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During my trip to Egypt in February and March 2025, I spent three nights at the Zad El Mosafer guesthouse in Tunis in the Fayoum and Lake Qarun region. I used Tunis as a base to visit Wadi Al-Hitan, Gebel Qatrani, and Soknopaiou Nesos. I organized all these activities through my guesthouse. What's more, they also arranged transport to Alexandria, with stops at the monasteries of Saint Pishoy and Saint Macarius the Great and Abu Mena.

My first day in Tunis was spent visiting Wadi Al-Hitan. The excursion organized by my guesthouse involved a driver taking me through the dunes to the site, followed by a visit to Wadi El Rayan. I started at the excellent little museum on the site. The museum tour begins with a video. You can then wander around the single circular room encircling two extremely well-preserved fossils of the two main whale species found at the site, the large Basilosaurus isis and the smaller Dorudon atrox. The museum clearly and effectively explains the geological and biological history of this part of the desert, and makes pertinent links with current climate disturbances. In my opinion, this is the best-designed museum I have visited in Egypt.

I continued with the trails into the valley. This part of the tour was very well described by Els and Nan. The scenery in the park is splendid. However, I was a little disappointed by the fossils. Wadi Al-Hitan is not Dinosaur Provincial Park …

Djerba is a cultural landscape that reflects how local people survived and thrived on a harsh desert island. The dossier and the inscription criteria speak of overcoming the unique challenges in finding food and water, building shelters, developing an economy, defending themselves, and so on. This sounds interesting enough, though a bit vague like most cultural landscapes.

However, almost none of the inscribed locations reflect these criteria. Of the 31 locations specifically mentioned, 25 are mosques, along with a catholic church, a synagogue, and a souk. Which honestly makes this inscription baffling.

For our visit, we stayed in Houmt Souk at the north-western edge of the island. We visited the souk (naturally), the central church, and the Sidi Salem mosque just west of the town. For each of these, there isn’t really much to see. The church is only open two hours a week on Thursdays, so unless your timing is perfect you can only see the outside. The Sidi Salem mosque is only open in the afternoons, and from the outside there’s basically nothing to see anyway as it’s just a little walled compound with a dome (see photo). It reminded me of the fortified churches site in Romania, but otherwise unremarkable.

The souk is very small and inauthentic compared to those found other medinas, and since Djerba is very much a tourist town the stalls are mostly selling fridge magnets and counterfeit football jerseys. Although not mentioned in the dossier, there are a few caravanserais …

This WHS was last reviewed in 2021, so I thought I would provide an update in 2025. We have been based in Syracuse (another UNESCO site) for the last 3 weeks and used this location as a base to explore all 8 of these Baroque Towns. On average we spent about 3- 4 hours in each town, I think if you spend any less you are not doing each location due diligence to explore the OUV of each site. Ragusa and Modica were a long day trip by train to explore both on the same day. Scicli, Noto, Catania and Militello were all individual day trips by the Train. Palazzolo Acreide and Caltagirone, we hired a car for a couple of days as we also wanted to explore the Villa Romana el Casale (another WHS site) as well explore the Necropolis of Pantalica which is part of the Syracuse site, but some distance from Syracuse itself that requires a hire car.

We have a Eurail Global Pass, so it made it very easy to jump on and off trains, using the App to book with ease and we were very flexible with our days and times for visiting. Syracuse has a number of Hire Car companies, so shop around for a good rate. 2 days hire car set us back 80 Euro plus fuel. One of the downsides of visiting by train though is that the train station is often not in the centre of the city with the …

I visited 3 out of 4 of the ShUM sites in May 2025 and was very impressed by my experiences. Prior to my visit I was tangentially aware of various elements of the history of Europe's Medieval Jews, but these sites really gave me an insight into a side of European history that I knew relatively little about. The sites were well set up for visitors and there is now the ShUM-App, which contains information in German and English for all of the sites. If you have heave headphones with you then you can use it as an audioguide, although I just read the text. The app also contains all of the important information about opening hours, entrance fees, and important customs all in one convenient place. I note that the Old Jewish Cemetery Mainz is not currently open to the public, which is why did not visit it.

