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1204 of 1223 WHS have been reviewed by our community.
Engelsberg Ironworks
Triath - 28-Sep-24
One of the foundations of Sweden's prosperity in the "Age of Greatness" was iron.
Miraculously, one of the artifacts of this industry has been preserved, the ironworks in the village of Engelsberg. Fortunately, it's quite easy to get here by train.
Earlier, in the 18th century, there were several factories here, as the location is convenient: iron ore, rivers and forest are nearby. But only this factory has survived, and that is due to the efforts of the owners, who decided to preserve it as a heritage. To this day, the factory and all the surrounding land belong to the Johnson family, one of the richest in Sweden. Therefore, there are some restrictions on the territory, since it is private property.Most tourists limit themselves to inspecting the building from the outside, but I booked a place on an guided tour, and it turned out that I was the only person, so I was given a private tour. The guide from local museum not only showed me the furnaces and water wheels, but also told in detail how the factory functioned
Read OnThe Betlém Rock Sculptures near Kuks (T)
Tsunami Japan / USA / Europe - 23-Sep-24
My long time Czech friend Radim recently moved from Brno to a town near Nachod near the Plolish border, and upon visiting him from Wroclaw, Poland, I mentioned to him that I'm interested in visiting the TWHS of the Betlém Rock Sculptures.
So, on one Sunday afternoon in late August, we (Radim, his wife, a daughter, a baby son and me) drove from the Kudowa train station in Poland, where he picked me up, to the TWHS near Kuks.
Betlém means Bethlehem, and in the early 18th century the prominent Earl in this area Franz Anton Sporcka decided to create "a unique complex of religious scenes featuring old hermits and episodes from the life of Christ" with the help of a sculptor Matthias Bernhard Braun who was born in Austria but worked in Bohemia.
Read OnAncient Kyoto
Jgriffindor6 United States - 28-Sep-24
My trip to Kyoto in October of 2023 was really one of the highlights of my two week adventure in Japan. I timed my trip to coincide with the Jidai Matsuri and Kobo Dashi flea market, which were both great experiences that I can't recommend more. I also had a great time collecting goshuin stamps from all the temples and shrines as a fun souvenir. Here's my review of every temple that i managed to visit under this WHS.
Ginkaku-ji: This one was really enjoyable, especially as the culmination of the fun Philosopher's Path. It was raining when we visited, which meant it was thankfully not crowded, and it lent to moody pictures of the main pagoda. Ekiando, although not on the whs, was along the same path and deserves a shout out.
Read OnTorgau Castle Chapel (T)
CugelVance Germany - 16-Jun-24
On the way back to Berlin from Munich on June 12, 2024, I decided to visit Torgau, which is about 50 km northeast of Leipzig. I reached the city of 20,000 inhabitants by train at around 6:30 p.m. I quickly went to my accommodation, checked in and immediately left the pension to go to the market square. Luck was on my side and I got the last free table in the cafe Katharina, where I enjoyed a cold beer and an excellent meal while the evening sun caressed me with its mild rays. After around an hour I left the market square, walked through the attractive old town past the imposing St. Mary's Church to Hartenfels Castle. I crossed the bridge over the bear pit and arrived at the castle around 8:30 p.m. To my great surprise and delight, the castle chapel was open
Read OnAs-Salt
Triath - 28-Sep-24
The city itself, like everything in Jordan, is ancient, the name comes from the Latin saltus - forest.But the real prosperity of the city took place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the administrative regional center of the Ottoman Empire was located here, and even the independence of Transjordan was declared here in 1922 (but the center of power moved to neighboring Amman later).In order to receive an UNESCO status, As-Salt is presented as a place of peaceful and harmonious coexistence of different religions, because in addition to the Great Mosque, there is also a Latin church, two Orthodox churches, and even an Anglican hospital
Read OnBlog Connections
The Most Remote Cultural WHS
Wojciech’s recent review of the Minaret of Jam (“The road from Herat takes 13 hours…”) sparked a debate about whether this Afghan icon is The Most Remote Cultural WHS. A quick look at our “Takes more than 5 days”-connection brings up Bikini Atoll, but all other remote ones listed there are natural or mixed. In a quest to find more Remote Cultural WHS, I took a systematic approach.
The Approach
I started with a subset of sites that are rarely visited: a combination of the ‘least visited WHS’ (cutting it to 10 members or fewer that have visited) and the ones in the '1,000 visitors or fewer' connection. This resulted in a list of 46 different Cultural WHS.
Then I tried to measure the time it takes from a hub city to get to the WHS. With a hub city I mean a place with decent hotels and frequent onward connections to the rest of the country, including an international airport. I used what is mentioned in the reviews and also Google Maps. Timings are calculated under ‘normal’ conditions (no active war, no weather disruptions, not out-of-season).
