Ilya Burlak Profile

Ilya Burlak
Ilya Burlak.

I only started prioritizing visiting World Heritage sites a few years ago and with my limited US-based corporate-warrior time-off allocation and family obligations I can only add a handful to a dozen in any given year. Looking forward to visiting them all after I am able to retire...

USA Last Update 15.05.24 175 WHS Visited 111 Reviews 175 WHS Rated 34 TWHS Visited

Visited Sites Ilya Burlak

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Legend

  • ●● Cultural
  • ●● Natural
  • ●● Mixed

Recent Reviews Ilya Burlak

Qhapaq Ñan

Ilya Burlak USA - 21-Aug-24

Qhapaq Ñan

This hardly qualifies as a review, since my experience with Qhapaq Ñan is limited to the central Cuzco in May of 2024. But since this experience contains a couple of relative mishaps, recounting it could prevent someone from making the same mistakes.

First of all, the Cuzco central area location is not listed among the 137 components of Qhapaq Ñan on the site's official page on whc.unesco.org

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Cuzco

Ilya Burlak USA - 21-Aug-24

Cuzco

I visited Cuzco in May of 2024. Echoing the previous reviewers, it is a lovely living town with a visible exceptional blend of pre-Columbian and Colonial design, boasting a number of superb points of interest.

The central plaza is the focal point of the historic center, presided over by two magnificent churches. La Compania is primarily interesting from the outside, while the cathedral unusually feels like being made up of three side-by-side churches and offers an additional highlight of the "Andean" Last Supper painting, featuring guinea pig as the main course and Francisco Pizarro as Judas. Balconies of the buildings surrounding the main square - and all around the town - are another visual highlight.

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Salt Mines of Maras (T)

Ilya Burlak USA - 01-Aug-24

Salt Mines of Maras (T)

Possibly because I have never toured a salt flats site before, Maras saltineras impressed me a lot. The deceptive simplicity of the process, coupled with the visuals of hundreds - or is it thousands? - terraced ponds, made the site quite memorable. I also very much like that it is an active production, which further differentiates it in the area that is most famous for its remnants of civilizations long gone.

You really only need 25-30 minutes here, including the time to get from the parking lot to the viewing platform and back. The information boards are all in Spanish, so having an English-speaking guide may make the visit more enjoyable for some. There is on-site free wi-fi if you want to use an online translator and your mobile signal starts acting up in the ravine.

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Machu Picchu

Ilya Burlak USA - 31-Jul-24

Machu Picchu

I visited Machu Picchu in May of 2024. I suspect it is one of the most obvious bucket-list destinations for anyone who's ever been bitten by the travel bug, so I will skip touting its qualities. In fact, it seems that most of the visit details that I mention in this review have already been covered in the previous reviews. I will probably offer only the slightest of variations. Although not when it comes to rain in the supposedly dry season...

Since the number of visitors is capped daily, whether you hike Camino Inca or ride the bus from Aguas Calientes to the visitor gates, you should purchase your entry tickets in advance. The hour printed on your ticket is the earliest you can enter - and 59 minutes later will be the latest

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Arequipa

Ilya Burlak USA - 02-Jul-24

Arequipa

I visited Arequipa in May of 2024, possibly very close to the time that Dennis was there as well, and truth be told, I have little to add to his review. Arequipa is a type of town I usually label "not without interest" - a different way of saying "pleasant but not exceptional". The volcano peaks and the volcanic rock material used in construction add a bit of appeal. Mestizo Baroque church portals offer occasional eye-catching details, as do a number of buildings within the historic core grid. The overall ensemble, though, is no more than fine.

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Profile Data

Name
Ilya Burlak
Country
USA
Website
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Recently Visited WHS

Update 15.05.24
  • Lima
  • Machu Picchu
  • Cuzco
  • Arequipa
  • Qhapaq Ñan

    • 5 Countries Complete

    Belize . Holy See . Israel . Andorra . San Marino .

