Ilya Burlak Profile
I only started prioritizing visiting World Heritage sites a few years ago and with my limited US-based corporate-warrior time-off allocation and family obligations I can only add a handful to a dozen in any given year. Looking forward to visiting them all after I am able to retire...
Recent Reviews Ilya Burlak
Paris, Banks of the Seine
Ilya Burlak USA - 10-Jun-25
I love Paris. It is one of the first places that comes to my mind in the context of "there is no other place I'd rather be". We've been to this wonderful city dozens of times, but for various reasons, only passingly in the last decade and a half. In April of 2025, we made a concerted effort to reacquaint ourselves with Paris.
The city is still wonderful - there are not enough superlatives to express that
Read OnWestminster
Ilya Burlak USA - 19-May-25
I've been to the Westminster Abbey for the first time as far back as 2000, and then at least a couple of times while living in London in the later part of the first decade of the millennium. It is undoubtedly among the most important monuments in London and in all of Britain, and the final resting place of a number of major historical figures. My very dated recollection of it somehow includes free entry and the ability to walk in without waits - twenty years hence, the cost is significant and the queues are pretty long all day around. On my most recent trip to London, even as I wanted my youngest child to see the Abbey, we took one look at the line from behind the fence and decided to pass.
Read OnTower of London
Ilya Burlak USA - 16-May-25
The Tower is awfully expensive and terribly overcrowded. There is hardly a better indicator of the worth of a tourist attraction visit than the economics of exorbitant entrance fees not denting the demand to any degree. I first visited the Tower 25 years ago, when the tickets cost around £10, and I somehow recall it as less busy than it is today, even as the entry cost has more or less quadrupled since then.
As others noted, you can easily spend half a day seeing all there is to see on the grounds, exploring multiple layers of history for which this royal citadel has been inscribed. There are nearly a dozen defined points of interest and exhibitions, including the Medieval Palace, the armouries in the White Tower, the battlements, the dungeons and prisons, and the Royal Beasts exhibition
Read OnHollókö
Ilya Burlak USA - 26-Feb-25
Visited in November of 2024. Something that is 300 years old and deliberately well-preserved always piques my interest, even if it has a reconstructed-for-museum-purposes feel. In any case, Hollókő is very photogenic and pleasant to walk through.
That old village core is literally just a few hundred meters long, with the homogenous nature of construction seen on every step. The signature sight is the town church, dedicated to St Martin, which sits at the fork of the only street in the village, splitting it into a main artery and an auxiliary loop. The door was locked, and I did not make extra efforts to find somebody to let me in.
Read OnRoyal Seats in Esztergom, Visegrád (T)
Ilya Burlak USA - 18-Feb-25
I visited Esztergom and its castle in November of 2024 on a day trip from Budapest by car. The direct driving distance between Budapest and Esztergom is a little bit over an hour, and most auto-enabled people will combine the visit here with at least one other place. In my case, I drove to Pannonhalma in the morning and then spent most of the afternoon in Esztergom.
