)
- WHS Hotspots (15 August 2021)
- WHS affected by Poaching (2 May 2021)
- Epic Subtitles (7 March 2021)
- No Road Access (28 February 2021)
- Expressionist Architecture (17 January 2021)
- Cold War (20 December 2020)
- Dependent Territories (29 November 2020)
- Mammal WHS (15 November 2020)
- Bird Migration WHS (24 May 2020)
- WHS in classic documentaries (12 April 2020)
- Unusual Entry Requirements (29 March 2020)
- WH Travel & Passports (1 December 2019)
- Railway WHS (1 September 2019)
- Why people die at WHS (21 April 2019)
- The Umayyads (17 March 2019)
- Historical Graffiti (3 March 2019)
- Viewable from another WHS (9 June 2018)
- One million or more (3 March 2018)
- WHS On Banknotes (16 December 2017)
- A Silk Roads overdose? (20 November 2016)
- A History of WHS in Danger (5 September 2015)
- WHS & World War I (19 October 2014)
Countries
- Top Tips for the wider Veneto Hotspot (20 October 2024)
- Top Tips for Japan (29 September 2024)
- Completing Norway (30 June 2024)
- Top Tips for Travelling to Kazakhstan (16 June 2024)
- Top Tips for 15 days in China (2 June 2024)
- Top Tips for Pakistan (24 December 2023)
- Top Tips for Saudi Arabia (3 December 2023)
- Top Tips for Zimbabwe (1 October 2023)
- Top Tips for Madagascar (9 July 2023)
- Tips for Travelling to Western Turkey (14 May 2023)
- Tips for Travelling to Northern Brazil (8 January 2023)
- Tips for Travelling to Chad (20 November 2022)
- Top Tips for Eastern Canada (10 July 2022)
- Top Tips for Tunisia (29 May 2022)
- Top Tips for Northern Mexico (27 February 2022)
- Best Countries (23 January 2022)
- Tips for travelling to Kyrgyzstan (17 October 2021)
- Tips for travelling to Costa Rica (25 April 2021)
- Tips for travelling during a pandemic (14 March 2021)
- Tips for travelling to Iceland (20 September 2020)
- Tips for travelling to Colombia (16 February 2020)
- Tips for travelling to Russia (27 October 2019)
- Tips for travelling to Georgia (4 August 2018)
- Tips for travelling to the Gulf (2 May 2018)
- Value for money WH countries (24 March 2018)
- Tips for travelling to Namibia (3 February 2018)
- Tips for travelling to Ecuador (14 October 2017)
- Tips for travelling to Egypt (30 April 2017)
- Tips for Azerbaijan and Iran (3 June 2016)
- Tips for Rwanda, Congo and Uganda (30 January 2016)
- Tips for Travelling to Myanmar (31 October 2015)
- Mongolia's Tentative List (28 February 2015)
- How to visit the (T)WHS of Sudan (22 November 2014)
Exhibitions
- Unveiling the Stoclet House (7 April 2024)
- Rietveld Bike Tour (26 November 2017)
- Looking for the Golden Rhino (4 December 2016)
- Vestfold Ship Burials (18 June 2016)
- Rome. Emperor Constantine’s dream. (22 November 2015)
- Carthage (8 March 2015)
TWHS Visits
- Sites of the Busan Wartime Capital (1 September 2024)
- San Pedro de Atacama (24 March 2024)
- Fell and Pali Aike Caves (10 March 2024)
- The Underwater City of Port Royal (18 February 2024)
- Uch Sharif (17 December 2023)
- Hejaz Railway (26 November 2023)
- WHC 2023: Kuldīga (6 August 2023)
- Gordion (7 May 2023)
- Íznik (30 April 2023)
- Niah Caves (19 March 2023)
- Banteay Chhmar (19 February 2023)
- Via Appia (30 October 2022)
- Valentia's Transatlantic Cable Ensemble (23 October 2022)
- Civita di Bagnoregio (9 October 2022)
- Zagori & Pindos (11 September 2022)
- Talayotic Minorca (21 November 2021)
- Kyrgyz Silk Roads: Uzgen (10 October 2021)
- Historic Center of Parma (29 August 2021)
- Bachkovo Monastery (18 July 2021)
- Mosaics of Philippopolis (11 July 2021)
- Prince-Bishops' Palace in Liège (20 June 2021)
- Lower German Limes: Berg en Dal Aqueduct (30 May 2021)
- Corcovado NP (11 April 2021)
- Guayabo National Monument (24 March 2021)
- San José (21 March 2021)
- Buenos Aires 1880-1920 (21 February 2021)
- The Egyptian Museum (14 February 2021)
- The Meuse Citadel of Namur (7 February 2021)
- The Neanderthal fossil sites of Wallonia (24 January 2021)
- Plantations in West Curacao (13 December 2020)
- Unreviewed TWHS: Hirkan Forests (22 November 2020)
- Sanxingdui in 2007 (8 November 2020)
- Archipelago of La Maddalena (25 October 2020)
- Bouches de Bonifacio (18 October 2020)
- Nice (4 October 2020)
- Mediterranean Alps (27 September 2020)
- Icelandic Turf House Tradition (13 September 2020)
- Mývatn and Laxá (30 August 2020)
- Fjallabak (23 August 2020)
- Old Wastewater Treatment Plant (16 August 2020)
- Mértola (5 August 2020)
- Vila Viçosa (2 August 2020)
- Works of Álvaro Siza (19 July 2020)
- Great Spas: Bad Ems (28 June 2020)
- ShUM city of Worms (21 June 2020)
- Chapultepec (7 June 2020)
- Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord (17 May 2020)
- Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (3 May 2020)
- Unreviewed TWHS: Lalish Temple (26 April 2020)
- Unreviewed TWHS: Bahoutdin Complex (5 April 2020)
- New Dutch Waterline (22 March 2020)
- WHC 2021: The Slate Landscape (15 March 2020)
- Unreviewed TWHS: Tansen (8 March 2020)
- Sarlat at Night (1 March 2020)
- Salt Town of Nemocón (5 January 2020)
- Virgilio Barco Library (29 December 2019)
- Irkutsk (20 October 2019)
- Staigue Stone Fort (25 August 2019)
- The Royal Sites of Ireland: Cashel (18 August 2019)
- Hospital of Our Lady with the Rose (11 August 2019)
- WHC 2019: Krzemionki (30 June 2019)
- Chobe (2 June 2019)
- WHC 2021: Sarnath (5 May 2019)
- Olive Grove Landscape of Lucena (14 April 2019)
- Lower German Limes: Xanten (31 March 2019)
- Harran and Sanliurfa (24 March 2019)
- Padova Urbs Picta (10 March 2019)
- WHC 2019: Paraty Culture and Biodiversity (24 February 2019)
- WHC 2019: Walled City of Jaipur (17 February 2019)
- Ancient Quanzhou (26 January 2019)
- Yen Tu: Vinh Nghiem Pagoda (5 January 2019)
- Roman heritage of Nîmes (1 December 2018)
- Raoudha Nilometer (24 November 2018)
- WHC 2019: Danube Limes - Arrianis (31 October 2018)
- Uplistsikhe Cave Town (21 July 2018)
- Tbilisi Historic District (14 July 2018)
- David Gareji Monasteries (23 June 2018)
- Fortress of Ananuri (16 June 2018)
- Gdansk - Town of Memory and Freedom (2 June 2018)
- WHC 2018: Žatec, Town of Hops (12 May 2018)
- Ore Mountains (5 May 2018)
- Dubai Creek (28 April 2018)
- Sharjah: the Gate to Trucial States (18 April 2018)
- Forts of Rostaq and al-Hazm (4 April 2018)
- Kuwait Towers (31 March 2017)
