Blog TWHS Visits

2025 WHC: Carnac

The 2025 WHC will probably bring us the inscription of number 31 on our Missing List: Carnac. Two other 2025 nominations, Neuschwanstein Castle and the Minoan Palaces, are even higher on that list, so it might become a good year. Carnac is on the Tentative List as ‘Megalithic Sites of Carnac’, but the nomination has been renamed ‘Carnac and Shores of the Morbihan megaliths’. It has been put forward as a Cultural landscape and comprises four components with thousands of standing stones and tombs. The TWHS has a 100% recommendation after 24 votes from our community.

Carnac is a representative of the European megalithic tradition since the Neolithic, which also includes the Megalithic Temples of Malta and multiple sites in the UK and Ireland, such as Stonehenge and Brú na Bóinne. While at other subjects we’ve now ended up at very niche Tier 3 sites, Carnac undoubtedly is at Tier 1 among its peers. The nominated area covers 19,598 ha, about 4x as large as Stonehenge/Avebury and 6x the sites in Malta. Its oldest parts significantly predate Stonehenge and overlap with the earliest timelines of Newgrange and Ħaġar Qim.

What took France so long to put this forward? Breton nationalists may claim it was subordination by “Paris”, but it just has been a long and careful process which has been described on the official nomination website. The story already starts in 1980, when Carnac was part of France’s first Tentative List (we had overlooked that; I’ve now updated the Site History accordingly). It stayed there until a revised list was submitted in 1984. It reappeared in 1996.

Along the way, things evolved:

  1. Although the sites have been popular tourist and scientific destinations since the 19th century, it took until the 1990s for them to be properly managed and protected. The Table des Marchands (a major dolmen at Locmariaquer) was only excavated and restored in the early 1990s for example.
  2. The scope changed from Carnac Alignments only in 1980 to multiple megalithic locations in the Morbihan area in the current proposal.
  3. In 2005, major excavations brought to light connections between the elements. 
  4. In 2011, an Association was created to streamline the nomination process.
  5. Thanks to its size, many actors are involved so it is a slow process to keep them all on board. Some opposition from landowners has been reported in the past. 

I started my visit at the Carnac Alignments component. Winter is a good time to visit as you’re allowed on the trail amidst the stones by yourself and there will be much less visitors overall. Entrance to the Alignments is also free from October-March. I was lucky with the weather in early March: sunny, blue skies. I parked at the Ménec alignments and then continued on foot. Nothing can prepare you for the first sight of the endless rows of neatly arranged standing stones. I walked most of the ‘Alignments trail’ that connects Ménec with the other Alignments. You can also go by car as all have (smallish) car parks. 

The best part I found at the start of Kermario Alignment: it’s here that the standing stones get taller, a complete dolmen can be found (Photo 2) and you get the iconic views of the rolling hills covered with rows of stones. Unfortunately, late afternoon isn’t the best time of day for pictures from the viewing tower at the opposite end as it faces the sun. I also think that on-site interpretation could be more informative, although I understand that not much is known about the idea behind the Alignments. Here and there you still see markers left by people who oppose the fencing of the whole area.

Two days later, I went to the Locmariaquer component. As the crow flies, it lies only 8 km from the Alignments, though it is a bit further by road. The main part here is a cluster of three major monuments. A 7 EUR fee has to be paid to enter, but they let you watch a good video that provides a bit more context. The individual monuments (a 140m long tumulus, a dolmen and the grand fallen menhir) have information panels as well. The ruins of the Grand Menhir (Photo 3) – fallen and broken, possibly due to an earthquake - are the most impressive. Parts have been reused as spolia in the dolmen at the site, they have some simple carvings as well (plus a bit of historical graffiti, I think I read "Gazelle"?).

Els - 23 March 2025

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Els Slots 23 March 2025

No, nothing official. Just how I perceive for example Koh Ker - a Tier 3 Khmer site (I wrote in my review: "But we are getting to the Tier 3 sites now I think, with Angkor solely occupying Tier 1 of the Khmer sites and the current WHS Sambor Prei Kuk and Preah Vihear holding Tier 2.").

It has more to do with "importance" than our rating system which is a bit of a mix of quality of the visit and intrinsic quality of the site.

Astraftis 23 March 2025

Are the tiers an official classification? 😬 Or maybe something we can determine from the site's statistics!

Blog WHS Visits

WHS #957: Djerba

This is the first review of a visit to the Djerba WHS after its inscription. The site has received horrible reviews and an exceptionally low rating from our community, but I thought maybe it would all make more sense with the help of an OUV-frame. It’s about a dispersed but homogenous settlement and land-use pattern, characterized for example (but not limited to) self-sufficient rural communities with their own water supply, palm groves and tiny mosques. That’s why it includes 22 rather featureless and abandoned neighbourhood mosques.  

For my visit, I tried to make a representative pick from the locations without having to rent a car. In the morning, I visited 4 components in and north of the capital city Houmt Souk. The medina of Houmt Souk is not a rural settlement, of course, but the trade town where everything ended up. Included is just a small zone (the old funduqs, the covered market, the Mosque of the Turks and St. Joseph Church; but not Borj El Ghazi Mustapha). It feels like a smaller version of the Medina of Tunis, and even in the early morning, it is all geared up to receive the French and German beach tourists. I then walked on to another component, the Church of St. Nicholas. A sign on the door says that it only opens on Thursdays from 10-13. The sizeable church (photo 1) can only be seen from the sidewalk across the street.

My next goal was the Mosque of Sidi Smain (photo 2), located along the Houmt Souk Corniche. This is one of the fortified mosques that formed a defense system along the coast. It lies across the street from a much prettier newer mosque with the same name, but it's only this old one that is inscribed. The last one on my morning visit was the Mosque of Sidi Zekri. This is situated in what is locally known as the ‘Tourist Zone’, although it’s more surrounded by wasteland and half-finished apartment buildings. It’s an underground mosque of an interesting design, but you cannot enter.

