The archaeological area of Agrigento (also known as “Valley of the Temples”) is inscribed on the World Heritage list in large part for its Doric temples dominating the erstwhile Greek settlement dating from the 6th century BCE. Temple of Concordia is the undeniable primary highlight of the site, and clearly…
The most impressive sight in Palermo is that of its Cathedral. It can be said, with practically no hyperbole, that Cathedral by itself is worth visiting Palermo for. It is an amazingly architecturally diverse structure, with many additions and alterations in a mix of styles having taken place through the…
My two days in Jordan gave me two of the most amazing places I have ever been to. We already talked about Petra. The following day my destination was Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is inscribed both as a natural and a cultural World Heritage property. I left practically all of…
The “New 7 Wonders of the World” campaign run by a private foundation at the beginning of this century may have been a popularity contest susceptible to vote manipulation, but only one or two of its final selections would ever be questioned as not entirely worthy of the designation. Petra…
For reasons both of my own doing and outside of my control, the Old City of Acre did not get a fair shake from me. I initially planned to visit it with a guide, in the early part of my itinerary, and give it 3-4 hours. In the end, I…
The World Heritage inscription of the Baha’i Holy Places emphasizes their deep spiritual value and the tradition of pilgrimage in the Baha’i faith. I am not convinced that it counts as Outstanding Universal Value, but the two main compounds mentioned on the inscription, one in the center of Haifa and…
Although its prosperous lifespan lasted less than a hundred years, Masada holds a surpassing symbolic value of Jewish pride and resolve due to the circumstances of its demise in 73 CE. The Roman legions laid siege to the seemingly impregnable fortress where a few thousand members of the Jewish revolt…
The Nabatean Kingdom, with its capital in Petra in Jordan, was a major trading power in the Levant from about the 3rd century BCE until the 4th century CE (the last few under the largely benevolent yoke of the Roman Empire). The Nabateans carried their incense trade to the Mediterranean…
Trips to a number of West Bank destinations are fairly easy to arrange through a variety of travel channels while touring Israel. Given the number of holy Christian sites in the region, there is daily a steady stream of visitors that sustain a significant percentage of West Bank’s GDP. My…
A day and a half was my itinerary allotment to see Jerusalem’s Old City. That appears to be enough to see all of the major points of interest, although in a city with such wealth of historical context, you will feel like you rushed through some of the sights no…
Anyone who knows anything about the world history cannot be surprised that Israel abounds with archaeological sites of note. Eastern Mediterranean lands have been settled by various civilizations across different eras, and they all left reminders of their heyday. In many instances, those reminders are stacked upon each other in…
Necropolis of Bet She’arim is a significant monument of Jewish history, but I suspect only a dedicated WH chaser would include it on an itinerary when visiting Israel for the first time. This is not a must-see but it has to be said that it is one of just a…
For reasons that were not exactly in my control, my original itinerary for the Israel trip underwent a few last-minute sequencing changes. I ended up with a bit more driving between the north of the country and Tel Aviv than I had initially anticipated. On the other hand, I got…
The Bauhaus Movement of the first half of the 20th century left an indelible mark on Tel Aviv, as German and other European émigré artists applied the concepts of the modernist school during the growth of the young metropolis from 1933 onward. There are over four thousand examples of that…
My journey to Israel started with a layover in Istanbul. I’ve never been to the Turkish capital and decided to use the opportunity of a connecting flight to plug that gap on my travel résumé, if only a little. A 9-hour interval from the arrival of the incoming flight to…
From Dubrovnik in Croatia it takes less than an hour of driving to the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, which is technically at the southern edge of the Dalmatian Coast. Or, should take, if Montenegro ever joins the EU and the border controls are relaxed; nowadays, crossing the border on…
The second part of our Croatian itinerary had Dubrovnik as the base. Similarly to Split, we gave ourselves only one full day for exploration of Dubrovnik proper but returned every evening for a meal and a stroll, so managed to acquire a certain level of familiarity with the town. Objectively,…
My latest travel itineraries have been unapologetically influenced by the desire to visit as many World Heritage sites as I come near. In the instances of Portugal or the Dalmatian Coast, that aligned reasonably well with the notion of a typical first-time tour since the most popular and interesting destinations…
In a not widely known quirk of geography, a tiny sliver of the Dalmatian Coast belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina, making it impossible to travel by land between Split and Dubrovnik without entering and then quickly exiting Bosnian territory. The border checks are comparatively relaxed on this stretch, never creating…
The historic center of Trogir sits on a tiny island – roughly 500 meters long and 250 meters wide – that has been continuously inhabited for over 2,000 years. Since the early 13th century AD, the town was gradually rebuilt and embellished with examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque…