Kurt Lauer Profile
My name is Kurt, and I live in Seattle, Washington. My main passion in travel is hiking and exploring National Parks, Wilderness areas, and dramatic landscapes. My biggest goal in traveling has been to hike in every US wilderness area - and so far I've been to 748 of America's 803 designated wilderness areas. I've also been to all the national parks (except the one in American Samoa) and almost all the National Monuments and National Park Historical sites. In my travels to different parks around the world, I noticed a couple years back that I had been to a number of WHS, so I came across this site, and decided to add them up. Since then I've made a more concerted effort to visit them, though my focus is still parks and the natural landscapes. Just finished a six month journey to Indian subcontinent. My focus was hiking in the Himalayas in India, Nepal and Bhutan, but I added a couple extra months and visited all the other non-Himalayan WHS in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. This allowed me to be the first person in the group to visit all the India WHS (though this won't last long as the are nominating 2 more for addition in the coming years and I only went to one of them). What I like about visiting WHS is it gets me to places that I wouldn't necessarily visit and the journey to get there takes me to a lot of interesting places along the way.
Recent Reviews Kurt Lauer
Satpura Tiger Reserve (T)
Kurt Lauer USA - 06-May-25
I visited the Satpura Tiger Reserve during Christmas of 2023. Satpura is the largest of the Tiger Reserves in Madhya Pradesh. Due to its larger size Tiger sightings are less frequent than the smaller and more visited reserves in this region of India.
I did three safaris in the core region, spending two nights at the Buffalo Resort (not to be confused with the Buffalo Lodge, located an hours drive away in Pachmarhi - which serves as the Park's headquarters). My first two safaris were a morning and then an evening jeep safari. The terrain was mostly grassland, small rolling hills and shrubs. There were numerous deer species, Indian Guars, and the highlight four sloth bears. The park also allows a limited number of people to do a walking safari with a group of rangers. This was definitely a highlight of the trip, as it's the only tiger reserve in the area that allows this activity. Tiger sightings are rare - as a matter of fact the rangers told me it only has happened once before in the past year
Read OnArchaeological Sites on the Deltaic Landscape of Bangladesh (T)
Kurt Lauer USA - 19-May-24
The Archeological Sites of the Deltaic Landscape are a series of old mosques and burial sites in Western Bangladesh. Most are well off the beaten path, and even the sites I visited in Barbobaza where not known by my guide or driver. There are 48 listed sites, and about 6 of them are located around the town of Barobaza, which was located along the road to Khulna from Rajshahi (where we were heading to go to the Sunarbans. Of the sites in the area a few are just old burial mounds that are not in very good shape. There are two old mosques in the town that are also listed: Gorar and Golkata Mosque. Gorar is in the attached picture and was quite beautiful, especially the interior
Read OnThe Architectural Works of Muzharul Islam (T)
Kurt Lauer USA - 22-Feb-24
Muzharul Islam is a 20th Century Bangladeshi architect. I never heard of him until I saw that Bangladesh had added a number of his buildings to the TWHS list. Three of these buildings are on the campus of Dhaka University. Dhaka University was an enjoyable place to visit. It is quite spread out and is a mixture of buildings from the British era built in the 1920's and more modern buildings built in the 1960's when Bangladesh was East Pakistan. The three buildings by Islam were built in the 1950's and 1960's. It is hard for me to make an informed judgement of these buildings as I tend to find modern 20th century architecture not that exciting and my least favorite WHS tend to be these modern 20th century architectural sites
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Kurt Lauer
- Country
- USA
- Ranking
- 53
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 28.04.25
-
10 Best Missing
23 Countries Complete
Andorra . Armenia . Austria . Bangladesh . Belgium . Belize . Georgia . Holy See . Hungary . Ireland . Japan . Lesotho . Luxembourg . Malaysia . Mali . Moldova . Nepal . Oman . Qatar . Rwanda . San Marino . Singapore . Slovakia .Visited WHS
Rating StatsAachen Cathedral 4.5Kathmandu Valley 4.5Reims 4.5Vienna 4.5Belfries 4Budapest 4Hampi 4Kraków 4Mérida 4Prague 4Alto Douro 3.5Amiens Cathedral 3.5Caceres 3.5Champagne 3.5Guimarães 3.5Lübeck 3.5Mtskheta 3.5Niah Caves 3.5Shark Bay 3.5The Sundarbans 3.5Corvey 3Elvas 3Graz 3Hopewell 3Mafra 3Panamá 3Potsdam 3Sheki 3Telc 3Warsaw 3Al Zubarah 2.5Bagerhat 2.5Elephanta Caves 2.5Gusuku of Ryukyu 2.5Holasovice 2.5Jelling 2.5Lenggong Valley 2.5Litomysl Castle 2.5Lumbini 2.5Nalanda 2.5Pannonhalma 2.5Stevns Klint 2.5Trebic 2.5Vigan 2.5Hollókö 2Provins 2Le Havre 1.5Reviewed WHS
Visited TWHS
- Aguas Livres Aqueduct (T)
- Amalienborg and its district (T)
- Amboseli National Park (T)
- Ancient Buddhist Site of Sarnath (T)
- Archaeological Site and Historic Centre of Panamá City (T)