In the afternoon, I went southward, first by taxi to Erriadh. Formerly known as Hara Seghira, this was a major Jewish neighbourhood. It’s now a small town that tempts to attract the selfie crowd by creating “Djerbahood”, streets full of murals (photo 3). I had no idea where to find former Jewish landmarks such as the yeshiva described in the nomination file.

I then walked on for 10 minutes to reach the El Gribah synagogue. I had read online that there’s an entrance fee and that you have to show your passport, but nothing was asked for. Your bag has to go through a security scanner, but that’s all. Tunisian military personnel guard the entrance road since the site has suffered from several terrorist attacks over the past decades. You can visit the synagogue interior freely (it’s open daily, except Saturday, in the morning and late afternoon) and take pictures. Next to it lies a courtyard with rooms for Jewish pilgrims.

The Verdict

I tried hard to understand and like it more than the previous visitors did, but despite my research and having all documentation available, I came back even more confused. There may be a hint of OUV here or there (the sheer survival of the El Ghriba synagogue, the distinctive defensive lines formed by its coastal mosques), but what really put me off was the lack of interpretation on site. It also fails on almost all of the WHS Commandments. Djerba feels like a kid that has received yet another present (World Heritage status that was apparently so urgent it required an AB overrule) and never even unpacked it 2 years later.

The official number of locations is also confusing: I think we have another (the 23rd!) example of “Incorrect UNESCO 'Number of locations'” here. The site was nominated as a serial site of 31 components: the nomination dossier, the maps, and the ICOMOS evaluation all have 31. However, the UNESCO website currently shows 30 components, and the 2024 SOC report by Tunisia had 32. A “Zone Côtière inhabitée” was added in the northwest, while Khazroun / Sedghiene / Guecheine are seen as one by UNESCO where they are separate elsewhere. I don’t see a decision about a boundary modification, so my best guess is that the original 31 locations are still valid.

Practicalities

  • If you want to see a fair number of the 30+ components, you’d need to rent a car or charter a driver for half a day as the sites are so scattered around the island and some are really remote. I did my 6 components on foot and by taxi. There are local buses as well, but they don’t run often. Taxis on Djerba are a good bet since they are plentiful, routinely use the meter and are cheap (about 3 EUR for a 15-minute ride). Bikes can be rented as well (and even quads!), but as with hiking, the sun is fierce and the distances are just a bit too long.
  • I stayed overnight in the old center of Houmt Souk, in a nicely renovated townhouse (Dar Lola) in the core zone. Houmt Souk is mostly alive during the day when the day-trippers from the beach resorts come and visit. In the evenings, many restaurants were closed. Maybe this was also caused by it being Ramadan: so they did not bother to open at all if they couldn’t serve lunch. Shops and supermarkets remained open during the day. 

Els - 16 March 2025

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The First List

While adding the plaque photos, I came across this pretty marker sent to me by Sebasfhb and found at the Wieliczka Salt Mine. It shows the first 12 sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, so it is essentially a plaque for all WHS of 1978. It prompted me to look closely at how these 12 came to be the first.

The nomination process in 1978

The World Heritage Committee (WHC) responsible for confirming the first list gathered in Washington DC, from 5-8 September 1978.  The text of the World Heritage Convention itself was drafted in 1972. In 1977 there had already been a first WHC meeting, where they decided on subjects like amendments to the draft text of the WH convention and a printed form to be filled in for a nomination, and where the wish was expressed that “the World Heritage List should be exclusive and ..drawn up with extreme care”. 

As was common in the first years, a Bureau Meeting preceded the WHC in June 1978. Here, a select group of 6 Members (Chair, Rapporteur, Vice-Chairs - together known as the "Bureau") reviewed the nominations received and the evaluations IUCN, ICCROM and ICOMOS presented. Their job was mainly to filter the nominations and to decide which ones would be brought to the table at the WHC in September. There was to be no substantive discussion on the individual sites during the WHC. The Bureau Members had little preparation as well: "some members of the Bureau had only received copies of the nominations that morning".

Sites that missed out

12 sites eventually got inscribed, but many more were proposed. Most were formally Re- or Deferred at the Bureau session for various reasons:

Auschwitz (Poland) fell victim to a hastily introduced new rule at the Bureau Meeting to only allow 2 nominations per year by a country. ICOMOS(!) chose the Wieliczka Salt Mine (the “most important”) and Krakow over Auschwitz. The latter got a Referral with a positive recommendation for 1979, when it indeed was inscribed. There was no word on the potential controversial status of this early “site of memory”.

Poland also “lost” Warsaw (needed further expert study to see if it met the criterion of authenticity) and Bialowieza (to await expert evaluation by the IUCN European Bison Committee) at that stage.

Regarding Djoudj (Senegal), additional information was requested about the possible dam construction “which would jeopardize site’s integrity”.

Lake Ichkeul (Tunisia) had a positive recommendation from the Bureau but was deferred eventually at the WHC, because requested additional information on water quality and assurances of continued supply had not come through. Also, for Zembra and Zembretta Islands National Park, there wasn't enough documentation for IUCN to perform a full evaluation. Two other nominations, Djebel Bou Hedma National Park and Djebel Chambi National Park, were withdrawn by Tunisia. The first one still lingers on its T List.

For Fasil Ghebbi, Gondar (Ethiopia), more information was needed. Eight other Ethiopian sites were deferred as well due to “inadequate documentation”. These were: Lower Valley of the Awash, Adulis, Tiya, Melka-Kontoure, Matara, Aksum, Yeha, Lower Valley of the Omo. It is remarkable to see that 75% of Ethiopia’s current WH List of 12 was already proposed so early. From the ones not inscribed later on, Adulis and Matara are now part of the country of Eritrea (and not on its T List), and Yeha has reappeared on Ethiopia’s T List in 2020.