I also added the time necessary to get from the hub to the international airport, as some hubs are already pretty remote. If that transfer takes 5h or more, I added a * to the site.
Finally, I divided them into 4 groups with increasing grades of remoteness.
The Results
Not too difficult
Even the 46 that are not often visited contain 34 sites that are actually not remote. They are either recent additions to the list so many people haven’t made the detour yet, or places that are quite hard to access for other reasons such as insecurity.
Within 2 hours of a hub are: Ancient ferrous metallurgy sites (Ouagadougou), Ashur (Mosul), Bamiyan Valley (Bamyan), Deer Stone Monuments (Tsetserleg*), Gedeo Cultural landscape (Dila*), Hegmataneh (Hamedan or Kermanshah), Kazan Astronomical Observatories (Kazan), Kuk (Mount Hagen), Kujataa (Narsarsuaq), Melka Kunture and Balchit (Addis Abeba), Ruins of Loropéni (Gaoua*), Sado Island (Niigata). Tadrart Acacus (Ghat or Awaynat), Taputapuātea (Uturoa on Raiatea), Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa (Sibudhu Cave: Durban). The place named within brackets after each WHS is the proposed hub.
With a bit more effort, but still less than 4 hours one way, the following can be reached: Ancient Kingdom of Saba (Sana’a), Hawraman/Uramanat (Sanandaj), Lower Valley of the Awash (Semera), Moidams (Jorhat), Sudanese style mosques (Korhogo), Thimlich Ohinga (Kisumu), Tomb of Askia (Gao, pictured below, (c)Roman Bruehwiler).
Long day trip
It gets really serious with the following ones, which take 4 hours or more to reach from the hub, but are still feasible for a loooong day trip because you desperately want that ‘tick’:
- Al-Faw – hub Abha 5.5h drive
- Dholavira – hub Bhuj, about 4h by car
- Petroglyphs of the Lake Onega and the White Sea – hub Petrozavodsk, “then 370 km by rented car via surprisingly good road to Belomorsk.”
- Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple – hub Hyderabad, 4h by car
- The Royal Court of Tiébélé – hub Ouagadougou, full day trip (~4 hours each way)
Overnight needed
In this final group, the sites are so remote that an overnight stay is required away from the hub. That night is spent in temporary or basic accommodations:
- Bikini Atoll – hub Majuro, 3 days sailing from there.
- Great Burkhan Khaldun - hub Ulaan Bator, the only reports I can find tell about spending the night at a ger camp nearby
- Kenozero Lake - hub Arkhangelsk and still a 470 km ride by rail/car.
- Mbanza Kongo – 6 hours by car from Luanda, can’t see another hub closer and the site is still unreviewed.
- Minaret of Jam – hub Herat or Bamyan, both taking some 13 hours to reach.
- Petroglyphs of the Mongolian Altai – no reviews yet, but the hub seems to be Ölgi (with a domestic airport and 35,000 inhabitants). You’d have to stay overnight camping somewhere closer to the petroglyphs.
- SGang Gwaay – hub Vancouver, requires a flight to Sandspit and at least taking part in a 2-day boat tour to get to the right island.
- Sukur - hasn’t been visited by anyone, so?? Abuja airport is 14 hours away, so definitely a * as well.
I would like to hear whether you have any “intelligence” on the sites in the two last groups and if they can be reached faster. And also when you know of any other cultural WHS that takes at least a long day trip (4 hours or more one way) from a hub.
Els - 13 October 2024
Comments
Els Slots 14 October 2024
Good find, Can. It seems that no one ever used that airport.
Can SARICA 14 October 2024
Al Faw can be reached differently. There is a major airport connected to Riyadh and Jeddah with daily flights in Wadi Al-Dawasir. In addition, there are hotels there that can be booked by using booking.com. From airport, Al-Faw is just 50ish minutes.
Juha Sjoeblom 13 October 2024
I want to add the Struve Geodetic Arc here. Some components in the north can be very hard to reach. Stuorrahanoaivi in the Finnish Lapland is in the middle of wilderness area which requires 25-30 kilometers and two days hike one way from the nearest road. And the nearest road is many hours away from the nearest airport, railway station and/or major city. The Stuorrahanoaivi trek is described here https://en.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Stuorrahanoaivi_trek
Els Slots 13 October 2024
Thanks for the suggestions!
Tsodilo and Serra di Capivara I think both are cases of there being a "minor" hub nearby (Shakawe, Sao Raimundo Nonato) with decent accommodation but they're both still far (4-5h) from a proper city and a visit is not trivial.
Wojciech Fedoruk 13 October 2024
Very interesting post, thank you for the analytical work.
I think Sukur can be done way faster from Maiduguri. Security situation prevents from checking.
Petroglyphs of the Mongolian Altai - some people claim that tick, perhaps it can be done without camping.
Others - I think Khomani, Tsodilo and Sierra da Capivara will suit.