- Teylers (17 March 2018)
- WHC 2019: Plečnik in Ljubljana (17 February 2018)
- Etosha Pan (10 January 2018)
- Benguela Current (5 January 2018)
- Fish River Canyon (1 January 2018)
- Lechner's pre-modern architecture (9 December 2017)
- WHC 2018: Chaîne des Puys (18 November 2017)
- Hoge Kempen Transition Landscape (21 October 2017)
- Mathildenhöhe (19 August 2017)
- Mid-Atlantic Ridge (6 July 2017)
- Ptolemaic Temples (21 April 2017)
- WHC 2017: Dilmun Burial Mounds (11 February 2017)
- Palau and the Yapese Stone Money (7 January 2017)
- Tet el Bad (Stone Coffin) (1 January 2017)
- Hanyangdoseong (29 December 2016)
- Zadar - Romans and Venetians (12 November 2016)
- Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites (19 October 2016)
- Ngwenya Mines (12 October 2016)
- 1940's - 1950's Architecture of Minsk (7 September 2016)
- 20th Century Ivrea (13 August 2016)
- Waterloo (30 July 2016)
- Agricultural Pauper Colonies (9 July 2016)
- Masouleh (25 May 2016)
- Sheki, the Khan's Palace (2 May 2016)
- Temple of Fire (24 April 2016)
- Fortress Town of Palmanova (12 March 2016)
- WHC 2016: Rediscovering Dosan Seowon (13 February 2016)
- WHC 2016 – Corbusier’s Villa Savoye (7 February 2016)
- Mgahinga – Where Gold Meets Silver (9 January 2016)
- Rwandan Genocide Memorial Sites (29 December 2015)
- WHC 2016: Cetinje (5 December 2015)
- WHC 2016: Ani Cultural Landscape (13 November 2015)
- Sonian Forest’s Beech Cathedral (7 November 2015)
- Ancient cities of Upper Myanmar (24 October 2015)
- Bagan Archaeological Zone (17 October 2015)
- Konbaung Wooden Monasteries (9 October 2015)
- WHC 2015: Christiansfeld (20 June 2015)
- The Mystery of Kokino (14 June 2015)
- Amphitheatre of Durres (3 June 2015)
- WHC 2015: Champagne (14 May 2015)
- WHC 2015: Palermo, Cefalù & Monreale (9 May 2015)
- Two TWHS in Antwerp (6 April 2015)
- Five Dzongs of Bhutan (14 March 2015)
- Granada and its natural environment (20 February 2015)
- Volcan Masaya - Exciting or not? (14 February 2015)
- WHC 2015: Singapore Botanic Gardens (20 December 2014)
- Old Dongola (1 December 2014)
- Great Spas of Europe: the original Spa (15 November 2014)
- WHC 2015: Hagi Castle Town (9 November 2014)
Travel in general
- Trip Budgeting (31 March 2024)
- Parallel planning of multiple trips (27 August 2023)
- My experience travelling ultra-light (20 March 2022)
WH Travellers
- WHS-ers do Tassel (4 August 2024)
- Getting a Stoclet Pass (23 June 2024)
- Learning from the Birders (28 April 2024)
- Completing Countries (4 February 2024)
- The Quest for 1,100 visited WHS - Year 2 (7 January 2024)
- The Value of a TWHS (16 July 2023)
- The 9 WHS Commandments (5 March 2023)
- Nine things I learned in my first year of full-time travel (1 January 2023)
- Revisit needed (27 November 2022)
- Shandos ... planning a WH trip to South America (2 October 2022)
- Michael Ayers ... cycling to over 300 WHS (5 June 2022)
- WH Travel Focus (10 April 2022)
- The quest to 1100 visited WHS in 2030 (2 January 2021)
- Wojciech and Thomas ... In Iraq (28 November 2021)
- Zos M. ... Completing China (24 October 2021)
WHS Visits
