Previous reviewers have already covered the main points of visiting Istanbul, so I'll stick to the specific angle of visiting the city on an intraday layover. In November of 2019, …
Ilya Burlak
United States of America \ Member since January 2017
#319 179 37 5
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. I look forward to visiting them all after I retire...
Check out my website: Burlaki.com
Recent Visits
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01July 11, 2025Greece: Ancient Towers of the Aegean Sea
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25Dec. 4, 2024Hungary: Caves of the Buda Thermal Karst System, Hollókö, Le Chateau-fort médieval d'Esztergom ...
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51May 14, 2024Peru: Arequipa, Cuzco, Lima ...
Top 10 Missing
About Ilya Burlak
- Member since
- January 2017
- Country of Origin
- United States of America
Visits
- Rank
- #319
- WHS
- 179
- Tentative Sites
- 37
Website Participation
- Reviews
- 123
-
Ratings
Ratings
World Heritage Sites
- Amsterdam Canal Ring 5.0
- Cordoba 5.0
- Segovia 5.0
- Costiera Amalfitana 5.0
- Paris, Banks of the Seine 5.0
- Florence 5.0
- St. Petersburg 5.0
- Prague 5.0
- Works of Antoni Gaudí 5.0
- Granada 5.0
- Palau de la Musica Catalana & Hospital de Sant Pau 5.0
- Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands 5.0
- Ravenna 5.0
- Rome 5.0
- Vienna 5.0
- Siena 5.0
- Petra 5.0
- Brugge 5.0
- Wadi Rum 5.0
- Loire Valley 5.0
- Venice and its Lagoon 5.0
- Kremlin and Red Square 5.0
- West Norwegian Fjords 5.0
- Versailles 4.5
- Kraków 4.5
- Grand Place, Brussels 4.5
- Istanbul 4.5
- Oporto 4.5
- Sintra 4.5
- Villa Romana del Casale 4.5
- Stonehenge and Avebury 4.5
- Bryggen 4.5
- Acropolis 4.5
- Assisi 4.5
- Vatican City 4.5
- Piazza del Duomo (Pisa) 4.5
- Seville 4.5
- Pompei 4.5
- San Gimignano 4.5
- Toledo 4.5
- Convent of Christ in Tomar 4.0
- Chichen-Itza 4.0
- Verona 4.0
- Vicenza and the Palladian Villas 4.0
- Tikal National Park 4.0
- Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles 4.0
- Brú na Bóinne 4.0
- Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra 4.0
- L'viv 4.0
- Mount Etna 4.0
- Avignon 4.0
- Potsdam 4.0
- Cologne Cathedral 4.0
- Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro 4.0
- Upper Middle Rhine Valley 4.0
- Budapest 4.0
- Edinburgh 4.0
- Giant's Causeway 4.0
- Gwynedd Castles 4.0
- Old City of Jerusalem 4.0
- Tower of London 4.0
- Westminster 4.0
- Dubrovnik 4.0
- Split 4.0
- Mostar 4.0
- Chartres Cathedral 4.0
- Schönbrunn 4.0
- Alto Douro 4.0
- Urbino 4.0
- Monastery of Alcobaça 4.0
- Monastery of Batalha 4.0
- Kinderdijk 4.0
- Rietveld Schröderhuis 4.0
- Machu Picchu 4.0
- Drottningholm 4.0
- Delos 4.0
- Roskilde Cathedral 4.0
- Botanical Garden, Padua 4.0
- Albi 4.0
- Fortified City of Carcassonne 3.5
- Arles 3.5
- Pont du Gard 3.5
- El Escurial 3.5
- Tarraco 3.5
- City of Bath 3.5
- Graz 3.5
- Old City of Berne 3.5
- Kronborg Castle 3.5
- Ferrara 3.5
- Pienza 3.5
- Villa d'Este 3.5
- Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines 3.5
- Trinity Sergius Lavra 3.5
- Québec 3.5
- La Fortaleza and San Juan 3.5
- Archaeological Site of Delphi 3.5
- Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios 3.5
- Mycenae and Tiryns 3.5
- Guimarães 3.5
- Kotor 3.5
- Bom Jesus do Monte 3.5
- Arab-Norman Palermo 3.5
- Val di Noto 3.5
- Su Nuraxi di Barumini 3.5
- Bursa and Cumalikizik 3.5
- Cuzco 3.5
- Maritime Greenwich 3.0
- Kew Gardens 3.0
- Evora 3.0
- Strasbourg 3.0
- Vézère Valley 3.0
- Masada 3.0
- Reims 3.0
- Great Spa Towns of Europe 3.0
