Nan Profile

Why?

If you enjoy spending your holidays in a club hotel in the Caribbean drinking Mai Tais, that's fine. It's your holiday and do as you please. And I personally enjoy the occasional Mai Tai on the beach, too. For me, though, spending more than a few days in the aforementioned Caribbean club hotel would be akin to purgatory. Because I like moving around, seeing new things and going to distant places.

As such I have read my fair share of guide books to figure out where to go and what to see. For instance, a few years back I visited Chile. A great place with astonishing nature to explore. Meanwhile Santiago de Chile, the capital, is fairly lackluster, having been destroyed by multiple earthquakes over the centuries. Still, any guidebook you pick up will spend a full chapter on Santiago extolling its virtues.

World Heritage Sites are different. They are as objective as it gets. They make you travel off the beaten path. I will always fondly remember my cab ride in a Czech winter landscape to Holasovice. And while Holasovice is just for the WHS connoisseurs, more often than not WHS are great sites.

Initially, I focused on quantity. And while this may seem stressful, it did give me a good picture and overview. Of late (ever since reaching the magical 300) I collect differently. Now I plan my trips on the truly great sites and pick up any site to the left and right I can visit on top.

So, should you become a WHS traveler, too? My honest recommendation is to do as you please. But if you are going to country anyhow (and be it in a club hotel), then use the map provided on this site and check out if any world heritage site is nearby. It may force to travel a bit off the beaten path, but trust me, it will be worth it.

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Germany Last Update 11.10.20 489 WHS Visited 217 Reviews 488 WHS Rated 114 TWHS Visited

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Recent Reviews Nan

Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios

Nan Germany - 11-Sep-20

The Byzantine monasteries of Daphni, Hosious Louas and Nea Moni were built in the 11th century, in what amounted to the peak of Roman power and also the beginning of the ultimate demise. Around the turn of the millennia, the Romans had pushed the Arabs out of the Eastern Anatolian border regions and recaptured parts of Armenia and Syria, protecting their Anatolian heartlands against the incessant Arab raids of previous centuries. On the Balkans, Emperor Basil II, aptly nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer, had subdued the Bulgarian Empire in a decades spanning war. When he died in 1025 CE, the Empire was as powerful and large as it hadn't been since Justinian.

Read On

Epidaurus

Nan Germany - 15-Sep-20

A way to get history wrong is to apply a modern understanding or concept to a historic context. One such term is religion. The term itself is actually rather modern and deviates substantially from the classical or even medieval definition. As such, seeing the image of a classical church when you visit a Greek temple is misplaced.

Epidauros shows this quite nicely. Devoted to the Greek god of healing (Asklepios) this nominally is a temple, i.e. a religious institution by our modern standards. But in reality you are rather in a medical facility where patients would seek treatments for ailments and the priests acted as physicians. The treatments are very similar to what you find in a spa town nowadays.

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L'viv

Nan Germany - 10-Sep-20

After the first partition of Poland in 1772, L'viv (Polish Lvov, German Lemberg) became part of Austrian Empire and was the capital of the region of Galicia. It would grow to be the 4th largest city of first the Austrian, then the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Walking around it's old town today, you clearly see the Austrian influence in the architecture: It's feels like a small Vienna, quite out of place this far east.

While the Austrians, initially tried to Germanize the region, they never succeeded. Eventually, Polish became the administrative language spoken in the city by the Polish elite, while Ruthenian (Ukrainian) was the language of the countryside and the peasant population

Read On

Acropolis

Nan Germany - 10-Sep-20

A revisit can always help putting a site into context. It had been 10 years, since I visited the Acropolis for the first and only time. The time had somewhat clouded my appreciation of the site. I only awarded it 4* and considered e.g. the ruins of Agrigento for a Greek ruin or Meteora for Greece as better sites. After my recent revisit, I decided to revise my rating and upgraded it to 4.5*, same as Agrigento and Meteora.

