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
Edinburgh
Ilya Burlak USA - 21-Apr-23

A well-reviewed city such as Edinburgh hardly needs additional adverts, so I will primarily add my voice to the general admiration that it produces from everyone who visits. I've been to Edinburgh several times over the last decade, most recently in March 2023, and my affection for it grows with each visit.
Despite its hilly topology, Edinburgh is a very walkable town, and major [...]
Read OnNeolithic Orkney
Ilya Burlak USA - 06-Apr-23

I visited all four components of this WHS in March 2023. With an asterisk, more on which later.
The two freely-accessible parts, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness both sit fairly close to each other on the major road that runs towards the western coastline of the Mainland Orkney and are impossible to miss. Each of them can be explored relatively quickly (although the parking lot for the Ring is a few hundred yards down the road from it). For my money, the Stones are more picturesque, while the Ring feels more spiritually charged. If you have extra time, walking around the Stones towards the shore will bring you after a couple of hundred yards to a relatively recently (1980s) discovered Barnhouse Settlement - not part of the WHS as it is, but worth a look for some.
Read OnPanamá
Ilya Burlak USA - 13-Jan-23

I visited both components of the site in December 2022 while on a layover in Panama City. I will agree with the previous reviewers that Casco Viejo (or Casco Antiguo - both names apparently can be used) is not exactly exceptional in the absolute sense, and probably lacking in OUV, but being a visual person, I liked it more than I liked the Panama Viejo archaeological component. On the negative side, some streets remain clogged with cars and a non-trivial percentage of buildings is in a less-than-perfect state. On the positive side, fine details abound, and the overall ensemble of architectural styles is pleasing to the eye. That is in no small part due to the various balconies that adorn upper floors - Casco Viejo is sometimes rightly called "the city of a thousand balconies".
Read OnNice
Ilya Burlak USA - 18-Nov-22

In September of 2022, I had a chance to reacquaint myself with Nice, having explored it first over twenty years earlier. As with any reasonably large city, it has quite a lot to offer to every visitor: museums, churches, palaces, public spaces, elevated viewpoints, and a certainly colorful historic old town. And yet, it is not exceptional in any sense of the world. As others noted before me, Nice's recognition as a WH property is quite a stretch of the concept of the OUV; as you move around town, you will be hard-pressed to put your finger on what exactly made this large seaside town a foremost leader in well-to-do winter tourism. Everybody takes a stroll along the Promenade des Anglais when they are in Nice - that can't be enough of a reason by itself, can it?
Read OnCaves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin
Ilya Burlak USA - 19-Sep-22

I am giving Bet Guvrin the same rating as the community average, but I probably would have rated it higher if not for the abbreviated nature of my visit. A large part of that was my own faulty planning, but the park closure practices contributed to that significantly.
In August of 2022, I was in Israel with the family on a Bat Mitzvah trip
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Ilya Burlak
- Country
- USA
- Website
- website
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 18.03.23
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Visited WHS
Rating StatsBrugge 5Budapest 5Cordoba 5Florence 5Granada 5Petra 5Prague 5Ravenna 5Rome 5Segovia 5Siena 5Vienna 5Wadi Rum 5Acropolis 4.5Assisi 4.5Bryggen 4.5Istanbul 4.5Kraków 4.5Oporto 4.5Pompei 4.5Potsdam 4.5San Gimignano 4.5Seville 4.5Sintra 4.5Stonehenge 4.5Toledo 4.5Vatican City 4.5Versailles 4.5Albi 4Avignon 4Delos 4Kyiv 4L'viv 4Mostar 4Split 4Urbino 4Verona 4Arles 3.5City of Bath 3.5El Escurial 3.5Ferrara 3.5Graz 3.5Guimarães 3.5Kotor 3.5Kronborg Castle 3.5La Fortaleza 3.5Pienza 3.5Pont du Gard 3.5Québec 3.5Tarraco 3.5Val di Noto 3.5Villa d'Este 3.5Belem 3Belfries 3Evora 3Masada 3Modena 3Odesa 3Reims 3Syracuse 3Trogir 3Beemster Polder 2.5Bethlehem 2.5Biblical Tells 2.5Forth Bridge 2.5Neolithic Orkney 2.5New Lanark 2.5Old City of Acre 2.5Panamá 2.5Poblet Monastery 2.5Schokland 2.5Skogskyrkogarden 2.5Wadden Sea 2.5Nice 2Stećci 2Van Nellefabriek 1.5Reviewed WHS
- 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
- 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)
- Central Park (T)
- Centre ancien de Sarlat (T)
- Cité de Carcassonne et ses châteaux sentinelles de montagne (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)
- Historical Lisbon, Global City (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)
- Nuruosmaniye Complex (T)
- Orvieto (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Routes of Santiago de Compostela in Portugal (T)
- The archeological site of Tanais (T)
- The Crusader Fortresses (T)
- The Karlstejn Castle (T)
- The natural and architectural ensemble of Stolac (T)
- Volterra: Historical City and Cultural Landscape (T)
- Zadar - Episcopal complex (T)
Reviewed TWHS
- Early Chicago Skyscrapers (T)
- Ein Karem, a village and its cultural landscape (T)
- Makhteshim Country (T)
- Caesarea (T)
- Jerusalem (T)
- The Crusader Fortresses (T)
- Early Synagogues in the Galilee (T)
- Degania & Nahalal (T)
- Nuruosmaniye Complex (T)
- The natural and architectural ensemble of 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: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee (T)
- The Karlstejn Castle (T)
- Volterra: Historical City and Cultural Landscape (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)