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1204 of 1223 WHS have been reviewed by our community.
As-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 OnChola Temples
Zoë Sheng Chinese-Canadian - 03-Oct-24
Like most people I only visited the Thanjavur temple called Brihadisvara Temple. The other ones aren't far but check this out: I took the train!! Yeah well, even I can be on a budget. Basically you go to the Trichy (that's Tiruchirappalli if you are a newbie), ask for the next train to Thanjavur which is often, pay the cheapo ticket price and ride 45min across the country. The taxis wanted 2,500 for all this - ridiculous, unsure what the apps wanted though. The way back is the same. I asked for the time in advance and they even got me a reserved seat ticket. You can do all that on the apps if you want to so you know the times in advance. You can take a rickshaw or, like me, walk the 15min to the temple. The path is easy and only requires one tough-ish road crossing
Read OnGreat Smoky Mountains
DutchHorn United States - 26-Sep-24
In June we went on a vacation to the Smokey Mountains. I had promised myself a real vacation this year which involves going somewhere that I had not been yet and did not involve visiting family. This vacation fit that request perfectly and we had a great time in this wonderful part of the country where I had not been to before. We walked in the woods including a short part of the Appalachian trail, threw rocks in the river, even tubed down it, hopped on a train and in general relaxed in the great cabin that we had found in Bryson City, North Carolina. The second day there was hiking day as we hiked to the top of the Smokey Mountains National Park. From there you had a great view of miles and miles of green forest all directions.
Read OnGreat Smoky Mountains
Jgriffindor6 United States - 29-Sep-24
I went here on a family trip a few years ago and although we had an amazing time and I give the WHS a solid 4 stars, that does come with some major reservations. One of them being a place that starts with G and ends in burg.
Yes, the infamous Gatlinburg and its partner in crime Pigeon Forge. Being from the West Coast, we had no idea what was in store for us. No clue that Gatlinburg IS the capital of American kitsch. We were just there to go hiking. So obviously we decided to stay in Gatlinburg, not knowing we were entering one of Dante's circles of hell. If you enjoy kitsch or are a foreigner who wants to experience something abnoxiously american just for kicks, then go on ahead. But if you value your sanity do not stay in Gatlinburg.
Read OnThe Ancient City of Sardis and the Lydian Tumuli of Bin Tepe (T)
Christravelblog Netherlands - 30-Sep-24
Sardis is nominated for 2025 inscription. I think it should be as there isn't much Lydia related material on the list and the city played a key role and of course, coinage was "invented" there and without it I would be without a job today.
Sardis, an ancient city of great historical significance, was renowned for its wealth and cultural achievements. As the capital of the Lydian Kingdom, it thrived as a center of trade and innovation. Notably, it was where coinage was first minted, revolutionizing commerce. Sardis played a pivotal role in the Persian Wars, falling to Cyrus the Great in 546 BCE. Later, it became part of the Hellenistic world under Alexander the Great’s conquests and eventually came under Roman rule.
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.