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
Nice
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 OnVenice and its Lagoon
Ilya Burlak USA - 14-Jul-22

Having just returned from my fifth trip to Venice - but the first for nearly a decade - I feel compelled to say something about a timeless place that is so well known and so well reviewed that it is impossible to offer an original thought in appreciation. Anyway, here is my personal restatement of what others offered in the past: There is no place in the Western Hemisphere that continues to fascinate me as much as La Serenissima, and no other place that I believe is as rewarding when explored on foot.
Read OnPadua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles
Ilya Burlak USA - 08-Jul-22

It is hard to say anything original about the magnificence of these frescoes. This serial site is definitely one of the most impressive of its kind. Visiting all of its components is possible on a single Urbs Picta ticket, which is what I did in June of 2022.
Scrovegni Chapel is the headline item and one place that requires advance planning. You have to book a specific 15-minute time slot to visit when you buy your ticket online (you actually end up with a voucher to be exchanged for the actual ticket at the Musei degli Eremitani). The printed ticket somewhat amusingly declares that unless you are at the entrance at least 5 minutes before your scheduled time, you will not be let in. I was there a good 15 minutes before but told the lady at the door that I would sit outside of the glass entry pavilion instead of being inside. It turned out that I had to sit through the introductory movie prior to getting into the chapel
Read OnEarly Chicago Skyscrapers (T)
Ilya Burlak USA - 31-May-22

In May of 2022, I took an hour-plus out of my business-trip itinerary in Chicago to visit the buildings in this serial property. In a notable fail of the expedition, I did not read Kyle's review below prior to the walk. I assumed that all of these buildings allowed some form of easy public access to explore the interiors - and would actually have something to offer in that respect. But only a few of them do. And because I was moving northward from the southernmost of the buildings, the first five that I stopped by did not exhibit anything of value in their interiors (or could not really be entered). So, I mostly gave up and did not even attempt to enter Marquette or Rookery, which Kyle marked as the most impressive
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Ilya Burlak
- Country
- USA
- Website
- website
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 02.01.23
-
Visited WHS
Rating StatsBrugge 5Budapest 5Cordoba 5Florence 5Granada 5Petra 5Prague 5Ravenna 5Rome 5Segovia 5Siena 5Vienna 5Wadi Rum 5Acropolis 4.5Assisi 4.5Bryggen 4.5Cracow 4.5Istanbul 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 4Vicenza 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 3Reims 3Syracuse 3Trogir 3Beemster Polder 2.5Bethlehem 2.5Biblical Tells 2.5Forth Bridge 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
- 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 Medieval Monastic Sites (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 Historic City of Dublin (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)