Esztergom Castle is located next to the Esztergom Basilica at the highest point in town. The part of the description related to the castle emphasizes its medieval architecture and artistic value, as well as the influence of the Italian Renaissance
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Ilya Burlak
- Country
- USA
- Ranking
- 414
- Website
- website
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 23.04.25
10 Best Missing
Visited WHS
Rating StatsReviewed WHS
- Paris, Banks of the Seine
- Westminster
- Tower of London
- Hollókö
- Pannonhalma
- Budapest
- Qhapaq Ñan
- Cuzco
- Machu Picchu
- Arequipa
- Lima
- Belize Barrier Reef
- Tikal National Park
- Bursa and Cumalikizik
- Su Nuraxi di Barumini
- Edinburgh
- Neolithic Orkney
- Panamá
- Nice
- Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin
- Venice and its Lagoon
- Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles
- Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings
- Mount Etna
- Syracuse
- Val di Noto
- Villa Romana del Casale
- Agrigento
- Arab-Norman Palermo
- Wadi Rum
- Petra
- Old City of Acre
- Bahá’i Holy Places
- Masada
- Incense Route of the Negev
- Bethlehem
- Old City of Jerusalem
- Biblical Tells
- Necropolis of Bet She'arim
- Mount Carmel Caves
- White City of Tel-Aviv
- Istanbul
- Semmering Railway
- Kotor
- Dubrovnik
- Stećci
- Mostar
- Trogir
- Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik
- Split
- Evora
- Sintra
- Belem
- Convent of Christ in Tomar
- Monastery of Batalha
- Guimarães
- Bom Jesus do Monte
- Alto Douro
- Oporto
- University of Coimbra
- Monastery of Alcobaça
- Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro
- Medici Villas and Gardens
- Giant's Causeway
- Stoclet House
- Mantua and Sabbioneta
- Poblet Monastery
- Pienza
- Reims
- Tarraco
- Residences of the Royal House of Savoy
- Venetian Works of Defence
- Santa Maria delle Grazie
- Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra
- Assisi
- Mycenae and Tiryns
- Archaeological Site of Delphi
- Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios
- Acropolis
- Delos
- The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier
- Vézère Valley
- Works of Antoni Gaudí
- Canal du Midi
- Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France
- Albi
- Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin
- Fortifications of Vauban
Visited TWHS
- Amalienborg and its district (T)
- Ancient Greek Theatres (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- Caesarea (T)
- Caves of the Buda Thermal Karst System (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Centre ancien de Sarlat (T)
- Cité de Carcassonne et ses châteaux sentinelles de montagne (T)
- Civil Rights Movement Sites (T)
- Degania & Nahalal (T)
- Dreams in Stone - the palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee (T)
- Early Chicago Skyscrapers (T)
- Early Synagogues in the Galilee (T)
- Ein Karem, a village and its cultural landscape (T)
- Ellis Island (T)
- Íznik (T)
- Jerusalem (T)
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece (T)
- Les villes antiques de la Narbonnaise et leur territoire: Nimes, Arles, Glanum, aqueducs, via Domitia (T)
- Makhteshim Country (T)
- Mamayev Kurgan Memorial Complex "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" (T)
- Minoan Palatial Centres (T)
- Nuragic monuments of Sardinia (T)
- Nuruosmaniye Complex (T)
- Ödön Lechner's independent pre-modern architecture (T)
- Orvieto (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (T)
- Royal Seats in Esztergom, Visegrád (T)
- Salt Mines of Maras (T)
- The archeological site of Tanais (T)
- The Crusader Fortresses (T)
- The Karlstejn Castle (T)
- The natural and architectural ensemble of Stolac (T)
- Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade Routes from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea (T)
- Volterra: Historical City and Cultural Landscape (T)
- Zadar - Episcopal complex (T)
Reviewed TWHS
- Royal Seats in Esztergom, Visegrád (T)
- Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (T)
- Caves of the Buda Thermal Karst System (T)
- Ödön Lechner's independent pre-modern architecture (T)
- Salt Mines of Maras (T)
- Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade Routes. (T)
- Íznik (T)
- Nuragic monuments of Sardinia (T)
- Early Chicago Skyscrapers (T)
- Ein Karem (T)
- Makhteshim Country (T)
- Caesarea (T)
- Jerusalem (T)
- The Crusader Fortresses (T)
- Early Synagogues in the Galilee (T)
- Degania & Nahalal (T)
- Nuruosmaniye Complex (T)
- Stolac (T)
- Zadar - Episcopal complex (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Historical Lisbon, Global City (T)
- Dreams in Stone - the palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria (T)
- The Karlstejn Castle (T)
- Volterra (T)
- The Historic City of Dublin (T)
- Ellis Island (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- Ancient Greek Theatres (T)
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece (T)
- Centre ancien de Sarlat (T)
- Minoan Palatial Centres (T)
- The city of Bergamo (T)