- The Porticoes of Bologna 3.0
- Belfries 3.0
- Hollókö 3.0
- University of Coimbra 3.0
- Medici Villas and Gardens 3.0
- Agrigento 3.0
- Syracuse 3.0
- Alcala de Henares 3.0
- The Palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria 3.0
- Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings 3.0
- Lima 3.0
- Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin 3.0
- Odesa 3.0
- Modena 3.0
- Statue of Liberty 3.0
- Canterbury 3.0
- Trogir 3.0
- Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal 3.0
- Mantua and Sabbioneta 3.0
- Fortifications of Vauban 3.0
- Incense Route of the Negev 3.0
- Arequipa 3.0
- Belem 3.0
- San Marino and Mount Titano 3.0
- Val d'Orcia 3.0
- Skogskyrkogarden 2.5
- Residences of the Royal House of Savoy 2.5
- Santa Maria delle Grazie 2.5
- Venetian Works of Defence 2.5
- Schokland 2.5
- Beemster Polder 2.5
- Major Town Houses 2.5
- Semmering Railway 2.5
- Pannonhalma 2.5
- Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley 2.5
- Independence Hall 2.5
- Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik 2.5
- Biblical Tells 2.5
- Old City of Acre 2.5
- New Lanark 2.5
- Wadden Sea 2.5
- Necropolis of Bet She'arim 2.5
- Bethlehem 2.5
- Minoan Palatial Centres 2.5
- Poblet Monastery 2.5
- Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France 2.5
- The Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá 2.5
- Neolithic Orkney 2.5
- Belize Barrier Reef 2.5
- Novodevichy Convent 2.5
- Forth Bridge 2.5
- The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier 2.5
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire 2.0
- Canal du Midi 2.0
- Bahá’i Holy Places 2.0
- Dutch Water Defence Lines 2.0
- Nice 2.0
- The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales 2.0
- White City of Tel-Aviv 2.0
- Stecci 2.0
- Van Nellefabriek 1.5
- Stoclet House 1.0
- Mount Carmel Caves 1.0
- Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin 1.0
- Qhapaq Ñan 1.0
Tentative Sites
- Ellis Island
- Central Park
- Nuruosmaniye Complex
- Nuragic monuments of Sardinia
- Early Synagogues in the Galilee
- Iznik
- Salt Mines of Maras
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Orvieto
- Ripa Pannonica in Hungary
- Jerusalem
- Volterra
- Zadar - Episcopal complex
- Centre ancien de Sarlat
- Carcassonne fortresses
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece
- Early Chicago Skyscrapers
- Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade
- Ödön Lechner's independent pre-modern architecture
- Caves of the Buda Thermal Karst System
- Royal Seats in Esztergom, Visegrád
- Civil Rights Movement Sites
- Ancient Towers of the Aegean Sea
- Le Chateau-fort médieval d'Esztergom
- Pombaline Lisbon
- Ancient Greek Theatres
- Mamayev Kurgan Memorial Complex
- Caesarea
- Makhteshim Country
- Ein Karem
- Degania & Nahalal
- The Crusader Fortresses
- Amalienborg and its district
- The Karlstejn Castle
- Les villes antiques de la Narbonnaise
- Stolac
- The archeological site of Tanais
- 179 37
- Locations
- 0
- Zones
- 0
Reviews by Ilya Burlak
Semmering Railway (Inscribed)
Semmering Railway
In a burst of fairly unusual spontaneity, I traversed the length of the WH-inscribed portion of Semmering Railway twice in both directions on consecutive days in December of 2016. I …
Kotor (Inscribed)
Kotor
I visited Kotor area in July of this year on a day-trip from Dubrovnik. I first drove along practically entire perimeter of the uniquely-shaped bay to the town of Kotor, …
Dubrovnik (Inscribed)
Dubrovnik