Speyer Judenhof

This site is only a short walk from the cathedral, and is about a 20 minute walk from the train station. It consists of a small museum, the ruins of the old synagogue and the Mikveh. At the time of my visit, entrance costs €4.50 for an adult. The museum is quite small (compared to the one in Worms) and information is available in other languages including English if you ask at the desk. The ruins and the Mikveh are also relatively small and I was grateful for the app to get more information. Overall I spent …

I visited this WHS in Spring 2024 as a day trip from Antigua Guatemala. The day before my visit I was lucky to spot some original stone sculptures on display at the second floor of the National Museum of Guatemalan Art or MUNAG in Antigua Guatemala. It is best to leave very early as the mostly one lane roads to Tak'alik Ab'aj can see quite a lot of heavy traffic, mostly due to the banana plantation trucks and workers. Make sure not to visit on Mondays as otherwise the excellent Museo Caracol del Tiempo with most original stelae and sculptures will be closed. Spanish-speaking guides offer their services for a tip both at the museum and at the archaeological park.

The site is located over a series of 5 ascending terraces. You will enter at terrace 3 and if you take a photo of the numbered map with all the different sites to see, a solo unguided visit of all the sites under your own steam is easy to do. This pre-Columbian WHS has a very nice setting in the Guatemalan jungle (decent birdwatching too) and it is still being actively excavated, so you will see a lot of digs and cleaning going on during your visit. Tak'alik Abaj is still a religious center for the local Mayans. Visiting quite early just after sunrise, I was lucky to experience a few Shamans making offerings on the ancient altars around the site. The site was an important trade town from …

I initially thought that I would not be able to add much to the discussion in regards to the sites I visited in April 2025. I mean, what can yet another American tourist say about something as heavily visited as the Vatican? I did decide to visit during the year of the Jubilee, which I thought would add another layer to the experience, at least in an anthropological manner. 

However, the day before I was about to leave, the world received the sad news that Pope Francis had passed away. Even though I am somewhat distant from the faith my parents raised me in, I felt emotions for his passing that I had never really felt for the death of any public figure (except for maybe david bowie, that was pretty rough). Regardless of what faith you do (or don't) follow, I think we can all agree that the late Pope really lived for serving his fellow man. He was a rare example of really practicing what you preach. 

Now that I have gotten my obligatory waxing about Pope Francis out of the way, I can turn to my visit to Vatican City. I started my visit with a trip to the extensive Vatican Museums. Luckily, I preloaded my brain with the information about the artworks I really wanted to see because it was packed with both incredible works of art and a whole bunch of other humans. We started with the Pinacoteca first so we didn't forget …

The Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands, being a distinct Floral WHS, never appealed to me much. Still, it was a shoo-in in 2021 as IUCN easily confirmed its global significance (“one of the two most important refuge areas of Arcto-Tertiary geoflora in western Eurasia”; the Hyrcanian Forests are the other one) and was also happy with the site management. I visited the same location as several other reviewers, Mtirala National Park, but happened to do so on a sunny day in May, with the rhododendrons in full bloom.

The road leading up to the park is a winding one, with often no room for cars to pass each other. There are villages and houses everywhere. The Mtirala River flows fast amidst the dense forest landscape. 

My driver (Giga from Gotrip.ge, who spoke good English) knew the area well as he grew up there. We parked at the end of the road and he sent me off to my hike. The guy managing the ropeway across the river now asks for 4 GEL for his services, which hopefully covers keeping the ropes in good shape, as all the effort getting to the other side is done by the passenger him/herself by turning a wheel. You have to keep on turning until you are at the landing station and hear a click.

The hike to the lake and waterfall starts going left from there, and across a small wooden bridge (some signage would be helpful here). After about …

I visited this site in May 2025. As mentioned, there is a brand new museum that is really well-done. There's interactive screens and buttons you can press to learn about the different reasons Çatalhöyük is important. For instance, Çatalhöyük showed evidence of a egalitarian society, with no difference in the treatment of men and women. No one home unit was more elaborate or larger than another, also seen as evidence towards this point. There is, additionally, a replica of the houses on site (pictured) that you can freely walk into and get a feel for what it might have been like thousands of years ago. Other facilities on site: cafe, bathrooms, gift shop, and lookout tower. I was a big fan of the museum and found it to be really interesting. The reason I didn't rate it higher is simply because there isn't much to see of the actual archeological part! When I was there, they said only 10% of the estimated remains had been excavated. Additionally, most of the findings (statues, tools, etc) in the museum are replicas; the real versions are in the Konya Archeological Museum. I don't personally mind all the replicas, but some might. 

