About Project World Heritage

While other people collect wine or stamps or comic books, I collect places on the UNESCO World Heritage list. My fascination for World Heritage Sites started in Italy, the country with the most Unesco-listed sites in the world, over 20 years ago and is stronger now than ever.

I recall sitting in the backseat of our Volkswagen Passat, flipping through the pages of a new guidebook of Italy. I was in my early teens sometime around year 2000, and we were on our way back to the small Italian town Caorle after a day trip to Slovenia. And from the front seat, I could hear my father suggest that we do a short detour to the excavations of a place he had read about.

My mother, sitting next to him, was clearly and loudly hesitant to this new proposal. Probably eager to get back to our rental apartment for an afternoon Campari on the balcony. It had, after all, been an eventful day as my younger brother’s camera flash took out all the lights in the entire Postojna caves for what seemed like an eternity.

A seed was sown

While my brother was engrossed in his Gameboy, baring no attention to the proposal of stopping at yet another historic site, I found Aquileia in the guidebook. I remember reading about excavations, archaeology, mosaics, the roman empire – and UNESCO.

Being the complete opposite from my mother when it comes to arguing, my father found his way without any more discussions. Just like he did when he and I was on the beach outside UNESCO-listed Essaouira in Morocco, twenty-odd years later. He was, after all, the one sitting behind the wheel.

And soon, we found ourselves strolling around the visual remnants of one of the most prominent towns of the early roman empire. There was not that much to see at the time, but it was free to take a look and I remember walking around the park and spending time looking at the mosaics in the basilica, erected during the first half of the 11^th century. Being late afternoon and, for most tourists, a rather unknown World Heritage site.

The start of a life-long project

Although Aquileia is an interesting place with an interesting story, it was not the place itself that made me come up with the idea of collecting UNESCO World Heritage sites. This was, after all, the same summer I visited Venice for the first time, a day that still stands as one of my top 10 world heritage experiences.

It was more the realization of what the UNESCO World Heritage list is, and what are so special about the places that have made it onto the list. And just like that, I had started a new project. While my childhood collection projects such as stamps, printed scraps, and napkins all died quite quickly, this one is still going strong. Probably stronger than ever, because of this blog.

How do I collect new world heritage sites?

Since I so far only visited 82 places on the list so far, it clearly hasn’t always been my main priority. Travel and exploring new cultures, on the other hand, has always been a priority. Hence, I have visited plenty of interesting and beautiful heritage, both cultural and natural, that are not recognized by UNESCO.

But what I do is to always check what places on the World Heritage list are nearby the destinations I want to go to. This is for example how I discovered Grimeton Radio Station and the Vitlycke Rock Carvings in Sweden. And it has happened that I chose one destination over another because there was a world heritage site in one of them.

Sometimes they are also natural part of a travel route, for example – who visits Cuba without stopping by Havana? The same goes for Marrakech when travelling around Morocco and gorilla tracking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest when exploring Uganda.  

I’m also lucky to live close by, and work at, two very different but equally great UENSCO-sites: The old wharf in Bergen and the Nærøyfjord in Norway. While Urnes Stave Church, which sits less than a 3 hours’ drive away, I visited for the first time in summer 2023.

My World Heritage Bucket List

Like I said, this is a lifelong project that I’m more invested in than ever, and the more research I do and the more I read, the longer my bucket list gets. Here is a list of 15 places I’m really eager to explore, some of them are relatively easy to get to, while others will be part of a bigger trip. Maybe something for my big 40 in a couple of years?

1. The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
2. Hoi An ancient town, Vietnam
3. Tran An Landscape complex / Ninh Binh, Vietnam
4. Okavango Delta, Botswana
5. Potala Palace, Tibet / China
6. Samarkand, Uzbekistan
7. Cinque Terre, Italy
8. The historic centre of Porto, Portugal
9. Machu Pichu, Peru
10. Cappadokia, Turkey
11. Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest area, China
12. Socotra archipelago, Yemen
13. Upper Svaneti, Georgia
14. Historic Centre of Tallin, Estonia
15. Vega islands, Norway

As I write this, I am actually planning a solo travel that will take me to two of these + another 2-3 places on UNESCO’s list within the next few months. Maybe I will get to tick off even more of them in 2024? If so, I can fill my list with new great places I want to see!

And you? Do not let this list of 15 places fool you. I could have made it far far longer, including places suchas Komodo National Park in Indonesia, Meteora in Greece, the Old Town of Galle in Sri Lanka and the ancient city of Damascus in Syria.