Tony H. Profile
World Heritage fan who is trying to collect as many sites as he can!
Recent Reviews Tony H.
Haci Bayram Mosque and its Surrounding Area (the Haci Bayram District) (T)
Tony H. Finland - 16-Feb-20

Turkey still has some World Heritage status worthy entries on its T-list. But what is probably bothering Turkish politicians, is the fact that Turkey's capital is plain boring when it comes to historical sights (or any sights actually). How to get a World Heritage site to Ankara? Haci Bayram district is Ankara's best attempt. Haci Bayram-i Veli Camii is a small mosque dedicated to a Sufi poet Haci Bayram-i Veli. His tomb is next to the mosque and it's very busy with Turkish worshippers. From the outside the mosque looks old, as it is, but the inside it has been renovated clearly a lot. Original mosque is from the 15th century but the famous Mimar Sinan restored the mosque in the next century
Read OnUpper Svaneti
Tony H. Finland - 08-Sep-16

I'm little surprised that Upper Svaneti is one of the least visited sites in Europe on this website. I'm surprised because it is not anymore these days hard place to visit. The WHS consists of small community of Ushguli which is made up from 4 very small villages located right next to each other. 3 of these villages with surrounding landscape form the buffer zone and the core zone is the village of Chazhashi.
Chazhashi is the only village which has solely original stone houses. However most of the houses have been abandoned and the roofs have collapsed. The village includes the local museum. The core zone also includes small hill with remains of one Svan tower and church from old fortress.
Read OnIstanbul
Tony H. Finland - 13-Mar-15