The main reason I wanted to make this review was to highlight that there is now a daily shuttle going to Çatalhöyük from Konya's city center (which is also a tentative site itself). The company is Dolash Konya City Tours, where they tell you it's a "guided tour" but it's …

Visiting a site like Ichkeul National Park, where it's not clear what if anything you can visit, is a lot harder to plan by public transport than by car. Especially when you've just arrived in the country, aren't yet confident with louages and can't speak French. A staff member at our Tunis hostel recommended we request a permit at the Ministry of Tourism (he had unsuccessfully tried to visit within the last year or two), but other sources said a different department was required.

We decided to go ahead without getting a permit, as we weren't too keen on wasting time in government offices. At the last minute, we changed plans from taking a bus or louage to Mateur to taking a louage to Menzel Bourguiba. After all, the latter city was almost on the edge of the lake - our back-up option to tick off a visit.

After getting a louage from Tunis that left almost immediately, we arrived in Menzel Bourguiba before 10am. The first taxi driver said that he couldn't take us there, we had to get a taxi from Mateur, but the second taxi driver had no issues. We headed off with him, although thanks to our poor French (and he didn't speak any English) weren't quite sure of the price or if he would return for us.

The entrance pin next to P11 is not the real entry gate (although this gateway has a UNESCO sign), the real one is a few …

I visited this WHS in spring 2024. I drove to Nuevo Casas Grandes from Hermosillo airport (8 hrs) and apart from a few military checkpoints along the highway where the Trump wall is visible, the only minor issue were the many potholes. If you happen to have a rental car with hub caps, I suggest removing them or buying straps as otherwise you'll most certainly lose them while driving to/from Paquimé. Keep in mind that it can get very cold after sunset and especially in the morning with the formation of morning dew; but after that it quickly gets very hot.

The ancient city of Paquimé is located just 60 miles south of the US border in a fertile valley of the Casas Grandes or San Miguel River in the northern part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The archaeological zone of the city covers about 370 acres thus making it the largest that represents the peoples and cultures of the Chihuahua Desert. Paquimé is said to contain the most monumental and complex architecture in all of northern Mexico. It is quite possible that Paquimé has been influenced by Chaco Canyon and the peoples of the Four Corners region, as evidenced in some of the construction methods used at the city, such as T-shaped doors and the facades with porticoes.

In addition to the mud-and-gravel brick 4 storey apartments, in Paquimé one can find great plazas and public spaces, a complex irrigation and sewage system, ball courts built …

The Litomysl Castle is on my penultimate day of Czechia WHS circuit. I am not going to add much to the comments already posted except for my experience, or lack thereof during the visit. 

1) the site is under renovation so the side of the castle is covered by scaffolding and screening. The Sgrafiti are therefore not visible from the entrance side. The other side with the lawn is enclosed by construction fencing, thus you can’t get a photo. I was lucky to sneak in for a few photos when the construction crew was changing shifts and opened the gate. 

2) Inside the courtyard, they are building a music performance platform therefore obscuring the sgrafiti inside. 

3) There was no English language guided tour or self guided tours for the interior rooms. 

4) The room that was supposed to explain “Why Litomysl became a UNESCO WHS in English “ had only Czech language displays. 

Many years ago, I traveled with the famed Lonely Planet book, South East Asia on a Shoestring, the storied ‘Yellow Bible’ of discount travelers, my prize possession. I remember traveling around Thailand in those days, taking colorful 3 wheeled Tuk-Tuks, eating simple Pad Thai street food, and staying at the cheapest guest house hostels I could find. I remember watching a truck filled with children stop at the end of a touristy street, unload two dozen street urchins, and drive to the other end of the street to pick them up after they had collected their begging money. The temples in Bangkok were covered with gold, the entertainers passed by in elaborate costumes and fine restaurants smelled of food and flowers, but I felt stupid, standing outside the grand palace, knowing that I couldn’t afford to pay the entrance fee. I was almost out of money, and I could no longer afford to stay in the city. I had an onward plane ticket, and enough money to get to their airport, but I had time to kill and no money to enjoy it.  