Syria put in a request for funding for the sites of Damascus, Aleppo, Bosra and Palmyra, but did not submit nomination files. The 4 sites did get official IDs, though: 20, 21, 22 and 23, respectively. They kept those til the inscription years later (Aleppo only in 1986).

A closer look at the 12 that got inscribed

Ordered by official ID, which seems to have been handed out at the acceptance of the nomination dossier, the following sites were inscribed:

1 - Galapagos Islands (photo 3)
2 - Quito
3 - Aachen Cathedral
4 - L'Anse aux Meadows
9 - Simien National Park (photo 2)
18 - Lalibela
24 - Nahanni National Park
26 - Island of Gorée
27 - Mesa Verde
28 - Yellowstone
29 - Kraków
32 - Wieliczka Salt Mine

Some trivia:

  • With an average rating of 4.08, according to our community, 1978 still represents the best year in WH history. 
  • Iain Jackson was and still is the only member to have visited all 12 WHS of 1978. At 11, Gary Arndt, Roger Ourset (both missing Simien NP), Michael Novins, Atila Ege, and Roman Bruehwiler (all missing Nahanni) came close. 10 more lack visits to 2 WHS.
  • Only 7 different countries had sites inscribed; 5 of them had two sites. 36 countries had ratified the WH Convention at the time.
  • No site in Asia was recognized. Also, Iran was the only WHC member representing that continent at the meeting.

Els - 9 March 2025

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Els Slots 11 March 2025

Good point, Astraftis, regarding "Probably there was the tendency to favour "special" places beyond the most known ones, which was taken as granted and maybe not considered in need of immediate protection." - from what I read about 1978, there also was the appeal of getting a budget allocated (it may explain the actions of Ethiopia). Maybe I will do a follow-up post about the first 5-10 years, zooming in on that aspect.

Astraftis 10 March 2025

Very interesting! I love this history of WHS.

With regard to Clyde's question, beyond the bureaucratic reasons explained by Solivagant, I have the impression that at the time there seemed to be a slightly different idea about what needed to be nominated. Probably there was the tendency to favour "special" places beyond the most known ones, which was taken as granted and maybe not considered in need of immediate protection.

Val Camonica was enjoying some popularity in those years. Some years before, in 1975, the coat of arms (later also flag) of Lombardy was inspired by its rock art. This was probably due to the surge in their studies in the '60s. And so they landed on Italy's list as #1. Roman ruins and historical city centers are perhaps too obvious.

On the more futile side of things, I was thinking that we could assign ourselves some kind of number based on the codes of the first non-visited sites on the list... well, since I have never been to Americas, it is an easy 1-2-4, not really exciting.

Els Slots 10 March 2025

You're right about the numbers, Ian. They can be found here: https://whc.unesco.org/document/341

Ian Cade 10 March 2025

Thanks very much for this Els, a nice little deep dive.

It also helps explain something that has niggled me for ages, why are there no site numbers 5,6,7 (they must be the 3 Tunisian unsuccessful nominations) or 11 & 14 (which must be the 2 unsuccessful Ethiopian/ Eritrean nominations)

I'm sure the answer to that already existed somewhere on this site, but it eluded me until today.

Solivagant 9 March 2025

@Clyde "Any idea how come Italy and China had no site at the time?"
The World was very different 47 years ago at the time of the 1978 WHC
a. Italy didn't ratify the WH Convention until 23 Sept 1978 - after the Bureau meeting of that year. It did well to get Valcamonica nominated and inscribed the next year (1979) as its first WHS... an interesting choice, perhaps reflecting that it wanted something reasonably "simple" to start with? Rome waited until 1980.
b. China didn't ratify unti 12 Dec 1985!! I made my first visit to China in Jun 1978..... The Gang of Four had only been toppled in Oct 1976.... and the country was in a period of interregnum with Deng Xiaoping just reasserting himself under Huaguofeng ...but not yet in control.....and the rest is History!

clyde 9 March 2025

Interesting! Any idea how come Italy and China had no site at the time? 2 each were probably not enough...

Sebasfhb 9 March 2025

Great history! Nice to see my photograph still was of some use

Jay T 9 March 2025

Thanks for the deep dive on the first class of World Heritage Sites. They remain a goal of mine, and I'm hoping for some progress on more of them this year. I'm fascinated to see what was proposed so early on; I'd never looked up that history.

Blog WHS website

Plaque Project Update

Last October, we started the inventory of WHS Plaques, with many community members posting their info at the dedicated forum topic since. I'd like to give a big thanks to all who have contributed. Especially to Clyde, who is the go-to guy to answer the question “Where’s the plaque?” since he has been fascinated with them for a long time. About 70% of the WHS now have at least one plaque registered. 

Findings from the first stage

A total of 1179 plaque locations have been put forward, spanning 851 sites.  Over 1100 pictures of plaques were shared.

  • We found out that some plaques that had been photographed previously are no longer present on site. So there is a Plaque History as well. I’ve added those older ones to the repository as well (with a remark) since they may have had interesting designs.
  • When No Plaque has been found on a site, this is also logged.
  • Some sites have dozens of small plaques, one for each monument. Here, I tried to follow the logic of making separate entries only when they are at official separate components.
  • As always, when you’re taking on big projects, there’s a bycatch as well: this was really the first time that I used the location names in overview lists. Some were outdated or unnecessarily long, like “Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury, Kent”. In those cases, I updated the location names as well.

Incorporating them into the website

The full plaque overview can be found on this revised page: WHS Plaque Collection. When you click on a thumbnail picture in the list, you’ll get a larger version to view the plaque in more detail. I think it is great to browse through them and:

The page lists all plaques suggested so far, but adding all available photos is still a work in progress. Both Solivagant and Clyde gave me access to hundreds from their private collections.

Also, there’s a block on each site page that displays the applicable plaque(s). This is a temporary solution – maybe they would be better stored in an album, but we don’t have the functionality for that at the moment. 

Photo policy

For the plaque photos the same photo policy is applicable as elsewhere on this website:

  • The copyright of the photos stays with the original owner. The photo credit is shown.
  • Photos taken by community members are preferred over those from the public domain.