- Archaeological Sites on the Deltaic Landscape of Bangladesh (T)
- Asuka-Fujiwara : Archaeological sites of Japan's Ancient Capitals and Related Properties (T)
- Bahá'í House of Worship at New Delhi (T)
- Big Bend National Park (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- Bulwarked Fortifications (T)
- Caesarea (T)
- California Current Conservation Complex (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Centro Histórico de Puebla (extension) (T)
- Chapultepec Woods, Hill and Castle (T)
- Cité de Carcassonne et ses châteaux sentinelles de montagne (T)
- Civil Rights Movement Sites (T)
- Cold Desert Cultural Landscape of India (T)
- Corcovado National Park and Isla del Cano Biological Reserve (T)
- Coron Island Natural Biotic Area (T)
- Cultural Landscape of Mahasthan and Karatoya River (T)
- Dayton Aviation Sites (T)
- Delhi - A Heritage City (T)
- Desert National Park (T)
- Desert of the Discalced Carmelites and Built Ensemble of the Palace-Hotel in Bussaco (T)
- Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo's Home-Study Museum (T)
- Dreams in Stone - the palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee (T)
- Dzongs: the centre of temporal and religious authorities (Punakha Dzong, Wangdue Phodrang Dzong, Paro Dzong, Trongsa Dzong and Dagana Dzong) (T)
- Early Chicago Skyscrapers (T)
- Ekamra Kshetra - The Temple City, Bhubaneswar (T)
- Ellis Island (T)
- Ensemble of Alvaro Siza's Architecture Works in Portugal (T)
- Flinders Ranges (T)
- Former M-13 prison/ Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (former S-21)/ Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre (former Execution Site of S-21) (T)
- FRIM Selangor Forest Park (T)
- Green Belt (T)
- Großglockner High Alpine Road / Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (T)
- Gwaii Haanas (T)
- Gwalior Fort, Madhya Pradesh (T)
- Head Office and Garden of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (T)
- Hikone-Jo (castle) (T)
- Iconic Riverfront of the Historic City of Varanasi (T)
- Inle Lake (T)
- Jerusalem (T)
- La Rioja and Rioja Alavesa Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape (T)
- Lake Tana Island Monasteries and its Adjacent Wetland Natural and Cultural Heritages (T)
- Lake Titicaca (T)
- Le champ de bataille de Waterloo, la fin de l’épopée napoléonienne (T)
- Le Palais de Justice de Bruxelles (T)
- Le Panorama de la Bataille de Waterloo, exemple particulièrement significatif de « Phénomène de Panoramas » (T)
- Les citadelles mosanes (T)
- Les passages de Bruxelles / Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert (T)
- Les Plages du Débarquement, Normandie, 1944 (T)
- Les témoignages matériels de la construction de l’État des Pyrénées : la Co-principauté d’Andorre (A) (T)
- Maasai Mara Game Reserve (T)
- Mattanchery Palace, Ernakulam, Kerala (T)
- Monuments and Forts of the Deccan Sultanate (T)
- Mount Vernon (T)
- Møns Klint (T)
- Mughal and Colonial Temples of Bangladesh (T)
- Mughal Forts on Fluvial Terrains in Dhaka (T)
- Mughal Gardens in Kashmir (T)
- Mughal Mosques in Bangladesh (T)
- Mývatn and Laxá (T)
- Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (T)
- Orvieto (T)
- Patzcuaro, Site of Humanistic Memory and Cultural Confluence (T)
- Petrified Forest National Park (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Ring of cenotes of Chicxulub Crater, Yucatan (T)
- Rouen : ensemble urbain à pans de bois, cathédrale, église Saint-Ouen, église Saint Maclou (T)
- Royal Manas National Park (RMNP) (T)
- Sacred Titicaca Lake (T)
- Sajama National Park (T)
- Satpura Tiger Reserve (T)
- Sea of Galilee & its Ancient Sites (T)
- Serpent Mound (T)
- Simien Mountains National Park (SMNP) (T)
- Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple (T)
- Stein Valley (T)
- Sun Temple, Modhera and its adjoining monuments (T)
- Sya, centre historique de Bobo-Dioulasso (T)
- Temples, Shrines and other structures of Ancient Kamakura (T)
- The African Great Rift Valley - The Maasai Mara (T)
- The Architectural Works of Muzharul Islam: an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement in South Asia (T)
- The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfjord: Evolution and Climate Adaptation in the Earliest Eocene (T)
- The Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá (Ruta Colonial Transístmica de Panamá) (T)
- The Galilee Journeys of Jesus & the Apostles (T)
- The historic ensemble of Orchha (T)
- The Jewish Cemetery of Altona Königstrasse. Sephardic Sepulchral Culture of the 17th and 18th century between Europe and the Caribbean (T)
- The Lofoten islands (T)
- The Maritime Heritage of Dragør Old Town and Harbour - A ‘skipper-town’ from the era of the great tall ships in the 18th and 19th centuries (T)
- The Padang Civic Ensemble (T)
- The Qutb Shahi Monuments of Hyderabad (T)
- The Silver Route (T)
- The Tabon Cave Complex and all of Lipuun Point (T)
- Thingvellir National Park (T)
- Thomas Jefferson Buildings (T)
- Torres del Paine and Bernardo O'Higgins National Parks, Region of Magallanes (T)
- Town of Chichicastenango (T)
- VIKING MONUMENTS AND SITES / Thingvellir National Park (T)
- Vila Viçosa (T)
- Waitangi Treaty Grounds (T)
- Waters and seabed of Fiordland (Te Moana O Atawhenua) (T)
- White Sands National Monument (T)
- Workers’ Assembly Halls (Denmark) (T)