I feel myself lucky as I've been able to call Istanbul my home for one year. It has given me the possibility to explore the city slowly and especially it's vast historic areas on Fatih peninsula.
The World Heritage site is made up of 4 different quarters. The most famous of them is the Sultanahmet area at the tip of the peninsula. From here you can find the biggest attractions: Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya), Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii), Topkapi Palace (Topkapi Sarayi) and Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi). This is the area you want to avoid visiting while you live in the city as it is overrun by tourists for most of the year and prices are higher than elsewhere in the city. After visiting the attractions (which are magnificent, there’s no denying in that) I prefered admiring this part of city from the ferries going between Asia and Europe. Interesting museum to visit in this quarter is the small Great Palace Mosaic Museum at Arasta Bazaar
Read OnBursa and Cumalikizik
Tony H. Finland - 19-Aug-14
2 months after it's inscription to World Heritage List Bursa hasn't experienced yet big tourists masses. Actually I didn't meet any other western tourists than myself but many Arab tourists have found this city and it's bazaars. Also locals were really interested to start a conversation with me which also shows that Bursa hasn't been found by tourists.
Also Bursa doesn't seem to be yet proud of it's World Heritage status as I didn't see any signs saying that I'm in a World Heritage city. In some brochures there were mentions that sites in Bursa were on tentative list so I guess they're waiting for update. But all the sites I visited were in perfect clean condition which shows that inscription didn't come as a surprise for the city.
Read OnCentral Highlands
Tony H. Finland - 17-Jun-13
I was part of a field course which we conducted in Sri Lanka. During our course we visited in Meemure village which is located in Knuckles Range inside the World Heritage area. According to our guide this area gets much less tourists than Horton Plains and Peak Wilderness. Meemure village was quite easily reachable from Kandy where we left at 6am. During the ride the views of the Knuckles Range area were amazing and especially sunrise over the valleys. The drive from the main road to the village along the mountain roads took 2 hours. Meemure village is very small and it seems to live from rice cultivation as the village was surrounded by very beautiful rice terraces. There are no tourism facilities and we had our lunch at local family's home
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Tony H.
- Country
- Finland
- Most Impressive
- - Great Pyramids of Giza- Old City of Jerusalem
- Proposal
- The rock paintings of Astuvansalmi at Ristiina, Finland.
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 11.06.23
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- Venice and its Lagoon
- Verona
- Dolomites
- Wooden Hypostyle Mosques of Medieval Anatolia
- Persian Caravanserai
- Yogyakarta
Visited WHS
Rating StatsEphesus 5Florence 5Granada 5Istanbul 5Rome 5Vienna 5Dolomites 4.5Dubrovnik 4.5Giant's Causeway 4.5Göreme NP 4.5L'viv 4.5Prague 4.5Riga 4.5St. Petersburg 4.5Upper Svaneti 4.5Versailles 4.5Brugge 4Budapest 4Kyiv 4Nancy 4Seville 4Tallinn 4Trang An 4Vilnius 4Yazd 4Acropolis 3.5Agra Fort 3.5Banska Stiavnica 3.5Borobudur 3.5Boyana Church 3.5Cesky Krumlov 3.5Cordoba 3.5Fatehpur Sikri 3.5Humayun's Tomb 3.5Hué 3.5Kew Gardens 3.5Mostar 3.5Old City of Acre 3.5Oporto 3.5Persian Garden 3.5Potsdam 3.5Sintra 3.5Strasbourg 3.5Thingvellir 3.5Verona 3.5Vlkolinec 3.5Warsaw 3.5Butrint 3Hattusha 3Hoi An 3Kernavė 3Kotor 3My Son 3Nikko 3Québec 3Red Fort 3Syracuse 3Troy 3Belfries 2.5Drottningholm 2.5Kinderdijk 2.5Mtskheta 2.5Nice 2.5Pasargadae 2.5Belem 2Bryggen 2Kandy 2Nesvizh 2Stoclet House 1.5Reviewed WHS
Visited TWHS
- Amalienborg and its district (T)
- Ancient City of Korykos (T)
- Bahá'í House of Worship at New Delhi (T)
- Bishop's Basilica and Late-Antique Mosaics of Philippopolis, Roman Province of Thrace (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- Cathédrale de Saint-Denis (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Delhi - A Heritage City (T)
- Extension of the World Heritage Site "Historic Centre of Prague" with the important Monuments in its Vicinity (T)
- Gdansk - Town of Memory and Freedom (T)
- Haci Bayram Mosque and its Surrounding Area (the Haci Bayram District) (T)
- Harran and Sanliurfa (T)
- Historic Town of Beypazarı (T)
- Jame' (Congregational) Mosque of Esfahan (T)
- Jerusalem (T)
- Konya-A capital of Seljuk Civilization (T)
- Kyiv: Saint Sophia Cathedral with Related Monastic Buildings, St. Cyril's and St. Andrew's Churches, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (T)
- Lake Tuz Special Environmental Protection Area (SEPA) (T)
- Le Palais de Justice de Bruxelles (T)
- Les Alpes de la Méditerranée (Monaco) (T)
- Leuven/Louvain, batiments universitaires, l'héritage de six siècles au sein du centre historique (T)
- Mattanchery Palace, Ernakulam, Kerala (T)
- Monuments of Srirangapatna Island Town (T)
- Nasqsh-e Rostam and Naqsh-e Rajab (T)
- Nuruosmaniye Complex (T)
- Persepolis and other relevant buildings (T)
- Sarajevo - unique symbol of universal multiculture - continual open city (T)
- Seljuk Caravanserais on the route from Denizli to Dogubeyazit (T)
- Sites along the Uttarapath, Badshahi Sadak, Sadak-e-Azam, Grand Trunk Road (T)
- St. Paul Church, St. Pauls Well and surrounding historic quarters (T)
- System of Fortifications at the Confluence of the Rivers Danube and Váh in Komárno - Komárom (Slova) (T)
- Tbilisi Historic District (T)
- Temples, Shrines and other structures of Ancient Kamakura (T)
- The Ancient Plovdiv (T)
- The Architectural Works of Alvar Aalto - a Human Dimension to the Modern Movement (T)
- The Bodrum Castle (T)
- The concept of the lenticular historical town core of Kosice City (T)
- The historic urban site of Počitelj (T)
- The Historical City of Maybod (T)
- The Historical Port City of Izmir (T)
- The Historical Village of Abyaneh (T)
- The Historical-Cultural Axis of Fin, Sialk, Kashan (T)
- The Memorial of Chatam Sófer (T)
- The natural and architectural ensemble of Blagaj (T)
- The Old Town of Jakarta (T)
- The Underground Water Structures in Gaziantep; Livas and Kastels (T)
- Thingvellir National Park (T)
- Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade Routes from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea (T)
- Trakai Historical National Park (T)
- VIKING MONUMENTS AND SITES / Thingvellir National Park (T)
- Yıldız Palace Complex (T)
Reviewed TWHS
Top 50 Missing Sites
- Amritsar
- Andaman Islands
- Bagan
- Band E Amir
- Chernobyl
- City of Herat
- Communist heritage of Volgograd
- Cultural Landscape of Santorini
- Ephesus
- Historic University Towns of Oxford and Cambridge
- Hollywood Studios & Movie Palaces
- Major Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright
- Mecca, Kaaba
- Petrified Forest National Park
- Rainforests of Polynesia
- Tempelhof Airport, Berlin
- The Archaeological Site of Göbeklitepe
- Ur
- Varanasi
- Vers une architecture: Major Buildings of Le Corbusier
Top 200 WHS
- Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras
- Laponian Area
- Acropolis
- Butrint
- Ephesus
- Pompei
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire
- Historic Cairo
- Potala Palace
- Borobudur
- Bamiyan Valley
- Pyramids (Memphis)
- Taj Mahal
- Göreme NP
- Thessalonika
- Bethlehem
- Vatican City
- Piazza del Duomo (Pisa)
- Saint Catherine Area
- Mont-Saint-Michel
- Cologne Cathedral
- Churches of Moldavia
- Kremlin and Red Square
- Curonian Spit
- Great Zimbabwe
- Melaka and George Town
- Bali Subak system
- Costiera Amalfitana
- Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands
- Upper Middle Rhine Valley
- Virunga National Park
- Central University City Campus of the UNAM
- Ancient Thebes
- Nubian Monuments
- Grand Canyon
- Uluru
- Verla Groundwood and Board Mill
- Ancient Kyoto
- Prambanan
- Temple of Heaven
- Selimiye Mosque
- Mexico City and Xochimilco
- West Norwegian Fjords
- Rock Islands
- Great Barrier Reef
- Granada
- Dubrovnik
- Brugge
- Budapest
- Tallinn
- Seville
- Kotor
- Fortress of Suomenlinna
- Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
- Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks
- Sagarmatha National Park
- Kilimanjaro National Park
- Machu Picchu
- Meteora
- Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch
- Great Himalayan National Park
- Mount Kenya
- Dolomites
- Simien National Park
- Petra
- Nemrut Dag
- Rapa Nui
- Imperial Palace
- Versailles
- Potsdam
- Amsterdam Canal Ring
- Florence
- St. Petersburg
- Paris, Banks of the Seine
- Mostar
- Grand Place, Brussels
- Riga
- Stonehenge
- Rietveld Schröderhuis
- Central Amazon Conservation Complex
- Kenya Lake System
- Victoria Falls
- Lake Baikal
- Okavango Delta
- Plitvice Lakes
- Altamira Cave
- Decorated cave of Pont d'Arc
- Vézère Valley
- Angkor
- Anuradhapura
- Silk Roads Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor
- Qhapaq Ñan
- Venice and its Lagoon
- Istanbul
- Rome
- Old City of Jerusalem
- Prague
- L'viv
- Cordoba
- Volcanoes of Kamchatka