Historical-town planning ensemble of Ston

I came across Ston by accident really. I was holidaying in the area and searched the WHS list and tentative list for any interesting sites nearby and so I "discovered" Ston. 
What is remarkable is that I have reached retirement age and never heard of the place before I did that search, I say remarkable, because the walls that surround Ston for 7 kms, are the second longest fortified walls in the world, after the Great Wall of China. The Croatians need to have a quiet word with their tourism marketing people.
The town itself is quite small but has some nice streets, a castle and an interesting church but the draw is definitely those 7 kms of walls that surround the town and were built to protect it's major asset, salt.
You can walk the walls if you want, it was far too hot for that while I was there so I confined myself to the town. You can see everything in the town in an hour but it is worth a visit if you are in the vicinity.

I visited Ston a few years back and before I knew anything about UNESCO. Whilst driving along the whole coast of the Adriatic Sea I came across this really impressive site, a massive wall that reminded me of the great one in China. I had to stop and walk it. Now visually I didn’t think it was too long of a walk, but boy was I wrong. I went without any water and soon regretted it! In the scorching hot sun walking up oh so many steps I soon realised I had messed up! Luckily some people on their way back walked past and gave me some water and I was able to keep going! 

I am pretty sure that not too far from here the Croatian government intends on building a giant bridge so that tourists and locals transiting between Croatias main mainland and the Dubrovnik region without the need to first pass through Bosnia & Herzegovina (who own a tiny tiny bit of beach dividing the two mainlands), so once this has been complete I hope that it becomes a much more touristic spot as it truly deserves it!

Ston and Mali Ston are 2 villages worth visiting on the way to Dubrovnik. It is just a short detour from the road. The 2 villages are connected with 2 walls. The one wall seems to be restored for the moment. I was there well before opening of the walls (around 10 o'clock); so I did not wait to climb them. It looks very steep if you walk between the two villages.

The fortress walls of Ston are sometimes called the "Great Wall of Europe", which is clearly an exaggeration. The wall is about 5 km long and connects ston with Mali Ston on the other side of the hill. It is fun to walk on the wall, from the highest point you have a beautiful view over the salt pans and the bay of Mali Ston. However, I don't think that the site has sufficient outstanding value to get an inscription.

To be honest, we made our detour to Mali Ston not because of the cultural sights but rather for culinary reasons. Because of submarine freshwater springs, the bay is only slightly salty, the water is very clean and almost across the entire bay are maricultures of oysters and mussels. The oysters are smaller than those from the Atlantic, but taste very good. In Mali Ston there are three restaurants offering oysters from the local farms.