- WHS #926: Ogasawara Islands (22 September 2024)
- WHS #925: Sado Gold Mines (15 September 2024)
- WHS #924: Shiretoko (8 September 2024)
- WHS #909: Tanbaly (9 June 2024)
- WHS #904: China Danxia (26 May 2024)
- WHS #903: Mount Wuyi (19 May 2024)
- My #900: Roșia Montană (21 April 2024)
- WHS #894: Los Alerces National Park (3 March 2024)
- WHS #886: Sangha! (21 January 2024)
- WHS #880: Makli, Thatta (10 December 2023)
- WHS #875: Erfurt (5 November 2023)
- (T)WHS of New York City (22 October 2023)
- WHS #872: Poverty Point (15 October 2023)
- Chicago Meetup (8 October 2023)
- WHS #850: Mana Pools (17 September 2023)
- WHS #848: Great Zimbabwe (3 September 2023)
- WHS #846: Tsingy de Bemaraha (2 July 2023)
- WHS #845: Royal Hill of Ambohimanga (25 June 2023)
- WHS #844: Rainforests of the Atsinanana (18 June 2023)
- WHS #843: Pitons of Reunion (11 June 2023)
- Kraków revisited (9 April 2023)
- WHS #833: Gunung Mulu (12 March 2023)
- WHS #831: Kui Buri NP (26 February 2023)
- WHS #827: Sambor Prei Kuk (12 February 2023)
- WHS #825: Mazagan (29 January 2023)
- WHS #813: Fernando de Noronha (18 December 2022)
- WHS #812: São Luis (11 December 2022)
- WHS #811: Central Amazon (4 December 2022)
- WHS #810: Ounianga Lakes (13 November 2022)
- WHS #809: Ennedi (6 November 2022)
- WHS #807: Island of Patmos (18 September 2022)
- WHS #804: Mount Athos (4 September 2022)
- Skellig Michael 2022 (14 August 2022)
- WHS #800: Red Bay (3 July 2022)
- WHS #798: Mistaken Point (26 June 2022)
- WHS #797: Gros Morne NP (19 June 2022)
- WHS #789: Kairouan (22 May 2022)
- WHS #786: Carthage (15 May 2022)
- WHS #783: Lake District (24 April 2022)
- WHS #780: Quirigua (13 March 2022)
- WHS #778: Joya de Ceren (6 March 2022)
- WHS #774: Sierra de San Francisco (20 February 2022)
- WHS #773: El Vizcaíno (13 February 2022)
- WHS #771: EPGDABR (6 February 2022)
- WHS #766: Otumba (30 January 2022)
- WHS #765: Paquimé (16 January 2022)
- Luxembourg revisited (9 January 2022)
- WHS #764: Serra de Tramuntana (5 December 2021)
- WHS #763: Sulaiman-Too (3 October 2021)
- WHS #762: Western Tien-Shan (26 September 2021)
- Silk Roads: Zhetysu region (19 September 2021)
- WHS #761: Bologna (5 September 2021)
- WHS #760: Cordouan Lighthouse (8 August 2021)
- WHS #747: The Prosecco Hills (25 July 2021)
- WHS #746: Kazanlak (4 July 2021)
- WHS #745: Pirin National Park (27 June 2021)
- Wadden Sea: Schiermonnikoog (16 May 2021)
- WHS #744: Guanacaste (18 April 2021)
- WHS #743: Stone Spheres (4 April 2021)
- WHS #742: Talamanca Range (28 March 2021)
- Wadden Sea: Texel (10 January 2020)
- WHS #741: Willemstad (6 December 2020)
- WHS #740: Su Nuraxi di Barumini (1 November 2020)
- WHS #739: Gulf of Porto (11 October 2020)
- WHS #738: Surtsey (6 September 2020)
- WHS #737: Thingvellir (2 September 2020)
- WHS #736: Vatnajökull (26 August 2020)
- WHS #735: Kladruby nad Labem (9 August 2020)
- WHS #734: Bom Jesus do Monte (26 July 2020)
- WHS #733: Mafra (12 July 2020)
- Cologne revisited (14 June 2020)
- Aachen revisited (31 May 2020)
- WHS #732: Vézère Valley (23 February 2020)
- WHS #731: Cartagena de Indias (9 February 2020)
