I find the Google map file for the WHS around the world very useful when I make plans for upcoming trips.
Does anybody know where I can find maps (Google earth or just a plain JPG file, or anything else) that show the tentative sites?
Also, I would like to see maps of WHS that consist of several sites. I'm looking for one of the Flemisch Beguins and one of the French and Belgium belforts. Pretty much every time I go to Belgium I'm looking up all the individual sites to find out if anyone is nearby where I'm going, but there must be a more practical way ;)

Hi Joyce.
Regarding the Maps of WHS with several sites. I am not an expert on Google Earth - I downloaded it long ago to see what it was about and then largely left it alone in Favour of Google Maps!
But I have just downloaded the KML file for showing World Heritage Sites on Google Earth
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/kml
This claims to be "the Official KML version of the list for Google Earth and NASA Worldwind" and it seems to be showing the multiple locations for most of the sites I have looked at -including the Belfries. BUT you have to download further data in order to do so!!

Choose a site from the left hand list of sites (I haven't yet worked out its sequence or how to find a site quickly!). Click on the site and a pop up with a picture will introduce the site on the map showing a logo at its main location or just in the general area!! If it is a multiple location site then at the bottom of that popup MAY be an option stating "Multiple Locations". Go down to it and click on "Display in Google Earth" . You should the get an additional download of coordinates/data in your download tab and if you click on that it will load these to your Google Earth saved files
I have done it for Town houses of Horta, Devon and East Dorset, Spanish toute of Santiago, Protective town of San Miguel, Belfries, Gusuku sites and SA African Fossil Hominid sites. But it didn't seem to work for Loire Valley.

PS - I have just done it for Churches of Chiloe. The records for the individual locations are downloadable but their co-ordinates are useless- somewhere off the coast of West Africa!!!

I don't hold out much hope for finding a map of T List sites but will have a further look - UNESCO doesn't seem to have commissioned one but there may be some individual countries which have one done by a local enthusiast.

I've been using that file, but I never saw the link to the download of the multiple locations. So thanks for that!!!
Unfortunately they don't have all the multiple locations, still looking for the ones to "Frontiers of the Roman Empire"

Creating our own KLM file for the T list (for google maps or earth) is quite simple. We just need a list on names & coordinates.

"Therein lies the rub"!! The T List information on the UNESCO Web site is a mess - I have recently spent time trying to extract e.g African Cultural Landscape sites and descriptions are often incomprehensible or even non existent.

Some countries E.g US, UK and Hungary have coordinates expressed as Latitude/Longitude - others e.g NL use a different grid? France doesn't seem to provide coordinates and neither does Belgium. etc etc.

I suspect actually setting up the KML data is the least of the problems anyone would face

It is perhaps worth pointing out to anyone who doesn't know, that both Google Earth and Google Maps will accept "search arguments" solely in the form of latitude/longitude coordinates.
They also have a degree (!) of flexibility about the exact format - though in my tests Google Earth was a a bit more forgiving of differences - for instance Google Maps refused to accept "minutes,seconds" but would accept "minutes.seconds".

Here are the coordinates of a T List site in the news at the moment, taken from its UNESCO T list Web site entry - Poverty Point. They work for both Google Maps and Earth - the latter homes in on it very impressively to give a nice aerial view of the site!
N32 38 13.364 W91 24 41.906

This is a different format from Iceland of one of the T List Turf Farms - as mentioned above it works perfectly on Google Earth but needs the commas changing to operate for Google maps (both have text which confirms the name of the land nearby as "Glaumbær" as per the title on the T List)
65° 36,675'N, 19° 30,285'W

Els, I am afraid that the Netherlands coordinate format works on neither - is it based on a Dutch National Grid or is it some awful new "European Standard" to replace Latitude and Longitude!? e.g For Middag and Humsterland
328252.35538 5908061.95390

Unfortunately it is often the case that, even when Google Earth/Maps home in on the UNESCO provided coordinates, they are hopelessly incorrect and have obviously never been vetted. Here are the totally meaningless coordinates for Visegrad in Hungary
as per UNESCO N27 37 74 S26 81 50 E64 71 02 W64 06 21 (sic!!)
And here the UNESCO coordinates for the Hungarian State Stud Farm have situated it in a field to the east of the Sea of Azov!!!
N46 21E38 29

