Heritage spots to die for
Unesco annually expands its list of World Heritage sites, and this year’s class of inductees offers stimulation for travellers, with a rich and varied group of intriguing sites, and a reminder – especially with its remote and more vulnerable picks – that the list itself is not about tourism.
The World Heritage programme aims to identify and protect cultural and natural sites around the world that demonstrate “outstanding value to humanity”, according to its website.
Those spots sometimes constitute the most sought-after destinations for global travel: the Great Wall of China, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Inca ruins of Macchu Picchu in Peru.
Others, though, are more obscure or hard to reach or both, including three members of the class of 2017: Okinoshima, a sacred island in Japan; Dauria, a wild landscape shared by Mongolia and Russia; and Asmara, the capital of Eritrea in East Africa.
Okinoshima, for example, is off-limits to women, per ancient practice. But it is the inclusion of Asmara, cited by Unesco for its modernist architecture dating to its era as an Italian colony, that is perhaps the most controversial choice.
Eritrea is the subject of a US State Department travel warning, noting that the government restricts travel of foreigners to Asmara. The United Nations has accused Eritrea’s government of crimes against humanity, including enslavement and murder.
“Asmara’s mix of local and Italian influences of the ’20s and ’30s is incredible. But it’s very isolated, politically and geographically,” said Tom Hall, the editorial director for Lonely Planet, the travel media company.
The ancient city of Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was another controversial choice, thanks to its inclusion as a Palestinian World Heritage site. In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel described the decision as “delusional”.
Many more of the 21 new inductees, spread among 18 cultural sites and three natural ones, are more easily accessible and without controversy.
At least one, the Lake District of northwestern England, is well loved, receiving over 18 million visitors a year. Unesco noted “the combined work of nature and human activity”, including sheep farming on deforested hillsides, stone villages and grand country estates.
“What makes it so beautiful and dramatic is a lot of it is pretty barren,” said Janel Jensen, the European programme manager for REI, which runs a nine-day walking trip, May to October, that includes hiking in the Lake District from $4 199 a person (about R60 000). “You get an uninterrupted panorama of hills, valleys, lakes.”
Tour operators working in Iran lauded the inclusion of Yazd, a remote city in the central Iranian plateau that developed an underground water system and maintains its traditional Persian architecture and Zoroastrian temples.
“Architecture, temples, gardens and mosques, things are traditional and intact,” said Annie Lucas, the vice-president of Mir Corporation, which guides trips in Iran.