    Rating Stats
    Amsterdam Canal Ring 5
    Brugge 5
    Budapest 5
    Cordoba 5
    Costiera Amalfitana 5
    Florence 5
    Granada 5
    Kremlin and Red Square 5
    Loire Valley 5
    Palau de la Musica Catalana & Hospital de Sant Pau 5
    Paris, Banks of the Seine 5
    Petra 5
    Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands 5
    Prague 5
    Ravenna 5
    Rome 5
    Segovia 5
    Siena 5
    St. Petersburg 5
    Venice and its Lagoon 5
    Vienna 5
    Wadi Rum 5
    West Norwegian Fjords 5
    Works of Antoni Gaudí 5
    Acropolis 4.5
    Assisi 4.5
    Bryggen 4.5
    Grand Place, Brussels 4.5
    Istanbul 4.5
    Kraków 4.5
    Oporto 4.5
    Piazza del Duomo (Pisa) 4.5
    Pompei 4.5
    Potsdam 4.5
    San Gimignano 4.5
    Seville 4.5
    Sintra 4.5
    Stonehenge 4.5
    Toledo 4.5
    Vatican City 4.5
    Versailles 4.5
    Villa Romana del Casale 4.5
    Albi 4
    Alto Douro 4
    Avignon 4
    Botanical Garden, Padua 4
    Brú na Bóinne 4
    Chartres Cathedral 4
    Chichen-Itza 4
    Cologne Cathedral 4
    Convent of Christ in Tomar 4
    Delos 4
    Drottningholm 4
    Dubrovnik 4
    Edinburgh 4
    Giant's Causeway 4
    Gwynedd Castles 4
    Kinderdijk 4
    Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra 4
    L'viv 4
    Machu Picchu 4
    Monastery of Alcobaça 4
    Monastery of Batalha 4
    Mostar 4
    Mount Etna 4
    Old City of Jerusalem 4
    Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles 4
    Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro 4
    Rietveld Schröderhuis 4
    Roskilde Cathedral 4
    Schönbrunn 4
    Split 4
    Tikal National Park 4
    Tower of London 4
    Upper Middle Rhine Valley 4
    Urbino 4
    Verona 4
    Vicenza and the Palladian Villas 4
    Westminster 4
    Arab-Norman Palermo 3.5
    Archaeological Site of Delphi 3.5
    Arles 3.5
    Bom Jesus do Monte 3.5
    Bursa and Cumalikizik 3.5
    City of Bath 3.5
    Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios 3.5
    El Escurial 3.5
    Ferrara 3.5
    Fortified City of Carcassonne 3.5
    Graz 3.5
    Guimarães 3.5
    Kotor 3.5
    Kronborg Castle 3.5
    La Fortaleza and San Juan 3.5
    Mycenae and Tiryns 3.5
    Old City of Berne 3.5
    Pienza 3.5
    Pont du Gard 3.5
    Québec 3.5
    Su Nuraxi di Barumini 3.5
    Tarraco 3.5
    Trinity Sergius Lavra 3.5
    Val di Noto 3.5
    Villa d'Este 3.5
    Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines 3.5
    Agrigento 3
    Alcala de Henares 3
    Arequipa 3
    Belem 3
    Belfries 3
    Canterbury 3
    Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin 3
    Cuzco 3
    Evora 3
    Fortifications of Vauban 3
    Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings 3
    Great Spa Towns of Europe 3
    Incense Route of the Negev 3
    Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal 3
    Kew Gardens 3
    Lima 3
    Mantua and Sabbioneta 3
    Maritime Greenwich 3
    Masada 3
    Medici Villas and Gardens 3
    Modena 3
    Odesa 3
    Reims 3
    San Marino and Mount Titano 3
    Statue of Liberty 3
    Strasbourg 3
    Syracuse 3
    The Porticoes of Bologna 3
    Trogir 3
    University of Coimbra 3
    Val d'Orcia 3
    Vézère Valley 3
    Beemster Polder 2.5
    Belize Barrier Reef 2.5
    Bethlehem 2.5
    Biblical Tells 2.5
    Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik 2.5
    Forth Bridge 2.5
    Independence Hall 2.5
    Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley 2.5
    Major Town Houses 2.5
    Necropolis of Bet She'arim 2.5
    Neolithic Orkney 2.5
    New Lanark 2.5
    Novodevichy Convent 2.5
    Old City of Acre 2.5
    Panamá 2.5
    Poblet Monastery 2.5
    Residences of the Royal House of Savoy 2.5
    Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France 2.5
    Santa Maria delle Grazie 2.5
    Schokland 2.5
    Semmering Railway 2.5
    Skogskyrkogarden 2.5
    The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier 2.5
    Venetian Works of Defence 2.5
    Wadden Sea 2.5
    Canal du Midi 2
    Dutch Water Defence Lines 2
    Frontiers of the Roman Empire 2
    Nice 2
    Stećci 2
    The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales 2
    White City of Tel-Aviv 2
    Bahá’i Holy Places 1.5
    Van Nellefabriek 1.5
    Mount Carmel Caves 1
    Qhapaq Ñan 1
    Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin 1
    Stoclet House 1

    Reviewed TWHS