So, I got the cheapest ticket to Ayutthaya station, arriving with little more than my guidebook, and I tried to find my way to the ruins. I got lost, and I had arrived too late in the day without a plan. Frustrated, I sat down and read that the ancient city once held perhaps 1 million, but had collapsed following an invasion about 10 years before …

I visited this WHS in spring 2024. At first glance El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar National Biosphere Reserve seems to be made up of two completely different components. By visiting the great Schuk Toak Visitor Centre (usually closed Monday to Wednesday, but not always) and its interesting lava trails + 5 kilometre dune trail (closed in summer and when temperatures get too high), you'll already get a good overview of the site (especially the Gran Desierto de Altar National component) and its OUV.

Each season in the Pinacate Biosphere Reserve has its attraction: autumn and winter are good for hiking, astronomical observation and fauna observation, although in winter it gets very cold at night. Spring is much more temperate and is really great for observing flowering flora and for bird watching. Summer tends to be very hot so it is the best time to spot more reptiles, however, the dune trail is closed due to high temperatures.

After being quoted ridiculous prices for day tours from Puerto Penasco (apparently it is very easy to get there from the US, so tourist services are catered (and priced!) mostly for Americans), I decided to follow Els' footsteps and booked a one night-two day camping tour (Noche de Estrellas en El Pinacate) with the excellent Pinacate Tours from Hermosillo. Departure from Plaza Emiliana de Zubeldia is at 6am sharp in a white van. I paid a bit extra for a solo tent, sleeping bag and inflatable mattress for extra …

This TWHS is a good excuse to visit the Azeri exclave of Nakhichevan. Its peculiar geographical location may also improve its chances of ever getting nominated to a WHS, as (a) it substantiates Azerbaijan’s territorial claim, and (b) the Great Leader (the Father) Heydar Aliyev was born in Nakhichevan. They’d need to do something about their proposition, though, as the Tentative Site Description is poorly written and even the site name makes no sense (it should be plural).

Getting to Nakhichevan from mainland Azerbaijan nowadays is only possible by flight, as since COVID, all land borders have been closed (before 2020, entry via Turkey or Iran was possible; the border with Armenia has been closed for over 30 years). The flights, there are 6-8 daily, leave from Baku’s domestic terminal, which lies next to the international one. Tickets can be booked via the Azal website – guidance in English is a bit confusing, especially about check-in, but just show up 1-2 hours before departure to get your boarding pass. My return trip cost 132 EUR.

I did it as a day trip, leaving on a morning flight and returning in the evening. If you take the earliest flight, you can cover most of the exclave by taxi or rental car. I left a bit later and limited myself to Nakhichevan City. I walked between the sights, including two of the mausoleum locations: 6km. 

The airport taxi dropped me off at the city’s highlight: the Momine Khatun Mausoleum. …

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. But I had luck on my side as we observed a tiger stalking a herd of Guars at pretty close range. To see a tiger at close range while not in a jeep was definitely one of my greatest wildlife experiences. 

I also spent two days and a night in the Pachmarhi region, which is in the buffer zone of the park and proposed heritage site. The area …

During my visit in early 2014, I was not aware of the Grand Canal nomination despite it gaining inscription later that year. But visiting Suzhou and going out of the railway station already allows a fair glimpse into this massive engineering marvel deserving of many superlatives. The canal stretch fronting the railway station is already quite visually pleasing as it is backdropped by massive Pingmen Gate and a nearby smaller water gate; this section of old city wall was rebuilt in 2012. The old city's Ring Canal is part of the Suzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal, and true to its function it is still being used by far-reaching cargo boats and barges that are vital for commerce and transportation as well as by tourist boats that can go to the more popular scenic areas. 

The surroundings of the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lion's Grove Garden coincide with the Pingjiang Conservation Area, whose 800-year old canal complex is identified as a part of the Jiangnan Canal. This, therefore, makes Suzhou a good site to see inscribed parts of the Grand Canal that can support larger vessels, as well as a network of interior waterways navigable only by smaller hand-paddled boats. 