Also, I have

  • Chosen the clearest picture if we have more than one, preferably with the plaque being the center, with a little bit of the setting (on a wall, a stone, etc) showing. No people present.
  • Stored the photos in a reusable way (standard naming and in 3 sizes).
  • Watermarked the large pictures to discourage theft of this unique collection.
  • Not used external sources such as Shutterstock and Alamy (as the unpaid versions are covered in watermarks) and sources that don't allow deeplinks.

Things to do and how you can help

We’re not done yet! I will be adding the remaining photos that have already been delivered or suggested. There are still hundreds to go, so that will take me several weeks.

Where you can help is that we need plaque locations (and plaque photos) for the 372 missing WHS. I’ve put a list, ordered by country, of the missing ones on the Plaque Topic on the Forum. You can add the specifics there and/or send them by e-mail to els@worldheritagesite.org. Brazil, China, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Peru, Russia, South Africa, and Vietnam are countries that are especially underrepresented at the moment.

And if you have any photos of your own that could replace those now marked as coming from an “external source”, I’d also be grateful.

Els - 2 March 2025

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Most Difficult Countries to visit a WHS in

When I wrote about the TWHS Masters three weeks ago, I was surprised to find that people who visited all or almost all countries were missing out on also having visited (T)WHS in those countries. A drop of 30-40 is not uncommon. I decided to have a closer look at which countries are the hardest to visit a WHS in, and why the WHS in those countries may have stayed unvisited.

None of the WHS visited

At the moment, 168 states have at least one WHS. The best scorer (Shihe Huang) among the community members has visited WHS in 154 countries. So he misses 14, and the others at the top of the rankings even lack up to 35 countries. 

So which countries do they miss? Looking at the Top 16 members displayed in the rankings, together they have 94 different countries where they are missing a visit. The 10 Most Difficult are:

 

A few other countries just outside the Top 10 are notable as well, as they have more than 3 WHS to choose from but are rarely covered: Burkina Faso (4), Cote d’Ivoire (5), DRC (5), and Tajikistan (4). You can find the full list here.

General factors that come into play

Not visited the country at all

Obviously, if you haven’t visited a country, you won’t have visited any WHS in it either. This isn’t a big factor among this group of well-travelled members though: 6 of the 16 have visited all 193 countries and 7 others have 138+ (mostly in the 150s). For the remaining 3 I couldn’t find any public sources for their UN count.

Open or closed to tourists, dangerous or not, difficult and expensive visas: the people at the top of these rankings have travelled for so many years that such complicating factors have little impact. Only 4 miss out on Yemen for example.

Only WHS in their country

30 countries have only one WHS, and all of them (except for the city-state WHS Luxembourg and San Marino) figure on the ‘Most Difficult’ longlist of 94. Some people are even stumbling on the Singapore Botanic Gardens, Santo Domingo or Bridgetown. Six of the ten most difficult countries have only one WHS. So 'having only one WHS' seems to be a major defining factor.

The Inheritance Effect

There’s an administrative factor as well: if you have ticked one component of a serial transnational or transboundary site, you will “automatically” get a tick for the other countries involved, even when you may have never set foot there. So if you have visited Sangha in C.A.R., you will also get Cameroon and the Republic of Congo! Moldova is also a notorious example, as a visit to any Struve site will give you a Moldova tick as well. Unfortunately, due to the way we register visits on this website, I cannot differentiate between them. 

But I don’t think this is a major factor: most transnational and transboundary sites are located in countries that are well-covered anyway (Europe, North America). Only Qhapaq Nan will get you a big bonus (6 countries), and if you have made it in time to the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex it will give you 3 fairly difficult countries in return (Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso).

Country specific factors

When we zoom in on the individual countries, the following observations can be made:

Single and remote, costly, specialist WHS

Remote island WHS are always hard, as they are costly and also require a specific interest in marine activities.

  • Marshall Islands: people often 'tick' the country via the Island Hopper Flights that will land you on Majuro Atoll. But its only WHS is Bikini Atoll, 3 days further away by a chartered ship. Only 2 people from the whole community claim to have visited it.
  • Kiribati has a similar pattern: its Phoenix Islands require a private or chartered vessel. 3 people within the whole community have visited; all are part of the Top 16.
  • And Solomon Islands to a lesser extent as well: its main airport at Honiara is better connected to the outside world, but East Rennell requires an onward domestic flight that goes twice a week and then "a car ride more expensive than the flight". 3 members have visited, 2 of them are within the Top 16 of this survey.

Odd, single WHS 

Although a country’s first WHS often is its major tourist site or a place in or near the capital, a few countries have made odd choices:

  • The low ranking of Angola I think is due to three factors: it was a hard country to visit because of visas etc for a long time, its only WHS Mbanza Kongo is quite out of the way, ánd Mbanza Kongo is a relatively recently added WHS so it usually takes a while for visitors to catch up. 
  • There are several valid reasons to visit Papua New Guinea, but Kuk? It lies close to Mt. Hagen though, so it is accessible, but most people wouldn’t bother as it seems so unappealing. 
  • Guinea has only one WHS, Mount Nimba, far from the capital and without a tourist infrastructure. It even is a transboundary WHS, shared with Cote d’Ivoire, but few people will have visited that side either.

Not wanting to pay up for Central Africa

The following Central African countries all have more than one WHS, but still are in the top 10 least visited countries. You can’t get away with covering capital cities only here.

  • Chad: two good WHS, but they take time, money and stamina to reach. Maybe the heat, the wild camping and the need for an agency also deters people.
  • Cameroon: easy country but its two WHS both require (expensive) specialist agencies to get into and are not so popular that sharing is an option.
  • Central African Republic: realistically only one of its two WHS is reachable, but again: time, money and stamina are needed.
  • Republic of Congo: both its fine WHS are accessible on specialist tours.

My conclusion is that the main factors why some countries aren't covered well are: (a) having only 1 WHS, plus (b) the cost versus perceived benefits of reaching that WHS if it lies out of the way. People who don't like marine sites aren't going to pay for a 10k+ EUR chartered voyage to a remote island, and neither do people who dislike the desert go all the way in Chad. 

Els - 23 February 2025

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Philipp Peterer 25 February 2025

25 days of holiday of course :)

Philipp Peterer 25 February 2025

Here's my "hobby traveler" take on this. It simply makes no sense to visit any of these sites at this stage of my life. I have 25 holidays per year and can't even dedicate all of them to WHS travel due to family obligations. Thus, whenever I plan a trip I try to go for clusters and the least amount of travel time per WHS. If I stay healthy, I can cover the ones that need a multi day boat ride later.

Luboang 23 February 2025

Interesting topic! High cost vs. lack of interest in particular types of WHS vs. safety concerns vs. too much time and effort investment required is a good mixture which doesnt allow me to bother thinking of/ or even dream of for that matter of visiting good number of WHS.
Conclusion: base yourself in Europe.

Blog WHS Visits

WHS #956: Cidade Velha

Cidade Velha is an easy, short excursion from Santiago’s (and Cabo Verde’s) capital Praia. A bay, a few cobbled streets, remains of Portuguese fortifications and churches – you know what it looks like even before you have seen it. I tried a different approach for my visit and went for a guided hike through the Ribeira Grande Valley. This way I also ticked one of the other activity boxes I had for Cabo Verde: “Do a hike in the countryside” (as the archipelago is known as a hiker's paradise).

When you look at the official map of Cidade Velha WHS, you’ll notice that not only the seaside town is included but also a much larger area inland. The boundaries of the core zone follow the canyon that was carved out by the river Ribeira Grande. This area is linked to a specific part of the site’s OUV: the “acclimatisation and dissemination of numerous plant species between the temperate and tropical zones”. The Portuguese colonists experimented with various crops here in the 16th and 17th centuries, starting unsuccessfully with cereals but later finding out that plants from Africa’s mainland (coconut) and Latin America (maize) did well.

We started our hike in the village of Calabaceira. From there, a marked trail leads down into the valley. The guided hike is labelled as “an easy and accessible path for every hiker” by the tour company, but the volcanic soil is rocky all the time and especially going down you have to stay concentrated so as not to slip. 

Already at the start, we saw a troop of Green monkeys (mammal migrants from West Africa); the guide said that they always run away to a higher spot on the cliffs when they see humans on the path – and that is what they did when we passed as well. The views here at the beginning of the trail are stunning as you look into the evergreen valley with a great variation of trees. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the island, which is pretty barren in the dry months of winter. There’s a natural spring here that provides water all year for irrigation.

Halfway down the ridge, we came across the first farms. Nowadays most farmers live in Praia and only come during the season to work the land (and return home in the evening). There’s a good variation in crops: two kinds of bananas, mangoes, papaya, tamarind, figs, and berries. The most popular plant however seems to be sugarcane, as it forms the main ingredient of the highly alcoholic drink grogue. 

In the valley, we followed the dry river bed (flat, but still a lot of stones!). Here we stopped at a single huge baobab, said to be over 400 years old. Cabo Verde’s baobabs are linked to the visit of Charles Darwin to the island in 1873: his first real “taste” of tropical vegetation, and the longevity of baobabs got him thinking about the age of the earth. The specimen he saw apparently is no longer there, but this one must have been mature at the time and quite a sight as well. Like Darwin, we also saw several Grey-headed kingfishers – it’s funny to encounter a species of this globally common bird family not near water, but behaving the same as always: sit still on a branch and wait until an insect crawls by.

After 4km of walking, which took us 2 hours, we arrived on the outskirts of the town of Cidade Velha. We found a simple distillery squeezing the juice out of the sugarcane to prepare it for being turned into grogue. Sugarcane stalks also comprise the traditional material for the roofs of houses, as can be seen in the old street Rua da Banana. 

Els - 16 February 2025

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Blog WH Travellers

Tours to WHS

My recent trip to all 10 WHS of Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia was a mix of 3 styles: a Group Tour for Mauritania, independent travel in North Senegal and a Private Tour for Gambia and East Senegal. I do not regret these choices. The downsides of organized travel were mitigated by not having to endure them for a long time. Let’s look at what Tours to WHS can bring you.

Pros and cons of tours

1.      Convenience versus lack of first-hand experience

Although I always first try to cover places individually, sometimes the infrastructure just isn’t there (or very complicated/expensive) to do it on your own. Desert trips like Mauritania and Chad require 4WD driving skills and travelling in a convoy. Manu NP requires a boat and camping in the jungle. Without a tour, you would not even get there. 

The downside is that when I don’t organize it all myself, I feel less prepared and the memories don’t stay with me as long.

2.      Local perspective versus cost of adding a guide

A good guide can be your key to unlocking the country, adding local perspective without the guide having to be a scholar on the Almohad Caliphate or Saloum Delta ecology.

But it is always a gamble whether they deliver on this. A minimum tour leader standard (good English, decent communication and organization skills – qualities you will only start to appreciate when they are absent) is usually aimed for, but most cannot go beyond that level. This is especially true in countries with few tourists, the only kind of countries you take a tour for anyway. Photo 1 shows our Mauritanian guide dancing - an activity both we and he could have done without.

Often you are better off hiring a driver with good language skills. 

3.      Seeing all points of interest versus missing the point

Tours often are all-day affairs, to keep you busy for 12 hours or so. They follow a set itinerary and often use minor, ‘filler’ attractions in the area to offer their guests a varied menu as they cater to an audience of different interests. 

When I travel individually, I make the WHS the center of the day. I spend there as much time as needed. Often I don’t go anywhere else on that day. But I’ve been on tours where I have sat all day waiting for a WHS visit to happen after a kitschy modern palace, a village visit and a belated lunch, reaching the WHS just in time before sunset (I am describing my Moenjodaro visit, during the Pakistan-tour-from-hell). 

So go for a private tour if you can afford it – this way you can make sure, both beforehand and on the day itself, that your interests are prioritized.

Best guided site tours

A special kind of tour is the ‘guided site visit’: sometimes obligatory (you have to join a group to shuffle with 30 others through a palace), but at other times a more in-depth visit of multiple hours up til a day with a knowledgeable guide in a private or small group setting. 

If I can find a good one of the latter, I am always prepared to pay for a tour to enhance my WH site visit. I scanned my reviews of visits to WHS for the ones I remember most fondly, and these came out best:

  • Xochimilco (private tour): a very relaxed day tour centered around the produce of the floating gardens (photo above), an essential part of the Mexico City WHS. We visited farmers, ate with them, looked at their produce in the field and at the market. A peek into a lifestyle I could never have organized myself.
  • Lake Baikal (private tour): a full day in Baikalsky Nature Reserve, taking in the views, hiking through a Siberian pine forest and observing the ringing of birds (not an activity I would have chosen myself considering my slight ornithophobia, but it was enlightening).
  • Matobo Hills (small group tour): seeing varied aspects of this hard-to-grasp site, including a wild chase of a baby rhino with the unforgettable Andy.
  • Both Brazilian Atlantic Forest sites, South East and Discovery Coast (private tour): exploring them in the company of passionate Brazilian guides (the best company overall you can have; the photo below was taken in Guarau) who were well-educated ecologists.

Other good bets are sites where there isn’t much to see above ground such as Fort Ancient (Hopewell), where I got a deep dive into the subject on a tour conducted by the Site Manager talking about the complex history of this specific site, or Vredefort Dome.

Do you have any memorable guided day tours to (T)WHS that improved the experience?

Els - 9 February 2025

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Comments
Elena Y 9 February 2025

I've never done a full tour, but I think the "Wawel: The Most Precious" guided tour in Wawel Castle was my key to enjoying the site. They have a very odd ticketing system where you can either choose single areas of the castle to go to or spend a premium for an all-access pass. The Most Precious tour was a nice in-between and though it's a highlights thing (still two-and-a-half hours!), I felt pretty satisfied that I had seen everything worth seeing.

Els Slots 9 February 2025

My guides in Brazil only spoke Brazilian Portuguese. But I studied really hard on Duolingo beforehand! Definitely worth it. I would be wary of an English-speaking guide in Brazil.

Kyle Magnuson 9 February 2025

My tour of the Ermitage (Hermitage), or Royal Hunting Lodge (Par Force Hunting Landscape) was memorable since it was only conducted in Danish. English tours were limited and not on my travel dates, so . . . My spouse was accommodating, but indeed her patience was tested as it was a long-ish tour.

Blog WH Travellers

TWHS Masters

I have added a new page in the Community Statistics section. It’s called ‘TWHS Masters’ and shows results based on Tentative Site visits as logged by our community members. I have written about TWHS before in the post “The Value of a TWHS”, where I argued that visiting TWHS is a waste of time with a success rate of 14% ever being promoted to WHS. But of course, you can visit them based on their own merits or use them to spice up your itinerary in a country.

Most TWHS visited

We start with the simple math of who has ‘ticked’ the highest number of TWHS. For this ranking it’s important to keep in mind that a considerable number of members have not logged their TWHS count: 5 from the Top 10 and 3 more from the Top 20.

Roman is the winner here. He clearly beat #2 with 80 sites. It’s the result of his long-term goal to revisit all countries one by one, covering all provinces and all WHS and TWHS as far as possible. 

Some do significantly better on TWHS than on WHS, which can be seen in the overall WHS ranking displayed after their name: Christoph is 9th on TWHS and 81st on WHS, while Tony0001 is 12th on TWHS and 95th on WHS. Asked for an explanation, Tony replied that he focuses on the highlights of the region he is about to visit first and does not do trips to only cover a single WHS. Christoph points out the European countries such as Romania, Malta and Cyprus which have much more TWHS than WHS, causing the disbalance when you continue (re)visiting places in Europe. Neither of them has a specific focus on TWHS though.

Some others do significantly worse regarding TWHS than WHS, notably I do! For me, it has been a strategic choice in the past years to put my time and money first towards WHS. Other factors are my relatively low country count and maybe being more conservative in ticking because I know more about the individual TWHS having updated their pages for years.

The photo below shows New York's Central Park - the most visited TWHS (331 out of 657 members have been there).

Most TWHS across countries

Thomas holds the #1 spot, having visited TWHS in 132 countries (versus WHS in 151). It shows the width of his travels and the role (T)WHS have played in it for a long time.

The names in this list are fairly similar to those in Visited WHS in Most Countries, except those who haven’t logged their TWHS visits. What does stand out is that, overall, people have visited TWHS in some 30 countries less than where they have visited WHS, although there are 181 "countries" with a Tentative List and only 168 with inscribed sites. 

So the pattern seems to be:

  1. visited country but not a WHS (the top-ranked all have visited 160 - 193 countries)
  2. visited country and at least 1 WHS (-40 countries)
  3. visited country and at least 1 TWHS (-30 countries)

I consider myself more of a specialist (WHS focus only), and the decline is less steep (137 visited countries, 133 with a WHS, 104 with a TWHS). I expect that Atila and Zoë will have similar, gradual patterns.

Ratio

The ratio ranking shows the number of TWHS visited divided by the number of WHS visited. These members come close to having visited as many TWHS as WHS. This can be due to a strong regional focus where not many WHS are available (I am thinking of North America), so they spend their weekends visiting TWHS whereas in Europe they'd visit WHS. 

Only members with over 100 WHS visited are included due to anomalies in the lower regions. It turned out for example that Schnitzel has visited 114 times more WHS than TWHS. He really can’t be bothered!