In July 2019 Dubrovnik acted as a base for my exploration of its WHS "hotspot". I spent only one full day in Dubrovnik proper but returned every evening for a …
Stolac (On tentative list)
Stolac
In July of 2019, I visited Stolac area with the focus on nearby stećci sites, Radimlja and Boljuni. Both are included on the Stolac ensemble tentative submission, in addition to …
Stecci (Inscribed)
Stecci
I visited two of the properties of this serial site in July of 2019 on the way from Mostar to Dubrovnik. One of the best preserved and best known of …
Mostar (Inscribed)
Mostar
Mostar left probably the most vivid impression for me from the entire July 2019 trip to Dubrovnik and Split WHS hotspots. I have had so far very limited exposure on …
Trogir (Inscribed)
Trogir
The historic center of Trogir sits on a tiny island – roughly 500 meters long and 250 meters wide – which can be fairly closely explored in the matter of …
Cathedral of St. James in Sib… (Inscribed)
Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik
Somewhat uniquely for a grand church in a town with uneven topography, Cathedral of Saint James does not occupy a commanding highest point. Stairways run up from the cathedral square …
Zadar - Episcopal complex (On tentative list)
Zadar - Episcopal complex
Zadar is already on the World Heritage list, or at least its fortifications are as part of the Venetian Works of Defense serial site. Additionally, a collection of buildings and …
Split (Inscribed)
Split
I had a base in Split for nearly a week on a recent trip to Croatia. Only a single day was budgeted for exploring the town, but I also returned …
Evora (Inscribed)
Evora
The capital of the Alentejo region, Évora, is a city with more than twenty centuries of history. But its profile is much lower than that of other points of interest …
Sintra (Inscribed)
Sintra
Sintra is one of the most impressive and attractive places to visit in all of Portugal. It is also one of the most maddeningly overcrowded. We were there in late …
Pombaline Lisbon (On tentative list)
Pombaline Lisbon
It is rather curious that there are two tentative submissions for Lisbon, dated with the same exact day, of which one happens to entirely encompass the other. Pombaline Lisbon is …
Historical Lisbon, Global City (Removed from tentat…)
Historical Lisbon, Global City
Both the description and the OUV justification on the tentative WH submission for Lisbon outline with significant detail the uniqueness of the city history and its importance in the Age …
Belem (Inscribed)
Belem
I visited the WHS in Belém on a Portuguese national holiday in April, which was obviously not the best day for sightseeing. There is a corollary of Murphy’s Law, formulated …
Convent of Christ in Tomar (Inscribed)
Convent of Christ in Tomar
The Convent of Christ in Tomar is the oldest in the Portuguese World Heritage monastic triangle (the other two are Alcobaça and Batalha), founded in the 12th century. It has …
Monastery of Batalha (Inscribed)
Monastery of Batalha
Batalha Monastery is a masterpiece of Gothic and Manueline art. I visited all three WH monastic complexes in the Centro Region of Portugal in April of 2019, and the contrast …
Guimarães (Inscribed)
Guimarães
The first capital of Portugal way back in the 12th century, Guimarães is recognized on the World Heritage list as an authentic example of the evolution of a medieval settlement …
Bom Jesus do Monte (Inscribed)
Bom Jesus do Monte
The sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte is comparatively young for a religious site – the pilgrimage church dates only from the 17th century, and the current ensemble was fully …