It’s the year's final week – time to squeeze in another yearly overview of the reviews submitted to this website. 2024 was
a rather dull year at the WHC
, with 24 new sites inscribed at a poor average rating of 2.79/5. Thanks to Astraftis we had a last-minute
meetup in Brussels
. For Nan and myself, it was also the year that we were forced to move the website to a different hosting provider – which proved to be a blessing in the end as the performance of the website has much improved.
Community Travel
Overall, there has been a steady increase at the ‘
top
’ without any new kids on the block.
Atila
has joined Zoë in the over-1,000 club. We now have 4 members with more than 900 visited WHS, 5 more with over 800 WHS, and 11 more with over 700 WHS. And 39 members in total have seen over 50% of the WHS!
Memorable Reviews
We saw 581 new reviews published, 71 more than last year but still a far cry from pre-Covid levels such as 891 in 2019. 94 different people wrote them, also significantly more than last year; there were many novice reviewers this year. I (
Els
) wrote the most (60) but not as many as last year, followed by
Zoë
(33),
CugelVance
(28) and
Clyde
(27).
WHS
Only 18 WHS are unreviewed now. We saw the first reviews for
Sangha Trinational
(
Els
),
Odzala-Kokoua
and
'Uruq Bani Ma'arid
(both
Randi
),
Noel Kempff Mercado
,
Badain Jaran
,
Hawraman/Uramanat
(all
Zoë
), and the
Minaret of Jam
(
Wojciech
). Plus those of the newly inscribed WHS
Bale Mountains
,
Gedi
, and
Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa
.
Other recommended reviews to re-read include
Bernard
cycling along the
Wadden Sea
, much-needed updates by
Mihaela
reporting on
Altyn Emel
,
Joel
on
Yin Xu
,
Thomas
on
Aasivissuit - Nipisat
,
Els
on
Iriomote
and
Ogasawara
,
Zoë
on
Nanda Devi
,
Timonator
on
Vat Phou
,
Can
on
Pimachiowin Aki
,
Patrik
on
Talamanca
,
DannyB
on
Purnululu
,
Hubert
on the
Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin
,
Clyde
on
El Vizcaino
,
Wojciech
on the
Lower Valley of the Awash
and
Jacob
on Haiti’s
National History Park
(posted in the last days of 2023 but published early January 2024). I was also happy to see the reviews by
Triath
of visits to Syrian WHS such as
Palmyra
, presenting the first impression after the Syrian Civil War. Let’s hope Syria becomes safe and stable next year so we can visit again in a new era.
TWHS
There are 754 TWHS left to review! For 2025, making a dent in those would be great – try visiting and reviewing one of those, instead of the commonly visited European WHS. You can find the todos
here
(with a 0 in the column Reviews).
70 TWHS got a first review in this year, including
Varanasi
(
Bernard
), the
Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf
(
CugelVance
), the enigmatic
Prehistoric Stone Structures in Saudi Arabia
(
Philipp
), a flurry of TWHS from Afghanistan such as
Band-E-Amir
(
Wojciech
), the upcoming Vietnamese nomination
Oc Eo
(
Frederik
), the
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation
and
Seaflower Marine Protected Area
(both by
Frédéric
), the
Stuttgart Television Tower
(
Hubert
),
Gemer and Abov churches
(
Jarek
),
Kazakh Rocky Mosques
(
Ana
),
Fell and Pali Aike Caves
(
Els
),
Flinders Ranges
(
Shandos
),
Churches of the Altiplano
(
Clyde
), and
Dirre Sheik Hussein
(again by
Wojciech
).
Awards
As always, we have awards to hand out to the "best" reviews:
The
Tsunami Award for Travel Misadventure
goes on the shelf this year as there weren’t true misadventure stories shared. But an honorable mention goes to
Frederik
, whom we mostly know for pointing out the finer details of Southeast Asian cultural sites: he got
stuck in a cable car at Yen Tu
.
The
WH Explorer Award
recognizes reviews of (parts) of WHS, where a new access route has been explored successfully, resulting in reviews that show determination and reflect on both the choices made during preparation and the journey itself.
In terms of remoteness, it’s a toss between Central Africa (Randi:
Odzala
, Els:
Sangha
) and Afghanistan (Wojciech:
Minaret of Jam
).
-
All 3 found, due to clever networking and keeping on top of offerings, rather exclusive group tours that suited their needs without breaking the bank.
-
Randi had to be driven 14h from Brazzaville to reach the site, Wojciech 13h from Herat and Els did 25h across 3 days from Yaounde.
-
Where I could then relax at the fairly comfortable Sangha Lodge, Randi and her partner Svein had to deal with a large rodent and a snake in the bathroom of their more basic lodgings and Wojciech slept in a tent.
What tips the balance though:
Randi and Svein
weren’t only the first to review the WHS, they were the first two community members to visit Odzala-Kokoua overall! To show how unique this is: there are now only 2 sites left out of the 1223 (Tell Umm Amer and Salonga) that have no visitors and no reviews.
Finally, the
Best Review of the Year Award
can only go to one: the
Civil Rights Movement Sites
by
Solivagant
. It wonderfully describes a visit when the OUV was created!
10 of the notable reviews from 2024 will be rerun on the homepage in the coming week. Are there any memorable reviews from 2024 that you’d like to put into the spotlight again?