To quote myself from a previous post, one of my professors at Rollins College used to describe World Heritage Sites in this manner:"If aliens were to land on Earth and you wanted to tell them where the most important ecological, cultural, and historical sites on the planet were, you would use the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites."Before my recent trip to Hawaii, I had visited the following 25 World Heritage Sites:
- Area de Conservación Guanacaste - Costa Rica
- Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves / La Amistad National Park - Costa Rica
- Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church - United Kingdom
- Maritime Greenwich - United Kingdom
- Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites - United Kingdom
- Tower of London - United Kingdom
- Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church - United Kingdom
- Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Former Abbey of Saint-Remi and Palace of Tau, Reims - France
- Paris, Banks of the Seine - France
- Everglades National Park - United States
- Statue of Liberty - United States
- The Great Wall - China
- Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties - China
- Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing - China
- Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing - China
- Historic Centre of Lima - Peru
- Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza - Mexico
- Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal - Mexico
- Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama - Japan
- Complex of Hué Monuments - Vietnam
- Ha Long Bay - Vietnam
- Hoi An Ancient Town - Vietnam
- My Son Sanctuary - Vietnam
- Town of Luang Prabang - Laos
- Angkor - Cambodia
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
South China Karst/Li River
Obviously I visited Volcanoes National Park last week, but maybe you are wondering about the one in China? Well, the South China Karst World Heritage Site was declared just last year. When I visited in 2004 it was not yet a listed site. Now it is. Add it to my list.
That brings my total to 27.
I've been meaning to write more about World Heritage Sites for some time. Until I do, answer me this question:
How many have you visited?