This is classical Greece at it's best. It's a site predating classical Roman monuments by 600 years. The Acropolis is a huge temple that given its age is still very tangible. And with the Acropolis museum you also get to experience the incredible artwork of the stonemasons. How much better can it get?

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Mycenae and Tiryns

Nan Germany - 10-Sep-20

When I read the Ilias, I was always wondering about the place names. Where was Athens, where was Sparta? And why was there no king of Troy fighting in the Persian wars? The answer is that the events and locations of the Ilias predate what most of us consider ancient Greece by centuries. Athens reigned supreme between 500-400 BCE. But the Trojan War is assumed to have taken place 800 years before around 1300 BCE. In addition, the events of the Ilias squarely fall into the Bronze Age. And there is this little thing called the Bronze Age Collapse taking place around 1150 BCE. And it removed the events from the Ilias even further from view.

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Profile Data

Name: Nan
Country: Germany
Most Impressive: Petra, Machu Picchu, Angkor
Proposal: Seoraksan, Korea. Okefenokee, USA.

Recently Visited WHS

Update 11.10.20: Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae

Archaeological Site of Delphi

Epidaurus

Mystras

Olympia

Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios

Mycenae and Tiryns

Visited WHS

Rating Stats

Ancient Thebes 5

Angkor 5

Florence 5

Iguazu National Park 5

Los Glaciares 5

Machu Picchu 5

Mesa Verde 5

Palenque 5

Petra 5

Pyramids (Memphis) 5

Rapa Nui 5

Rome 5

Teotihuacan 5

Vatican City 5

Venice and its Lagoon 5

Acropolis 4.5

Amsterdam Canal Ring 4.5

Chichen-Itza 4.5

Cordoba 4.5

Dubrovnik 4.5

Fatehpur Sikri 4.5

Granada 4.5

Grand Canyon 4.5

Great Wall 4.5

Loire Valley 4.5

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor 4.5

Meteora 4.5

Paris, Banks of the Seine 4.5

Piazza del Duomo (Pisa) 4.5

Ping Yao 4.5

Pompei 4.5

Prague 4.5

Ravenna 4.5

Sceilg Mhichíl 4.5

St. Petersburg 4.5

Te Wahipounamu 4.5

Versailles 4.5

Vienna 4.5

West Norwegian Fjords 4.5

Yosemite National Park 4.5

Aachen Cathedral 4

Agrigento 4

Ancient Kyoto 4

Arab-Norman Palermo 4

Archaeological Site of Delphi 4

Berat and Gjirokastra 4

Brugge 4

Budapest 4

Castel del Monte 4

Classical Gardens of Suzhou 4

Cueva de las Manos 4

Dengfeng 4

Dolomites 4

El Escurial 4

Everglades 4

Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings 4

Giant's Causeway 4

Guanajuato 4

Ha Long Bay 4

Haeinsa Temple 4

Hal Saflieni Hypogeum 4

Himeji-jo 4

Humayun's Tomb 4

Iguacu 4

Imperial Palace 4

Istanbul 4

Itsukushima Shrine 4

Jantar Mantar 4

Keoladeo National Park 4

Kew Gardens 4

Kinderdijk 4

Kotor 4

Kremlin and Red Square 4

Laponian Area 4

Longmen Grottoes 4

Los Alerces National Park 4

Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve 4

Mont-Saint-Michel 4

Nasca Lines 4

Neolithic Orkney 4

Oaxaca and Monte Alban 4

Olympia 4

Peninsula Valdes 4

Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands 4

Rietveld Schröderhuis 4

Riga 4

Selimiye Mosque 4

Siena 4

Sintra 4

Skocjan Caves 4

South China Karst 4

Studley Royal Park 4

Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch 4

Teide National Park 4

Temple of Heaven 4

Trang An 4

Tugendhat Villa 4

Upper Middle Rhine Valley 4

Valletta 4

Vicenza 4

Wadden Sea 4

West Lake 4

Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines 4

Wooden Churches of Southern Malopolska 4

Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region 4

Works of Antoni Gaudí 4

Assisi 3.5

Auschwitz Birkenau 3.5

Bordeaux 3.5

Bryggen 3.5

Butrint 3.5

Calakmul 3.5

Caves of Yagul and Mitla 3.5

Central University City Campus of the UNAM 3.5

Cesky Krumlov 3.5

Champagne 3.5

Churches of Chiloé 3.5

Churches of Peace 3.5

Churches of the Pskov School of Architecture 3.5

Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape 3.5

Cracow 3.5

Cuenca 3.5

Danube Delta 3.5

Edinburgh 3.5

Fagus Factory 3.5

Fortified City of Carcassonne 3.5

Fujisan 3.5

Grand Place, Brussels 3.5

Gyeongju 3.5

High Coast / Kvarken Archipelago 3.5

Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis 3.5

Kii Mountain Range 3.5

L'viv 3.5

Lake District 3.5

Malbork Castle 3.5

Matera 3.5

Megalithic Temples of Malta 3.5

Mexico City and Xochimilco 3.5

Mountain Railways of India 3.5

Museumsinsel (Museum Island) 3.5

Mycenae and Tiryns 3.5

Mystras 3.5

Reims 3.5

Rhodes 3.5

Sambor Prei Kuk 3.5

Schönbrunn 3.5

Sydney Opera House 3.5

Syracuse 3.5

Tallinn 3.5

The trulli of Alberobello 3.5

Tongariro National Park 3.5

University of Coimbra 3.5

Villa Romana del Casale 3.5

Westminster 3.5

White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal 3.5

Xidi and Hongcun 3.5

Agra Fort 3

Albi 3

Amiens Cathedral 3

Ancient Nara 3

Antequera Dolmens Site 3

Aquileia 3

Archaeological Site of Aigai 3

Arequipa 3

Arles 3

Avignon 3

Avila 3

Bamberg 3

Belem 3

Bellinzone 3

Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe 3

Brú na Bóinne 3

Bursa and Cumalikizik 3

Canterbury 3

Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik 3

Changdeokgung Palace Complex 3

Churches and Convents of Goa 3

Cilento and Vallo di Diano 3

City of Bath 3

Cologne Cathedral 3

Costiera Amalfitana 3

Cuzco 3

Derwent Valley Mills 3

Dorset and East Devon Coast 3

El Fuerte de Samaipata 3

Falun Great Copper Mountain 3

Flemish Béguinages 3

Fontainebleau 3

Forth Bridge 3

Fortifications of Vauban 3

Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz 3

Grand Canal 3

Great Smoky Mountains 3

Greater Blue Mountains 3

Gwynedd Castles 3

Hill Forts of Rajasthan 3

Hiraizumi 3

Hoi An 3

Horyu-ji Area 3

Hué 3

Hwaseong Fortress 3

Imperial Tombs 3

Jaipur City, Rajasthan 3

Jesuit Missions of Trinidad and Jesus 3

Jongmyo Shrine 3

Kaiping Diaolou 3

Kutna Hora 3

Kyiv 3

Liverpool 3

Luang Prabang 3

Luis Barragán House and Studio 3

Lyon 3

Macao 3

Maritime Greenwich 3

Maulbronn Monastery 3

Mostar 3

Mount Athos 3

Nikko 3

Old Rauma 3

Oporto 3

Plain of Jars 3

Plitvice Lakes 3

Poblet Monastery 3

Pont du Gard 3

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal 3

Potosi 3

Potsdam 3

Preah Vihear Temple 3

Qhapaq Ñan 3

Quedlinburg 3

Rammelsberg and Goslar 3

Rjukan / Notodden 3

Rock Carvings in Tanum 3

Rock Drawings in Valcamonica 3

Royal Joseon Tombs 3

Røros 3

Salamanca 3

San Miguel de Allende 3

Santiago de Compostela 3

Segovia 3

Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple 3

Seville 3

Shirakawa-go and Gokayama 3

Southern Öland 3

Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District 3

Split 3

Statue of Liberty 3

Stevns Klint 3

Stonehenge 3

Strasbourg 3

Sucre 3

Summer Palace 3

Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona 3

Taj Mahal 3

The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier 3

Tower of London 3

Trebic 3

Trinity Sergius Lavra 3

Urbino 3

Urnes Stave Church 3

Uxmal 3

Valparaiso 3

Vegaøyan 3

Villa d'Este 3

Vilnius 3

Visby 3

Völklingen Ironworks 3

Warsaw 3

Wartburg Castle 3

Würzburg Residence 3

Xochicalco 3

Yaroslavl 3

Zollverein 3

Abbey of St Gall 2.5

Australian Convict Sites 2.5

Banska Stiavnica 2.5

Bauhaus Sites 2.5

Belfries 2.5

Belovezhskaya Pushcha / Bialowieza Forest 2.5

Berlin Modernism Housing Estates 2.5

Blaenavon Industrial Landscape 2.5

Blenheim Palace 2.5

Boyana Church 2.5

Burgundy 2.5

Caceres 2.5

Camino Real 2.5

Chartres Cathedral 2.5

Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay 2.5

Convent of Christ in Tomar 2.5

Corfu 2.5

Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland 2.5

Durham Castle and Cathedral 2.5

Elvas 2.5

Engelsberg Ironworks 2.5

Euphrasian Basilica in Porec 2.5

Evora 2.5

Fortress of Suomenlinna 2.5

Fray Bentos 2.5

Gammelstad 2.5

Genbaku Dome 2.5

Gorham's Cave Complex 2.5

Graz 2.5

Grimeton Radio Station 2.5

Hallstatt-Dachstein 2.5

Heritage of Mercury 2.5

Independence Hall 2.5

Ironbridge Gorge 2.5

Isole Eolie 2.5

Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos 2.5

Jodrell Bank Observatory 2.5

Kalwaria Zebrzydowska 2.5

Le Havre 2.5

Liangzhu Archaeological Site 2.5

Longobards in Italy 2.5

Lübeck 2.5

Mantua and Sabbioneta 2.5

Margravial Opera House 2.5

Medici Villas and Gardens 2.5

Medina of Tétouan 2.5

Melaka and George Town 2.5

Monastery of Alcobaça 2.5

Monastery of Batalha 2.5

Muskauer Park 2.5

Nancy 2.5

Naples 2.5

Nesvizh 2.5

New Lanark 2.5

Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai 2.5

Orange 2.5

Palau de la Musica Catalana & Hospital de Sant Pau 2.5

Palmeral of Elche 2.5

Panamá 2.5

Petäjävesi Old Church 2.5

Pilgrimage Church of St. John of Nepomuk 2.5

Plantin-Moretus Museum 2.5

Popocatepetl monasteries 2.5

Provins 2.5

Puebla 2.5

Qutb Minar 2.5

Red Fort 2.5

Rhaetian Railway 2.5

Rila Monastery 2.5

Rock Art of Alta 2.5

Route of Santiago de Compostela 2.5

Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans 2.5

Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy 2.5

Saltaire 2.5

San Gimignano 2.5

Santa Maria delle Grazie 2.5

Sian Ka'an 2.5

Singapore Botanic Gardens 2.5

Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution 2.5

Skogskyrkogarden 2.5

Speyer Cathedral 2.5

Spissky Hrad and Levoca 2.5

Stari Grad Plain 2.5

Stralsund and Wismar 2.5

Tarraco 2.5

Telc 2.5

The Four Lifts 2.5

Thessalonika 2.5

Tiwanaku 2.5

Toledo 2.5

Tomioka Silk Mill 2.5

Trier 2.5

Trogir 2.5

Val d'Orcia 2.5

Val di Noto 2.5

Van Nellefabriek 2.5

Vat Phou 2.5

Villa Adriana (Tivoli) 2.5

Vlkolinec 2.5

Wachau Cultural Landscape 2.5

Western Ghats 2.5

Wooden Churches of the Slovak Carpathians 2.5

Alcala de Henares 2

Archaeological site of Philippi 2

Benedictine Convent of St. John 2