- WHS #730: Mompox (2 February 2020)
- WHS #729: Coffee Cultural Landscape (26 January 2020)
- WHS #728: Tierradentro (19 January 2020)
- WHS #727: San Agustín (12 January 2020)
- WHS #726: St. George, Bermuda (24 November 2019)
- WHS #725: Augsburg (17 November 2019)
- Val di Noto - Catania (10 November 2019)
- WHS #724: Mount Etna (3 November 2019)
- WHS #723: Lake Baikal (13 October 2019)
- WHS #722: Sviyazhsk (6 October 2019)
- WHS #721: Bolgar (29 September 2019)
- WHS #720: Kazan Kremlin (22 September 2019)
- WHS #719: Trinity Sergius Lavra (15 September 2019)
- WHS #718: Church of the Ascension (8 september 2019)
- WHS #706: Tokaj Wine Region (28 juli 2019)
- WHS #705: Hortobagy NP (21 July 2019)
- WHS #704: Hollókő (14 July 2019)
- WHS #703: Bialowieza Forest (23 June 2019)
- WHS #702: Zamość (16 June 2019)
- WHS #701: Victoria Falls (9 June 2019)
- WHS #700: Okavango Delta (28 May 2019)
- WHS #699: Tsodilo (19 May 2019)
- WHS #698: Naumburg Cathedral (28 April 2019)
- WHS #697: Medina Azahara (7 April 2019)
- WHS #696: Fujian Tulou (2 February 2019)
- WHS #695: Kulangsu (19 January 2019)
- WHS #694: Hani Rice Terraces (16 January 2019)
- WHS #693: Chengjiang Fossil Site (12 January 2019)
- WHS #692: Zuojiang Huashan (9 January 2019)
- WHS #691: Ho Citadel (2 January 2019)
- WHS #690: Trang An (29 December 2018)
- Hôtel Solvay (15 December 2018)
- WHS #689: Cave of Pont d'Arc (8 December 2018)
- WHS #688: Wadi al-Hitan (17 November 2018)
- WHS #687: Historic Cairo (10 November 2018)
- WHS #686: the Pyramid Fields (3 November 2018)
- WHS #685: Valtice (27 October 2018)
- WHS #684: Kromeriz (24 October 2018)
- WHS #683: Litomysl Castle (21 October 2018)
- Athens Acropolis revisited (17 October 2018)
- WHS #682: Daphni Monastery (13 October 2018)
- WHS #681: Meteora (9 October 2018)
- WHS #680: Philippi (6 October 2018)
- WHS #679: Bursa (29 September 2018)
- Istanbul revisited (26 September 2018)
- WHS #678: Nessebar (22 September 2018)
- WHS #677: Srebarna (19 September 2018)
- WHS #676: Churches of Ivanovo (15 September 2018)
- WHS #675: Tomb of Sveshtari (12 September 2018)
- WHS #674: Madara Rider (8 September 2018)
- WHS #673: Geirangerfjord (26 August 2018)
- WHS #672: Alta Rock Art (18 August 2018)
- WHS #671: Visby (28 July 2018)
- WHS #664: Gelati Monastery (7 July 2018)
- WHS #665: Qalhat (1 July 2018)
- WHS #663: Upper Svaneti (27 June 2018)
- WHS #662: Mtskheta (20 June 2018)
- WHS #661: Malbork Castle (26 May 2018)
- WHS #660: Torun (19 May 2018)
- WHS #659: Cultural Sites of Al Ain (25 April 2018)
- WHS #658: Land of Frankincense (21 April 2018)
- WHS #657: Bat and Al-Ayn (14 April 2018)
- WHS #656: Bahla Fort (11 April 2018)
- WHS #655: Aflaj of Oman (7 April 2018)
- WHS #654: Ibiza (25 February 2018)
- WHS #653: Robben Island (22 January 2018)
- WHS #652: Cape Floral Region (19 January 2018)
- WHS #651: Twyfelfontein (15 January 2018)
- WHS #650: Namib Sand Sea (12 January 2018)
- WHS #649: Pécs Necropolis (3 December 2017)
- WHS #648: Saint-Savin sur Gartempe (11 November 2017)
- WHS #647: Bourges Cathedral (4 November 2017)
- WHS #646: Galapagos Islands (7 October 2017)
