Joel on the Road Profile
One of the few token Australians. Back to work after six years of full-time travelling, eagerly anticipating the day we can continue the journey!
I don't sound like Crocodile Hunter, even though he was my friend's uncle's neighbour.
Visited Sites Joel on the Road
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- ●● Cultural
- ●● Natural
- ●● Mixed
Recent Reviews Joel on the Road
Yin Xu
Joel on the Road Australia - 05-Oct-24
I’m generally wary of sites in the “something important happened here, but is no longer actually here” category, but Yin Xu was a pleasant surprise. As Els noted in her review, there are two components to this site: the old city, and the royal tombs. But the highlight of this site isn’t actually on the list: the gleaming new museum which had only just opened when we visited in August 2024.
The site is largely focused on the Shang Dynasty, which lasted from approximately 1700-1000 BCE. Most of what we know about the Shang comes from their writing system, inscribed in tiny characters on tortoise shells and other animal bones. It’s considered the birthplace of Chinese writing, and many modern Chinese characters have directly evolved from their Shang equivalents.
Read OnPing Yao
Joel on the Road Australia - 07-Sep-24
Ping Yao is a beautiful and well-preserved old city, located in China’s Shanxi province. It was an important centre of trade, commerce, and political power for centuries, mainly during the Qing and Ming dynasties, and much of the old historic core of the city is still intact and in good condition.
There are lots of well-preserved wooden buildings, brightly coloured and with exquisite Chinese characters decorating the facades, hidden laneways and [...]
Read OnLongmen Grottoes
Joel on the Road Australia - 03-Sep-24
Longmen Grottoes is a large collection of Buddhist carvings into caves and grottoes, in a kilometre-long series of cliffs above the Yi River. There are several thousand caves and grottoes here, with tens of thousands of carvings; everything from a 19-meter high Buddha statue, to minuscule figurines scarcely 10cm high. Most of the carvings date back to a period between 500-700 AD. Like many cave art sites, it’s been subjected to centuries of weathering, looting, and vandalism, so the overwhelming majority of the statues are damaged in some way - eroded, faded paint, faces smashed off, looted, and so on.
Read OnMurujuga Cultural Landscape (T)
Joel on the Road Australia - 22-Aug-22
I'm going to put it out there right at the start of this review: the Murujuga Cultural Landscape is one of the most impressive collections of petroglyphs (rock carvings) I've ever seen. It would be justifiably world-renowned if it were located on other continents, and certainly ranks well above many of the other rock art collections already inscribed on the World Heritage List. So what is it?
The cultural [...]
Read OnBrazilian Fortresses Ensemble (T)
Joel on the Road Australia - 21-Aug-22
For our visit to this Tentative site, we decided to visit São João Fortress at the entrance to Guanabara Bay in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. Not that we had much choice in the matter, since most of the locations are further north, and we weren't heading that direction on this trip! The site is still an active military installation, so tours are available via pre-booked appointment only.
First off, it's one of the most beautiful fortresses I've ever visited. Not particularly for the quality of the stonework, the decorations, or anything like that, but simply for the location. It's essentially underneath Mt Sugarloaf (Pao de Azucar), in the rich and trendy Urca neighbourhood, and jutting out into the mouth of Guanabara Bay
Read OnProfile Data
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- Joel on the Road
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Recently Visited WHS
- Update 05.05.25
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- Djerba
- Dougga/Thugga
- Kairouan
- Medina of Sousse
- Kerkuane
- Amphitheater of El Jem
- Carthage
- Medina of Tunis
- Ichkeul National Park
- Rabat
- Mazagan
- Medina of Essaouira
- Medina of Tétouan
- Volubilis
- Meknes
- Ksar of Aït Ben Haddou
- Medina of Marrakesh
- Medina of Fez
10 Best Missing
23 Countries Complete
Andorra . Austria . Bulgaria . Estonia . Fiji . Finland . Holy See . Luxembourg . Malta . Moldova . Morocco . Nepal . Norway . Paraguay . San Marino . Singapore . Slovakia . Slovenia . Sri Lanka . Switzerland . Tunisia . Uruguay . Viet Nam .Visited WHS
Rating StatsNgorongoro 4.5Ningaloo Coast 4.5Rani-ki-Vav 4.5Ping Yao 4Longmen Grottoes 3.5Levuka 3Røros 2.5Yin Xu 2.5Vegaøyan 2Ahmadabad 1.5Djerba 1Reviewed WHS
- Yin Xu
- Ping Yao
- Longmen Grottoes
- Sítio Roberto Burle Marx
- ESMA Site Museum
- Ujung Kulon National Park
- Phu Phrabat
- Archaeological site of Philippi
