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1204 of 1223 WHS have been reviewed by our community.
Varanasi (T)
Bernard Joseph Esposo Guerrero The Philippines - 12-Nov-24
Varanasi deserves a place in the list and it surprises me that no one has reviewed it yet. Being one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, which remains to be a most central place of worship as the holiest place in Hinduism, its history and value to the world cannot be understated. It is also considered sacred in Buddhism and Jainism. Being historic is one thing, and being iconic is another -- the cityscape of Varanasi is easily one of the most recognizable. While it is easy to be critical about the site as to whether it is clean or not, the judgment, in my opinion, plays little to nothing to the cultural value it offers
Read OnAlvaro Siza's Architecture Works (T)
CugelVance Germany - 23-Oct-24
I visited Alvaro Siza's Bouca housing complex as well as the faculty of architecture of the university of Porto on oct.the 20th,2024. I had already visited his designed tea house and the pool/piscina das Mares in his native Matosinhos a few years ago.I have also been several times to the portuguese pavillon of the expo 98 in Lisboa-Oriente(now closed to the public due to renovation works).
I even live only about 10 minutes' walk from one of his works, the Bonjour Tristesse building in Berlin, but it should better be called Welcome Tristesse because it is a pretty unsightly and unpleasant building that reminds you of the banlieues of Paris or the big and gray social housing projects in West Germany in the 1970s.
Read OnSítio Roberto Burle Marx
Carlo Sarion Philippines | New Zealand - 12-Nov-24
We visited Sitio Roberto Burle Marx in Sep 2022, when Rio was experiencing several days of torrential rain. I had to cancel our first two attempts to visit due to the weather, but the rain hadn't stopped even on the day we finally went. Although this review is two years overdue, I thought I'd document my experience visiting the site and share some thoughts about Burle Marx, whom people have both criticised and revered.
Getting started
We took an Uber from our accommodation in Ipanema to the site, and the trip took a bit longer than the usual hour-long journey. As previous reviews have emphasised, it’s essential to book ahead since the guided tours have limited capacity. We checked in at the gate and waited at the administration building
Read OnTyre
Triath - 08-Nov-24
Visited in May 2023.It should be understood right away that the city is located in the south of Lebanon, a region controlled by Hezbollah, so this factor should be taken into account when planning a visit. I visited this city when the situation was more or less calm.Although these political factors are not particularly felt in the historical center, there is a specially designated area with recognizable symbols, but in the tourist zone tourists walk in shorts and short dresses, alcohol is sold, and no tension was felt.Also, I covered some gestalt, because in the last couple of years I visited several Mediterranean colonies founded by Phoenician Tyre, the most famous of them are Carthage and Cadiz
Read OnConvent of Christ in Tomar
CugelVance Germany - 24-Oct-24
I visited the Convent of Christ in the portuguese city of Tomar on the 13th of oct,2024.
I entered the convent early in the morning exactly at the moment when a big american tourist group left their bus and had the same goal....I was totally surrounded by those elderly american tourists so that I missed the ticket counter and entered the area without paying the admission fee. I feared for the worst ....a totally overcrowded tourist place....but the convent is huge. Therefore after fleeing from that group with its loud guide by just skipping the first two rooms I had the luck to be alone in almost all rooms for the next 30-40 minutes.
Read OnBlog WHS Visits
WHS #932: Champaner-Pavagadh
Champaner-Pavagadh is one of the lesser-known Indian WHS. It is also one of the least appreciated by members of our community, although it still amounts to a decent 3 stars. The Tripadvisor reviews about this site are much more positive. One of its main issues is that it is hard to summarize what it is actually about. As the name suggests, it comprises two (contiguous) parts: Champaner (the remains of an Islamic pre-Mughal city) and Pavagadh (a hill with an important Hindu pilgrimage site). They are linked through their prime setting, the hill providing the water the city needed. As it was still relatively early in my 2024 India journey, I deep-dived into it via a day trip on public transport from Vadodara (better known locally under its old name Baroda).