Combi 

We can also add the TWHS totals to the WHS totals, though that feels weird to me as this implies that they are worth the same (which portrays them as random 'things to tick' and strays too far from what WHS are all about). So I have included a ranking where WHS visits versus TWHS visits are weighed 3:1.

Rarely visited

Roman also stands out among the obscure TWHS, another result of his methodical approach. He has been to 166 out of the 801 TWHS that have been visited by 6 members or less. Recently he was the first to have been to the Cekeen Tumulus in Senegal, for example (Photo 3).

The number 2 has ‘only’ 62. Good scorers beyond the usual names here are Afshin Iranpour (a master of Iran's extensive Tentative List) and Christravelblog (he really did his best in the UAE and Djibouti).

Upcoming nominations

Here I present a similar prognosis to the 'armchair ticks' that may be expected in 2025, 2026 and 2027 combined. However, it also includes TWHS that are on the radar beyond 2027. 

I also checked whether a difference can be found among visits to recent TWHS (since 2010) versus older TWHS (which may have less chance of getting ever inscribed). But there is no real difference, if people visit TWHS they cover both old and new.

Are there any other data points you’d like to see about TWHS visits? Or do you have any additional observations looking at this stats page?

Els - 2 February 2025

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Comments
Can SARICA 9 February 2025

Very nice stats. I guess there is a positive correlation between TWHS count and being a Nomadmania member. Many NM regions just have one or more TWHS but not any WHS. It may worth checking how many of the top TWHS visitors have NM accounts. Another positive correlation is, for sure, living in high TWHS count countries such as Turkey.

Wojciech Fedoruk 3 February 2025

Solivagant - your count improved that much because you were earlier version of Roman, visiting so many sites that are difficult even now (some actually even more difficult). Chapeau bas to your travel achievements done without Internet, GPS or credit cards .
Els - can we also see the list of essential TWHS?

Wojciech Fedoruk 2 February 2025

A bunch of new nice stats! I would love to see similar ranking of top travellers to obscure WHS. Threshold should be a bit higher, like 25 maybe.

Jay T 2 February 2025

Good topic! I take a look at TWHS whenever I'm traveling to a new region to see if there are any worth visiting, but I don't always go out of my way to visit unless they are ones that might help me better understand a region, or if they are ones that may be inscribed in upcoming years.

One of the challenges with keeping up with TWHS is that the list is constantly in flux as countries add to or retire entries. I review the list periodically throughout the year, but not regularly, to see if there are new entries for sites I've visited in the past.

Kyle Magnuson 2 February 2025

I believe about 40-50% of my visits to TWHS will be inscribed some day. I will visit the occasional TWHS only out of convenience, but others that are clearly significant with potential OUV? I will make the effort.

Additionally, I have found visits before and after inscription to be rewarding, kind of an evolution of what world heritage status can offer regarding presentation, funds, and narrative. These 2 WHS particularly come to mind as I visited multiple components before and after inscription.

- Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty
- 20th Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

Els Slots 2 February 2025

In reply to Solivagant's remarks about the high quality TWHS, I have added a ranking 'Essential' which lists the members by visits to all TWHS that have a 100% recommendation score (including Masai Mara, Carnac, Svalbard etc).

Meltwaterfalls 2 February 2025

I’m very disappointed in Schnitzel far too focused on the big sites only.
Pull your paw out mate

Solivagant 2 February 2025

In my case - "thank goodness" for those early TWHS visits (or, in many cases, even before they became TWHS)! In Jan 2019 I had visited 797 WHS......Now 854.
BUT across those 6 years, I have only visited 6 new WHS - so my count has "benefited" by 47 from TWHS! Many of these have been "world class". And there are another 40 potentially coming up it seems. I might even get to 900 if I live long enough!

We each have our own objectives and priorities when travelling. It may sound "pompous" but i prefer to use "Significance" in preference to "WHS count" if and when a clash occurs as to what should be "fitted in". We know of course that, for a range of reasons, many inscribed WHS are of far less "significance" for their values than some T List (or even non T List) sites. I have recently been discussing with Els whether she intends visiting the Mara in her upcoming Kenya trip. For reasons I fully understand (not contributing an immediate tick, cost, time etc) she has decided not to fit it in. Personally, IMO, the Mara trumps every other Kenyan WHS - even if it is not inscribed!

CugelVance 2 February 2025

Very interesting article 👍
I for my part try to visit every tentative site which is within m reach while abroad.Some ate worthy of a whs title(for example "Veliky Rostov in Russia) and some are a joke (sabka near Abu Dhabi). Nevertheless,most of them are interesting.

Blog Countries

Top Tips for Senegal and The Gambia

I just returned from 2 weeks in Senegal and The Gambia. The countries are fairly similar, logistically entwined and both are friendly and safe. I didn’t have high expectations, but I found enough to enjoy and the WHS of Djoudj, the Saloum Delta and the Bassari Country will appeal to anyone. Herewith are some tips for travelling to Senegambia as a WH Traveller.

Don't be put off by the scarce resources in English

There is frustrating little info in English available for an individual traveller to get around these countries. Recommended sources like the iOverlander app or the West-Africa Facebook group will only make you sad and I have deleted them already. The people active there seem only interested in road conditions and the peculiarities of border crossings, not in the countries themselves, and often display very questionable travel ethics. At least visiting the 8 WHS will give you a good overview of Senegal and The Gambia as they are nicely spread out and touch upon different topics.

No need to prebook

There is no need to book any transport or activities in advance (except for The Difficult Two, see below) – everything can be arranged on the spot by just asking around. The only issue is that the cost level of tours/transport will be the same as your accommodation – so as I choose upper-midbudget hotels (around 70 EUR), you will pay more for tours etc than at the budget places of course. 

Be satisfied with a short visit

One of the reasons that Senegambia did not appeal to me much is that there aren’t tons of things to see and do. It certainly lacks traditional sights, but it is worth it to visit a market (such as those at Farafenni or Serrekunda in The Gambia) or do a village walk with a guide or go fishing or any other activity close to the daily life of the local people. So rather make it a short visit (2 weeks max for both countries combined) than no visit at all. 

