Nan

Germany \ Member since April 2014

#34 646 162 38

It's up to you how you want to spend your holiday, whether that's lazing on the beach at a Caribbean club hotel sipping Mai Tais. Or tending to the garden.

Standing on the shorelines of the Pacific Ocean at Rialto Beach.

While I do enjoy the occasional Mai Tai on the beach, I prefer to see new things and travel to faraway places. I've read my fair share of travel guides to find out where to go and what to see. And I was often disappointed.

While many guidebooks spend an entire chapter extolling the virtues of a particular destination (e.g. a capital city), World Heritage Sites are different. They're as objective as it gets, and often take you off the beaten track. For example, I have fond memories of my taxi ride through a Czech winter landscape to visit Holasovice, a site that only World Heritage connoisseurs would appreciate. More often than not, WHS are great places.

Initially, I concentrated on visiting as many WHS as possible, which gave me a good overview. However, since I've reached the magic 300 (almost 600 now), I've shifted my focus to visiting the really great sites: quality over quantity.

Ultimately, I recommend that you travel as you please. However, if you find yourself in a country (even if it's just for a beach holiday), take a look at the map of World Heritage Sites on this site to see if any are nearby. You may have to travel a little off the beaten track, but I assure you it will be worth it.

My most impressive sites (the usual):

  • Petra
  • Machu Picchu
  • Angkor

From the tentative sites I have seen I feel strongly for:

  • Okefenokee NP, USA - Riding canoe in the swamp with snakes and crocodiles.
  • Unjusa temple, South Korea (my title picture) - Korea's best temple.
  • Desert Castles in Uzbekistan.

Several aspiring sites in Sri Lanka also come to mind Bawa's modernism and the painted buddhist temples are something to behold.

Recent Visits
  • 24
    6
    Oct. 1, 2025
    China and Thailand: Archaeological Sites of the Ancient Shu State, Ayutthaya, Beijing Central Axis ...
  • 1
    0
    June 7, 2025
    Weekend in Warsaw: Warsaw
  • 6
    0
    June 1, 2025
    Brückentag in Baden-Württemberg: Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch, Great Spa Towns of Europe, Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt …
Completed Countries

About nan

Member since
April 2014
Country of Origin
Germany
Visits
Rank
#34
WHS
646
Tentative Sites
162
Website Participation
Reviews
326
Ratings

Ratings

World Heritage Sites
Tentative Sites
646 184
Locations
360
Zones
2
Reserved for members.

Reviews by nan

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Crespi d'Adda by Nan

Crespi d'Adda (Inscribed)

Crespi d'Adda by Nan

Having been to Milan repeatedly over the last decade, and knowing I would be back the next year chasing more WHS, for a long time I never made a dedicated …

Nessebar by Nan

Nessebar (Inscribed)

Nessebar by Nan

When we look at a historic map, e.g. one of the Byzantine Empire under Basil II, it easily looks as if they controlled whole areas, akin to a modern …

Paris, Banks of the Seine by Nan

Paris, Banks of the Seine (Inscribed)

Paris, Banks of the Seine by Nan

In 2019, just a few weeks before Notre Dame went up in flames, I passed through the city, walking along the Seine from Bercy to Centre Georges Pompidou and then …

Auckland Volcanic Fields by nan

Auckland Volcanic Fields (On tentative list)

Auckland Volcanic Fields

Auckland is the largest city and main metropolitan area of New Zealand. Indeed, the next bigger city is Sydney in Australia. The town itself is rather modern. The principal features …

Isole Eolie by Nan

Isole Eolie (Inscribed)

Isole Eolie by Nan

Following in the footsteps of the previous reviewers, I visited Vulcano as a day trip from Milazzo. It's the southernmost island and fastest to reach from Sicily by virtue of …

L'ensemble rupestre de Basarabi by Nan

L'ensemble rupestre de Basara… (On tentative list)

L'ensemble rupestre de Basarabi by Nan

Being the other part of the advance German/Swiss tentative site scouting team, I think I need to weigh in on Philipp's review.

There are tentative sites ready for inscription …

Rural Temples of Cusco by Nan

Rural Temples of Cusco (On tentative list)

Rural Temples of Cusco by Nan

Looking for an easy way to travel from Cusco to Puno, I settled on a tourist bus that would make several stops along the way. Itineraries for all companies seem …

Yaroslavl by Nan

Yaroslavl (Inscribed)

Yaroslavl by Nan

Having arrived in the middle of the night at Moscow-Domodedowo airport from Germany, I spent the better part of my first day in Russia making my way to Yaroslavl. On …

Olympia by Nan

Olympia (Inscribed)

Olympia by Nan

Spanning a 1.000 years the most famous pan hellenistic games were held at Olympia starting around 700 BCE and ending in 393 CE. Considering that Greece became part of the …

City Walls of the Ming and Qing Dynasties by Nan

City Walls of the Ming and Qi… (On tentative list)

City Walls of the Ming and Qing Dynasties by Nan

In the twilight days before Covid exploded, I visited Xi'an. It was the third week of January 2020, the week before Chinese New Year, that I came. The city was …

Archaeological Site of Delphi by Nan

Archaeological Site of Delphi (Inscribed)

Archaeological Site of Delphi by Nan

When you visit Epidauros or Olympia you can transfer the site quickly to a modern counterpart. Epidauros, the spa town. Olympia, the sports place. With Delphi this is way harder …

Nasca Aqueducts by Nan

Nasca Aqueducts (On tentative list)

Nasca Aqueducts by Nan

Part of the appeal of the Nasca Lines, is the fact that they seem so out of place. Clearly, the people who created them had knowledge and skill. But why …

Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios by Nan

Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea… (Inscribed)

Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios by Nan

The Byzantine monasteries of Daphni, Hosious Louas and Nea Moni were built in the 11th century, in what amounted to the peak of Roman power and also the beginning of …

Epidaurus by Nan

Epidaurus (Inscribed)

Epidaurus by Nan

A way to get history wrong is to apply a modern understanding or concept to a historic context. One such term is religion. The term itself is actually rather modern

Acropolis by Nan

Acropolis (Inscribed)

Acropolis by Nan

A revisit can always help putting a site into context. It had been 10 years, since I visited the Acropolis for the first and only time. The time had somewhat …

Mycenae and Tiryns by Nan

Mycenae and Tiryns (Inscribed)

Mycenae and Tiryns by Nan

When I read the Ilias, I was always wondering about the place names. Where was Athens, where was Sparta? And why was there no king of Troy fighting in the …

Ancient Greek Theatres by Nan

Ancient Greek Theatres (On tentative list)

Ancient Greek Theatres by Nan

Greece is littered with Greek ruins: agoras, acropolis and amphitheatres. Places you have probably never heard of, e.g. Lindos on Rhodes, have amphitheatres that would make a medieval king proud. …

Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece by Nan

Late Medieval Bastioned Forti… (On tentative list)

Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece by Nan

When exploring the Eastern Peloponnese I based myself in Nafplio. Three components of the tentative site are in town, one in the bay on an island. and two on hills …

Mystras by Nan

Mystras (Inscribed)

Mystras by Nan

Mystras is a fine example of a Frankish and then late Byzantine town. Frankish you may wonder? Yes, Frankish. As you probably know, the glorious 4th Crusade ventured off path. …

Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae by Nan

Temple of Apollo Epicurius at… (Inscribed)

Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae by Nan

It's not often that three short letters at 5:45 a.m. ruin all the best laid plans for the day. I was standing in the bus terminal of Pyrgos and had …

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