The bus ride to Pavagadh takes about an hour and costs 40~60rs. Buses frequently leave from bays 15-18 at the central bus station; signage is only in Gujarati but just follow the colourful pilgrims on board. From Pavagadh bus station you have to walk about 500m to the right around the walls of the citadel, to where you can see the Jami Masjid – there used to be an entrance right across the street from the bus station (still present in Maps.me), but it is closed off nowadays and looks overgrown.
So I started my exploration with the Jami Masjid, the main mosque and the highlight of the Champaner site. I arrived at the same time as a French tour group, and there were a few local visitors as well. I was immediately taken by the very delicate stone carvings. With their geometrical motifs, they reminded me a bit of the Chaukhandi Tombs in Pakistan. The mosque is walled, with fine gateways (photo 2), and its design with two minarets against the hilly background is picture perfect. On the inside, the carvings are continued in the mihrabs and segregation walls.
For the other parts of the Primary zone of Champaner Archaeological Site, you have to enter the Citadel across the street. This is also where you encounter the infamous village; people have been living inside the walls for decades, housing is permanent and there are shops and businesses. It didn’t bother me too much actually, maybe because I saw worse last year in Pakistan (Rohtas Fort!). It is not as if they are camping on the grounds of the two precious mosques - these are well-protected and gated. Just consider it as separate locations instead of a continuous area as shown on the (very bad) official map.
At the end of the village lies the Shaher ki Masjid (photo 1). The setting with the Pavagadh Hill in the background again is very pretty and its design with multiple domes in a row is similar to what you can see in Bagerhat. In and around the village and the mosques are other points of interest, such as a water tank and a “Custom House”. The smaller Kevda Masjid and Nagina Masjid come recommended in Tripadvisor reviews as well, they can be accessed by following a small road to the right of the Custom House. There are also Jain shrines, some of which have been vandalized earlier this year, and another 11 components towards the town of Halol.
I moved on however to the Hindu pilgrimage part of this WHS: the trek to Pavagadh Hill. Over 2 million people arrive here yearly, so you don’t have to worry about finding transport or something to eat or drink. The first step involves wriggling yourself into one of the Jeeps that provide the transport from the main road (next to the bus station) to the foot of Pavagadh Hill. I think I saw at least 100 of them continuously drive the 5km up the mountain. They pack no less than 20 people in one car! A ride costs 30rs.
At the foot of the hill, the joyful pilgrimage atmosphere already is present, with a lot of people wearing orange robes or shawls. Even the donkeys, the workhorses of this mountain, wear an orange streak in their manes.
To get to the top of the hill, where the Hindu temple is, you can walk another 5km (only steps) or take the cable car (a.k.a. “ropeway”). I was already warned how long the queues could be for the cable car, but OMG: I walked and walked around the foot of the mountain to just find the start of the queue. The waiting time must surely have been 2 hours or more. I wanted to give it a go for an hour or so, to see how far I would advance – but I was “rescued” by some men ahead of me. They pointed me to Gate 3, the entrance for people who booked their cable car tickets online – no queue at all. The guard at first wouldn’t let me in (as of course I didn’t know about the booking process and there wasn’t a reliable data connection at the hill either to quickly do it), but the men argued in my favour: Foreigner! Alone! So finally the guard relented and let me in, and I was able to buy a cable car ticket (150rs) at the regular ticket office. I consider this VIP treatment as payback for the foreigner pricing practiced at all Indian WHS!
Within 15 minutes I was at the top. Here you’ll find a pond where people take ritual baths, an older temple and several shrines. To get to the Kalika Mata Temple you need to climb even more steps, but I skipped this since I had to leave my (good) shoes behind among a pile of thousands! The temple has been heavily reconstructed in 2022 anyway and construction is going on to extend the ropeway so that it arrives all the way up there.
Overall, Pavagadh Hill did feel more like a place for a family outing (I’d guess about a third of all shops along the path sell toys) than an overly religious place. Walking back down, however, I witnessed how the pious tackle this hill: by bowing down and putting a dab of red powder on the stairs at every single step they climb!
Els - 17 November 2024