- WHS #645: Quito (30 September 2017)
- WHS #644: Sangay NP (26 September 2017)
- Ingapirca (22 September 2017)
- WHS #643: Cuenca (19 September 2017)
- WHS #642: Antequera Dolmens (16 September 2017)
- WHS #641: Tetouan (13 September 2017)
- WHS #640: Gorham's Cave (10 September 2017)
- WHS #639: Neolithic Orkney (27 August 2017)
- WHS #638: Ice Age Art Caves (13 August 2017)
- WHS #637: Røros (30 July 2017)
- WHS #635: Pico Island (15 July 2017)
- WHS #634: Angra do Heroismo (1 July 2017)
- Wooden tserkva of Zhovkva (10 June 2017)
- WHS #633: L'viv (4 June 2017)
- WHS #632: Telc (20 May 2017)
- WHS #631: Cesky Krumlov (13 May 2017)
- WHS #630: Holasovice (6 May 2017)
- WHS #629: Nubian monuments (26 April 2017)
- WHS #628: Ancient Thebes (16 April 2017)
- Paris revisited (27 March 2017)
- WHS #627: Salins-les-Bains (11 March 2017)
- WHS #626: Beaune (Burgundy) (4 March 2017)
- WHS #625: Par force hunting landscape (4 February 2017)
- WHS #624: Royal Joseon Tombs (21 January 2017)
- WHS #623: Baekje sites in Gongju (14 January 2017)
- WHS #622: Namhansanseong (11 January 2017)
- WHS #621: Rock Islands (4 January 2017)
- Westminster Abbey (10 December 2016)
- WHS #620: Plitvice Lakes (5 November 2016)
- WHS #619: Vredefort Dome (29 October 2016)
- WHS #618: Drakensberg (22 October 2016)
- WHS #617: iSimangaliso Wetland (15 October 2016)
- WHS #616: Mapungubwe (8 October 2016)
- WHS #615: Makapan Fossil Hominid Site (3 October 2016)
- WHS #614: Nesvizh (17 Sept 2016)
- WHS #613: Mir Castle (10 September 2016)
- WHS #612: Kernavė (3 september 2016)
- WHS #611: Curonian Spit (26 August 2016)
- Palazzina di Stupinigi (20 August 2016)
- WHS #610: Piedmont Vineyards (6 August 2016)
- WHS #606: Reichenau (2 July 2016)
- WHS #605: Swiss Alps (25 June 2016)
- WHS #604: Rjukan / Notodden (10 June 2016)
- WHS #603: Golestan Palace (28 May 2016)
- WHS #602: Soltaniyeh (21 May 2016)
- WHS #601: Takht-e Soleyman (18 May 2016)
- WHS #600: Armenian Monastic Ensembles (14 May 2016)
- WHS #599: Tabriz Bazaar (11 May 2016)
- WHS #598: Safi al-Din Ensemble (8 May 2016)
- WHS #597: Gobustan Rock Art (5 May 2016)
- WHS #596: Walled City of Baku (29 April 2016)
- A Rainy Day in Oporto (16 April 2016)
- WHS #595: Rock Art of the Coa Valley (2 April 2016)
- WHS #594: Santiago de Compostela (26 March 2016)
- Another piece of the Longobard puzzle (5 March 2016)
- Venice in one day (27 February 2016)
- WHS #593: Aquileia (21 February 2016)
- WHS #592: Kasubi Tombs (24 January 2016)
- WHS #591: Rwenzori Mountains (20 January 2016)
- WHS #590: Bwindi (15 January 2016)
- WHS #589: Virunga! (4 January 2016)
- A second look at Edinburgh (19 December 2015)
- WHS #588: Forth Bridge (13 December 2015)
- WHS #587: Pyu City of Halin (3 October 2015)
- WHS #586: Wachau (19 September 2015)
- WHS #585: Neusiedlersee (13 September 2015)
- WHS #584: Gammelstad (19 August 2015)
- WHS #583: Laponia (15 August 2015)
- Searching for the Wadden Sea (8 August 2015)
- WHS #582: Wooden Tserkvas (1 August 2015)
- WHS #581: Malopolska Churches (25 July 2015)
- WHS #580: Auschwitz Birkenau (19 July 2015)
