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1205 of 1223 WHS have been reviewed by our community.
Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings
MichaelH - 22-May-25

With a trip to Chicago and Wisconsin in October 2024, I was finally able to complete visits to all the UNESCO inscribed Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. I was only able to view the Jacobs house from the streets, but took a tour of Taliesin, a very worthwhile visit.
The highlight of the trip, which included Chicago, the Oak Park neighborhood and viewings of various other Wright sites was the Estate Tour of Taliesin, which ran from 9:15-1:15. This seemed to the be most comprehensive tour being offered at the time. It included the residence, but also the school, his sister’s home, and an opportunity to view many of the other Wright designed out buildings – barns, a windmill, and more.
Read OnAncient Jericho
ZCTLife USA - 23-May-25
Unfortunately, due to my then wife damaging my phone in the Dead Sea and our subsequent divorce (unrelated events), I don’t have any photos of our trip to the Holy Land.
Jericho is at least 10,000 years old, probably 12,000, maybe older. Americans have trouble wrapping our heads around such long ago time periods. Jericho dates back to the beginnings of agricultural settlements around the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia. The last Ice Age was ending and a warming world enabled people to settle permanently. Jericho as a community likely predates those first agricultural settlements, although such simple groups leave no traces. The walls are 9,000 years old—the oldest known walled city in the world—, and that’s of course what made the city so famous. But the Bible story of Jericho (Joshua 6:1-27) only dates back 3,500 years, and the song less than 200 years
Read OnAs-Salt
Frédéric M Canada - 23-May-25

I visited As-Salt in February 2025 from Amman. By asking some very helpful men, I managed to find the very cheap minibus to As-Salt from the North bus terminal in Amman. The minibus dropped me off directly at the entrance to the city. For the return journey, the logistics were just as simple, but it's worth noting that the minibuses leave from down the hill, after the flea market.
I began my stroll through the city on Prince Hasan Bin Talal Street, where you'll find a few rather pretty buildings (the Mismar House at number 21, but see also the one at number 37 with its twisted columns). I then moved on to the city's most impressive mansion, the Abu Jaber Museum (on the left in the photo, with its reddish roof). Here you'll find a tourist information center and some rather uninteresting exhibits. The maps described by previous reviewers were only available in Arabic when I visited. I then climbed up to the Haj Hamdi Mosque Alanis to enjoy the plunging views over the city (photo). The amazement was not there, however. As-Salt isn't particularly pretty, with its faded buildings and exposed electric wires
Read OnRock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo
J_neveryes Canada - 24-May-25

"I liked it better before I saw the cave churches in Cappadocia," I said to my friend, who didn't really ask for my opinion of the Churches of Ivanovo.
Not the most nuanced assessment, I know, but it does reflect the fact that while the church (singular) is interesting, but it can compare less favourably to other old religious sites that are carved into cliffs/mountains/remote areas. To give an illustration, I initially gave Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo a rating of 3.5 stars. After visiting the churches in Cappadocia, however, I revised the rating to 3 stars, even though I know that the ratings do not have to be in relation to other sites.
Read OnVersailles
MichaelH - 20-May-25

Having visited Versailles on two prior occasions during the off-months, I decided to spend the last day of my recent vacation at Versailles, even though it was a Sunday and likely to be crowded. Because of the timing of my earlier visits, I had not been able to appreciate the gardens and their fountains. My first visit many years ago had been on a cold overcast December day, so I spent little time in the gardens.
My Passport ticket was 32 euros and required selection of a time slot for entry into the palace. It was a relatively late decision so entry times to the palace were all booked before the mid-afternoon. That was fine with me as I can find the crowds thin out some in the late afternoon, with fewer large groups.
Read OnBlog WHS Visits
WHS #974: Mount Kenya
The Community Perspective of our Mount Kenya site page only states: “This site requires an up-to-date review.” – I have hinted at it already several times, wondering how a site that has been ticked by 63 members has only had one, tiny review dating back to 2006. I would guess that 90% of the “visits” here were drive-by ones. Even then, the mountain, with its characteristic rugged, glaciated peaks, isn’t always easy to see, as it is often covered in clouds. This is the best I could get, at 7 in the morning from the pool area of my lodge:
Mount Kenya is known for its several vegetation bands with Afro-alpine flora from the base to the peak. I stayed for 3 nights at the Naro Moru River Lodge, a little oasis outside of the park borders, where you can experience the vegetation and wildlife of the lower regions of the mountain at 1,970m altitude. At night, you may hear the screaming of the tree hyraxes, and during the day, you’ll find many birds typical for the region (the lodge’s bird list includes a significant number of 399 species). The Cinnamon-chested bee-eaters put on a good show, but my favourite was the White-eyed Slaty-Flycatcher with its distinctive white ring around the eyes.
To enter the core zone of the WHS, there are three options: Mount Kenya National Park, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, and Ngare Ndare Forest. The latter two were extensions and also include the Elephant corridor, where African elephants migrate with the season, away from the mountain when it gets too cold, and back when it gets too dry in the lowlands. They even have an elephant tunnel here, to avoid the main road! I decided against visiting the National Park as any hikes there seemed tough (uphill at high altitude). Lewa Conservancy is a formerly private reserve now owned by an NGO, with only exclusive accommodation on its grounds and very high entrance fees (198 USD per day). So that left me with Ngare Ndare forest, which is managed by a community organization that promotes ecotourism.
I went there with a driver/guide from my lodge. When you see the density of population in this area and the many farms (mostly producing flowers and linseed oil), you will immediately understand what a conservation success it has been that the remaining forest of Ngare Ndare is now protected. We picked up an armed ranger at the entrance, as all exploring here is done on foot and there are wild animals about (including the fairly dangerous elephants and black rhinos). The ranger started by telling that he had to fire a warning shot yesterday when he encountered a family of elephants while guiding a group of tourists. The program offered at Ngare Ndare is fixed: there's a 3km forest hike to a natural pool, and afterwards you will be sent to do the Canopy Walkway. You pay per tourist per day, plus a vehicle and a guide fee (all only collected via M-Pesa). I think you have to announce a few days beforehand that you will be visiting, at least their website suggests so and they need to have rangers available of course.
The hike was a bit of a mix of a walking safari and a forest trail. Except for one giraffe, we did not encounter any large animals, but we saw their tracks. They've managed to get the number of black rhinos at the combination of Lewa Conservancy & Ngare Ndare up to over 270 over the years (there were only 74 when the site was inscribed in 2013). Among the trees, the African olive trees and the Red cedars stood out.
I finished my visit at the Canopy walkway (they call it "the bridge"). It seems to have been made from iron wire, like a fence. And it is long, 450 meters. Due to the time of day, we did not see many birds from the bridge, although I came eye-to-eye with a pretty Hartlaub's turaco.
Els - 15 June 2025
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