Although the 2,500-year old historic block of Pingjiang does not seem to be as popular as the Shantang River Conservation Area and Fengqiao Scenic Spot for "idyllic lantern-dotted views" of the Grand Canal, it also has canal boat tours, ancient bridges, traditional Suzhou-style houses (100+ …

I visited the village of Vila Nova de Foz Coa on oct.,the 19th and 20th,2024.

I had booked a tour "Canada do Inferno" through the official website of Coa Parque weeks before for sunday morning, october the 20th. On the 19th I arrived at Pocinho by train and by pure luck I got a taxi to my accommodation.

Before I took the taxi, I had visited the dam and the closed (but nevertheless accessible) former train and car bridge of Pocinho. Highly recommended, especially since it only takes a short stroll to get from the train station in Pocinho to both places. 

At around 10.00 on sunday I joined a group of 6 people (all from the USA or Canada). The tour started in a 4x4 jeep with 8 seats+1 driver (Daniela,our competent guide,herself drove the car). After several km in car we went on foot. The final section is a narrow but well-maintained track on foot stretching some 400 meters until the first engraved outcrops shown to the public.  

Daniela, our guide, was full of passion and explained everything in an interesting and exciting way. Our group was well informed, asked some damn good questions and was very open-minded. A perfect 2.5 hour tour with a classy guide that flew by. The drawings were clearly visible because the angle of the sun was perfect at that moment. I was very satisfied with both the tour and the museum. Without our website worldheritagesite.org I would never …

After visiting my sister-in-law in Antwerp, I requested a stop in Lierre on the way back. It was an easy half-hour drive from Antwerp through beautiful countryside, but I understand that the city is also easily-reachable via train, so it's easily combined with visits to Antwerp and/or Brussels. 

Lierre is, on the old, a lovely, quiet little town with a main square maybe not as flashy as Brussels or Antwerp, but still very charming. The belfry on the Stadhuis is also WH as one of the 23 belfry-towers. There is a famous prisoner's gate and a small astronomical tower worth seeing as well, all close together. I also recommend getting some vlaaike, a baked delicacy specific to Liere that tasted a little like a tiny pumpkin pie. 

The original main entrance to the beguinage is straight through the prisoner's gate, though there are a few other tiny side entrances to be found on the other sides. There was quite a bit of restoration work do, so it was all definitely a bit "dustier" than it otherwise is, but I still found the compact streets to be a lovely little walk, and admired the red-brick style architecture. I hope to be able to visit the others soon too, but definitely don't sleep on Lierre! 

I am happy to be the first to review the Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği after restorations ended in May 2024. The complex lies uphill above the Old Town; if you arrive by car it is best to follow local signposting to “Ulu Cami” to avoid the worst of the town’s narrow streets. There’s plenty of parking near the building. I don’t know whether it was like this before, but there is a landscaped park at the foot of the hill, from where you can admire the full complex with its characteristic hexagonal dome.

The building is managed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, this means that entry is free but also it has all kind of “dress appropriately” warnings. A few local women and I were followed around by a zealous security guy, who seemed to take a particular dislike to females and was always in the way. There were only 3 men praying in the large mosque, so I think they shouldn’t overestimate the religious importance of the place. There is hardly any interpretation on site and also the plaque(s) seem to have been removed.

Everybody, including the Turkish muslim visitors who comprise the far majority, comes here to see the carved portals. The WHS inscription dates from a time when it all was about monuments (architecture), so it goes on about vault construction and a dome with an oculus. The decorated portals however, are what make the building outstanding. They’re so exuberant that it …

There only appears to be one other review of the Bodrum Castle here and it's quite negative, but also fairly accurate.

Coming from Wales, we have some pretty spectacular castles ourselves and there are fine examples of excellent Crusader castles all over the eastern Mediterranean and I don't think this is one of them.

There's been so much development around the harbour area that it's often not even in sight. You need to be out at sea to get a proper view and honestly, as castles go, it's nothing special.

Bodrum is a pleasant enough resort and I suspect the number of people drawn here to see the castle is a very tiny percentage of the annual tourist count.

Like the other reviewer, I'm struggling to see why it was listed at all, maybe the judging panel fancied a break by the coast 😉.

Whatever the reason, nice enough castle, definitely not a UNESCO wow though.