- Kakadu National Park
- Hill Forts of Rajasthan
- Rani-ki-Vav
- Ahmadabad
- Central Highlands
- Monastery of Horezu
- Verla Groundwood and Board Mill
- Petäjävesi Old Church
- Sammallahdenmäki
- Røros
- Tower of Hercules
- San Cristobal de La Laguna
- Decorated cave of Pont d'Arc
- Mount Etna
- Vegaøyan
- Royal Palace at Caserta
- Burgundy
- Arab-Norman Palermo
- Isole Eolie
- Ivrea
- Verona
- Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy
- Bellinzone
- Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch
- Strasbourg
- Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes
- Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai
- The Four Lifts
- Brugge
- Flemish Béguinages
- Van Nellefabriek
- Belfries
- Durham Castle and Cathedral
- Saltaire
- Kilimanjaro National Park
- Blenheim Palace
- Ironbridge Gorge
- Stonehenge
- Dorset and East Devon Coast
- Tower of London
Visited TWHS
- Alexandria, ancient remains and the new library (T)
- Ancient cities of Upper Myanmar : Innwa, Amarapura, Sagaing, Mingun, Mandalay (T)
- Archaeological Site and Historic Centre of Panamá City (T)
- Archaeological Sites of the Ancient Shu State: Site at Jinsha and Joint Tombs of Boat- shaped Coffins in Chengdu City, S (T)
- Architecture Moderne du XX siècle de la Ville de Montevideo (T)
- Auckland Volcanic Fields (T)
- Australian Cornish Mining Sites: Burra and Moonta (T)
- Brazilian Fortresses Ensemble (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- California Current Conservation Complex (T)
- Çanakkale (Dardanelles) and Gelibolu (Gallipoli) Battles Zones in the First World War (T)
- Capital Fortifications of Hanyang : Hangyangdoseong Capital City Wall, Bukhansanseong Mountain Fortress and Tangchundaeseong Defense Wall (T)
- Casablanca, Ville du XXème siécle, carrefour d'influences (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Chapultepec Woods, Hill and Castle (T)
- Chocolate Hills Natural Monument (T)
- Coron Island Natural Biotic Area (T)
- Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo's Home-Study Museum (T)
- Diocletian's Palace and the Historical Nucleus of Split (extension) (T)
- Dreams in Stone - the palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee (T)
- Eglise et Monastère de Sao Bento, Rio de Janeiro (T)
- El Nido-Taytay Managed Resource Protected Area (T)
- Ellis Island (T)
- Flinders Ranges (T)
- Gdansk - Town of Memory and Freedom (T)
- Great Desert Landscapes (T)
- Great Sandy World Heritage Area (T)
- Großglockner High Alpine Road / Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (T)
- Guano Islands, Islets, and Capes National Reserve System (T)
- Historical-town planning ensemble of Ston (T)
- Inle Lake (T)
- Insular area and bay of Colonia del Sacramento (T)
- Karst Valleys of Slovakia (T)
- Khor Dubai (T)
- Knights Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta (T)
- Lake Titicaca (T)
- Le centre historique de Tétouan (T)
- Le complexe hydraulique romain de Zaghouan-Carthage (T)
- Le Palais de Justice de Bruxelles (T)
- Les Alpes de la Méditerranée (Monaco) (T)
- Les Mausolées Royaux de Numidie, de la Maurétanie et les monuments funéraires pré-islamiques (Tunisia) (T)
- Les villes antiques de la Narbonnaise et leur territoire: Nimes, Arles, Glanum, aqueducs, via Domitia (T)
- Monuments, Sites and Cultural Landscape of Chiang Mai, Capital of Lanna (T)
- Moulay Idriss Zerhoun (T)
- Murujuga Cultural Landscape (T)
- Nasca Aqueducts (T)
- National Park (Taman Negara) of Peninsular Malaysia (T)
- Palais de la Culture, ancien siège du Ministere de l'Education et de la Santé, Rio de Janeiro (T)
- Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct (T)
- Peruvian Central Railway (T)
- Pobiti Kamani Natural Monument (T)
- Pulacayo, Industrial Heritage Site (T)
- Rural Temples of Cusco (T)
- Sacred Titicaca Lake (T)
- Salt Mines of Maras (T)
- The Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá (Ruta Colonial Transístmica de Panamá) (T)
- The concept of the lenticular historical town core of Kosice City (T)
- The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area (extension to existing property) (T)
- The historic town of Korcula (T)
- The Industrial Complexes at Ostrava (T)
- The Lofoten islands (T)
- The Old Town of Jakarta (T)
- The Olive Grove Landscapes of Andalusia (T)
- The royal necropolis of the Thracian city of Seuthopolis – a serial site, extension of the Kazanlak Thracian tomb (T)
- The Royal Sites of Ireland: Cashel, Dún Ailinne, Hill of Uisneach, Rathcroghan Complex, and Tara Complex (T)
- Tilaurakot, the archaeological remains of ancient Shakya Kingdom (T)
- Tokaj Wine Region (T)
- Village de Sidi Bou Saïd : Harmonie architecturale et spirituelle en Méditerranée (T)
- Wooden Monasteries of Konbaung Period : Ohn Don, Sala, Pakhangyi, Pakhannge, Legaing, Sagu, Shwe-Kyaung (Mandalay) (T)