- WHS #570: Medieval Monuments in Kosovo (10 June 2015)
- WHS #569: Ohrid Region (6 June 2015)
- WHS #568: Berat and Gjirokaster (30 May 2015)
- WHS #567: Butrint (27 May 2015)
- WHS #566: Corfu Old Town (24 May 2015)
- WHS #565: Vézelay (20 May 2015)
- WHS #564: Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay (17 May 2015)
- Remembering the Kathmandu Valley (3 May 2015)
- Florence in-depth (27 April 2015)
- WHS #563: Medici Villas and Gardens (21 April 2015)
- WHS #562: A Mining Landscape (25 March 2015)
- WHS #561: León Cathedral (6 February 2015)
- WHS #560: Ruins of León Viejo (31 January 2015)
- WHS #559: Portobelo (24 January 2015)
- WHS #558: Panamá (18 January 2015)
- WHS #557: San Cristobal de La Laguna (10 January 2015)
- WHS #556: Teide National Park (3 January 2015)
- WHS #555: Gomera's Garajonay (29 December 2014)
- WHS #554: Magnificent Meroë (13 december 2014)
- WHS #553: Gebel Barkal (7 December 2014)
- WHS #552: The Two Faces of Corvey (2 November 2014)
WHS website
- Country Statistics (25 August 2024)
- Long-term trends (11 August 2024)
- 10 Bits of Trivia about the WHS of 2024 (28 July 2024)
- Predicting new nominations (5 May 2024)
- More Stats! (11 February 2024)
- 2023 - A Year in Review(s) (31 December 2023)
- Things I learned from rewriting the site intros (12 November 2023)
- 10 Bits of Trivia about the WHS of 2022/2023 (24 September 2023)
- Incomplete Dossiers (13 August 2023)
- The WHS Commandments pt.2 (23 July 2023)
- The 10,000th Review (28 May 2023)
- Aspiring TWHS (16 April 2023)
- WHS In the News (15 January 2023)
- 2022 - A Year in Review(s) (25 December 2022)
- Country pages (28 August 2022)
- Perfect Inscriptions (31 July 2022)
- WHS tracking apps (17 July 2022)
- Spring Cleaning (8 May 2022)
- 2021 - A Year in Review(s) (26 December 2021)
- Resources about WHS (12 December 2021)
- 10 Bits of Trivia about the WHS of 2020/2021 (1 August 2021)
- The Global Strategy in 2021 (6 June 2021)
- TWHS project: the wrap-up (23 May 2021)
- WHS Plaques and Certificates (9 May 2021)
- Pimping the TWHS pages (31 January 2021)
- 2020 - A Year in Review(s) (27 December 2020)
- Looking ahead to 2021 (5 July 2020)
- Taking Travel Risks (10 May 2020)
- Remembering Iain Jackson (18 April 2020)
- 2019 - A Year in Review(s) (22 December 2019)
- A free course in World Heritage (8 December 2019)
- WH Travellers meeting 2019 (4 August 2019)
- 10 Bits of Trivia about the WHS of 2019 (7 July 2019)
- Debunking travel blog myths (12 May 2019)
- Leftovers (22 December 2018)
- Official websites of WHS (11 August 2018)
- An improved website (27 January 2018)
- 2017 - A Year in Review(s) (23 December 2017)
- Favourite entrance tickets to WHS (28 October 2017)
- Completing Europe (27 January 2017)
- WH Trip Planning in 5 steps (21 December 2016)
- WH Travellers meeting in Vilnius (31 August 2016)
- 10 Bits of Trivia about the WHS of 2016 (23 July 2016)
- WHS Top 200: The Results (9 April 2016)
- What counts as a visit? (19 March 2016)
- One of our Missing: Shwedagon Pagoda (27 September 2015)
- WH Travellers meeting in Rotterdam (26 August 2015)
- A 17-Year Journey (12 October 2014)