Choose a strategy for The Difficult Two

Niokolo Koba and Bassari Country lie in East Senegal, far from anywhere else. Whatever approach you use, it’s a long way there, it will be hot and dusty and amenities aren’t at the same level as in the North of Senegal. Options are:

  • Outsource the problem by letting a Gambian tour company organize the trip for you. This is the one I choose, see my itinerary for more info.
  • Contact the luxury NiokoLodge inside the park and arrange a stay, private transfers from/to Dakar and a 1 or 2-day tour to Bassari Country from there.
  • Self-drive from Dakar. The roads are good, and the traffic behaviour isn’t crazy (goats and donkeys may cross the road though), but you have to be prepared for numerous checkpoints (some will demand money if you’re a toubab) and the possibility of a breakdown of the car, so I’d advise being with 2 people at least. Also, driving inside the park is tough and needs high clearance (and a full fuel tank).
  • Public transport from Dakar. Cities in the East such as Tambacounda and Kedougou are easily reached by bus, but both WHS need additional private transport to reach & explore, and especially Niokolo Koba is expensive.

You need basic French for Senegal

At my hotels, they usually spoke some English and you will get from A to B. The main issue you’ll have without basic French will be enjoying the tours (and you will have many boat tours!), as the local guides anywhere in Senegal only can speak French (which already is the second or third language for them).

Els - 26 January 2025

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Comments
Clyde 31 January 2025

Thanks for the tips! Glad there are interesting sites too apart from great birdwatching.

Meltwaterfalls 29 January 2025

Jay T, The Gambia traditionally has been a UK winter sun destination.
So November - March you may be able to find some package deals with cheap flights to Banjul, they might even be cheap enough that you can foregoe some or all of the 7/14 nights in the hotel.

Jay T 27 January 2025

Thanks for the tips! Senegal and the Gambia both remain on my radar for a trip, and I appreciate the recommendations for how best to see some of the sites further afield.

Blog WHS Visits

WHS #951: Saloum Delta

Like the Omo Valley, people visit the Saloum Delta mostly for A (birding) while it is inscribed for B (the tradition of shellfish gathering and the historical shell mounds). Fortunately, unlike Omo, Saloum is well-documented, with clear maps. The place to start your boat journey is the laidback town of Toubakouta, which lies conveniently close to the Gambian border if you have plans for an onward journey. The town can also be reached from Dakar or even Saint-Louis within a day.

My B&B offered a ‘menu’ of no less than 24 tours and other activities, but my eyes already stopped at #2: a late afternoon boat trip to L’île aux coquillages. So at 4.30 pm, boat guy Ibu and I stepped into the large wooden, motored pirogue and went out. The waters of the Saloum River tributaries are calm (though the Delta is tidal). It is a good area for fishing: one of the other guests had caught two large barracudas the other day, which we had for a delicious dinner in the evening!  

Close to the town, you can see wooden racks standing in the water. These hold nets for the artificial production of oysters. But the oysters also grow naturally on the roots of the mangroves, which are the predominant type of vegetation along the river banks. We saw several women collecting these molluscs during low tide. The mangroves also provide honey, which is sold by the locals to tourists.

After a short interlude at a particularly dense mangrove forest, where we surprised a marsh mongoose, we finally approached the Shellfish Mound Island of Dioron Boumak. It has an eroded shellfish beach where you can anchor, which we did, and then we stepped on land. The beach is fully comprised of heaps of tiny, empty cockles. But that’s not all: the top of the island lies at 12m, all consisting of layers of shellfish. There is a path that takes you uphill and across the island, with some steep climbs.

These shell mounds were long believed to be natural, but they were accumulated by ancient shell gatherers possibly to create some additional dry land in an area that is prone to flooding. Dioron Boumak is now thought to be at least 1500 years old and is one of the largest and best preserved archaeological shell middens of the Saloum Delta. It has several large and old baobabs on top, a symbol of its age. It has funerary mounds as well, although these are not marked. The guide pointed out the holy status of one of the oldest baobabs on top of the hill. Some findings from the island, such as a shell necklace, can be seen at the History Museum of Gorée.

I found it a very atmospheric and interesting site to visit; seeing this kind of lifestyle centered around molluscs is rare. So don’t go to any of the B-locations in this WHS where you’ll only place your foot in the core zone and see some mangroves. This shell mound boat tour is quite popular: when we were there, there were 4 other boats (including one with 20 Polish tourists and their entourage, all in the same-sized boat as me on my own) but my boat guide said that sometimes there are even 15 boats at the same time. They all follow the same route, so mangroves – shellfish mound and then ending at sunset at a particular patch of mangrove forest where loads of birds fly in to sleep at night.

Els - 19 January 2025

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Comments
Solivagant 19 January 2025

It certainly seems to be a "tough ask" to add Natural criteria to an existing Cultural inscription. Our Connection for sites becoming "mixed" only has 1 (Calakmul) which has gone from Cultural to Mixed .... all the others have gone the other way by adding the Cultural aspect. Inherently that seems likely to be easier as the extra criteria will be prsent within existing boundaries which is less likely for a cultural site which thus requires significant redefinition..
Given the hard line rejection from IUCN it seems strange that the WHC went to all the bother of a vote to try to keep the possibility alive ...but it certainly leaves a Cultural site with illogical boundaries not relelvant to its OUV.
I have had a very quick look to see if there are any other existing Cultural sites which might hope one day to become "Mixed" based on the T List - have olny found Þingvellir

Els Slots 19 January 2025

I think they are OK with what it is. No one on the grounds knows that it is not inscribed for nat crit. It also is a ramsar wetland already

Liam 19 January 2025

Did you see any evidence that the Natural criteria, Referred back in 2011, are being progressed by Senegal? Or are they pretty much content to have any Inscription, even if the Core Zone is much wider than it probably should be for Cultural purposes?

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