Canal du Midi 2

Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust 2

Centennial Hall 2

China Danxia 2

Christiansfeld 2

City of Luxembourg 2

Curonian Spit 2

Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios 2

Epidaurus 2

Etruscan Necropolises 2

Ferrara 2

Gardens and Castle at Kromeríz 2

Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa Dolmen 2

Holy Trinity Column 2

Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine 2

Jelling 2

Karlskrona 2

Kernavë 2

Kronborg Castle 2

La Lonja de la Seda 2

Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces 2

Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape 2

Lima 2

Litomysl Castle 2

Major Town Houses 2

Mining Sites of Wallonia 2

Modena 2

Monte San Giorgio 2

Morelia 2

Mudejar Architecture of Aragon 2

Mérida 2

Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes 2

Nessebar 2

Novgorod 2

Novodevichy Convent 2

Peking Man Site 2

Pienza 2

Pilgrimage Church of Wies 2

Prehistoric Pile Dwellings 2

Primeval Beech Forests 2

Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo 2

Roskilde Cathedral 2

Royal Palace at Caserta 2

Saint-Emilion 2

Salzburg 2

Sammallahdenmäki 2

San Marino and Mount Titano 2

Santa Maria de Guadelupe 2

Struve Geodetic Arc 2

Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae 2

Thracian tomb of Sveshtari 2

Town Hall and Roland, Bremen 2

Venetian Works of Defence 2

Verona 2

Zamosc 2

Aranjuez 1.5

Beemster Polder 1.5

Birka and Hovgarden 1.5

Botanical Garden, Padua 1.5

Campeche 1.5

Caves and Ice Age Art 1.5

Church of the Ascension, Kolomenskoye 1.5

Classical Weimar 1.5

Colonia del Sacramento 1.5

Crespi d'Adda 1.5

Donana National Park 1.5

Drottningholm 1.5

Fertö/Neusiedlersee 1.5

Frontiers of the Roman Empire 1.5

Genoa 1.5

Hedeby and Danevirke 1.5

Holasovice 1.5

Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal 1.5

Ivrea 1.5

La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle 1.5

Luther Memorials 1.5

Madara Rider 1.5

Mining Cultural Landscape Erzgebirge 1.5

Mount Etna 1.5

Naumburg Cathedral 1.5

Par force hunting landscape 1.5

Pirin National Park 1.5

Portobelo-San Lorenzo 1.5

Querétaro 1.5

Regensburg 1.5

Reichenau 1.5

Residences of the Royal House of Savoy 1.5

Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France 1.5

Semmering Railway 1.5

Torun 1.5

Verla Groundwood and Board Mill 1.5

Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch 1

Corvey 1

Defence Line of Amsterdam 1

Hildesheim Cathedral and Church 1

Mafra Palace, Convent and Royal Hunting Park 1

Messel Pit 1

Mir Castle 1

Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin 1

Old City of Berne 1

Schokland 1

Srebarna Nature Reserve 1

Stoclet House 1

Tarnowskie Góry Lead-Silver Mine 1

Thang Long 1

Water Management System of Augsburg 1

The Prosecco Hills 0.5

Tlacotalpan 0.5

Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont 0.5

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Why?

If you enjoy this...

Visited Sites Nan

Legend

Recent Reviews Nan

Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios

Epidaurus

L'viv

Acropolis

Mycenae and Tiryns

Profile Data

Recently Visited WHS

Visited WHS

Reviewed WHS

Visited TWHS

Reviewed TWHS

Top 50 Missing Sites

Top 200 WHS