Must admit I use Google Earth religiously, I find it exceptionally useful, especially the 'Multiple Locations' option. I owe a few site visits to that function (Struve Geodetic Arc the co-ordinates are accurate on that one as you would expect), and pretty much every trip I go on uses Google Earth. My visit to the Senegambian Stone Circles was pretty much reliant on the detailed satellite maps of South Central Senegal. I do make a fair few files for my own use, and would happily share them, but I am not really sure how much use they would be to others.

The problem with some sites appearing off the West Coast of Africa is that if they don't have co-ordinates associated with them the go to 0°N 0°W. It seems to be pretty random as to which sites turn up there, they are mostly early multiple location inscriptions, but it is not always the case.
I was super impressed that the rock art sites of the Iberian Peninsula has a tag for all 700+ locations, they may not be 100% accurate but do give a decent idea of the locations.

Mapping the tentative sites is a tough one, as like Solivagant, I have encountered the same problems with co-ordinates. As such I normally just look at the sites and see if there are any within the general area I am visiting, then perhaps add them to GE afterwards. I was only just looking at tentative sites in the Balkans and the new Medieval Tombstones came up with some big problems in terms of mapping.

In terms of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, this may be of use to you:
These are files you can load onto GE that show the former frontiers and you can then just try to work out which locations are actually inscribed on the WHS.
German limes:
http://www.gearthhacks.com/forums/attachment.php?s=8aa9a651cff2b3723fd08f9f1db3953c&a ttachmentid=4393&d=1153597879
Hadrian's Wall:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=28648&filename=68173-ha drianswall.kmz
Antonine Wall:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1205017
It is the download .kmz file in the first post, the direct link doesn't work here for some reason.

Hope that is of some use to you.

Hi Joyce,
this is my first post in this forum, I hope I've done everything right. If you are looking for a map of the german part of the "Frontiers of the Roman Empire", these two website may be of use:
URL
URL

Both websites include a Google map where all the locations are marked. The labels on the overview map represent the town or village responsible for the respective district. When you zoom in, labels will appear indicating the exact locations of e.g. a watchtower or fort. The first website provide also informartion on museums. Unfortunatelly, the detailed descriptions are only in German. The second one is in English and highlights also if there is something visible or not. At many locations there is not much you can really 'see', but there are some main sites, where you can find museums and reconstructions or remains of a fort or a roman bath.
I think the most interesting places to visit are the fllowing (from north to south):
Pohl: complete reconstruction of a fort ('state-of-the-art', announced to be opened in September 2011)
Saalburg near Bad Homburg: complete reconstruction of a roman fort dated from 1897
Osterburken: museum with remains of a roman bath, remains of a fort (foundaton walls)
Aalen: museum, fort (original remains and partially reconstruction)
Weissenburg: museum, remains of a roman bath, reconstruction of a gate
Hope these informations are useful.

Els, do you have a way of making files avaible for download on the website?

I have a few countries tentative lists already plotted. I was going to have a look around and see if there was anywhere I could post them so that others could download them, bu twas wondering if this was something you could do on the site.

No worries if that was something you wanted to avoid for practical reasons, as I am sure I could store them elsewhere and link to them from here.

Sure, you can e-mail them to me, and I could add them to the respective country pages (or another logical place)

This file is now available for download

Oops, does it work?
My computer thinks that it is a .zip (although it is a .kmz google maps file)

On my computer its working. And it is a very nice tool...Thank you both!

it's working in Internet Explorer now too

yep it works for me too.

It is a pretty selective batch at the moment.

I will keep on working through them when I get the chance, but if anyone else wants to tackle them it is pretty simple to do.

If there are any requests for countries then let me know, and I will see what I can do.

I think Iran (57), China (53) Italy (40) Mexico (39) may take a little while to get finished. Not really a surprise that perhaps the most active and well represented countries have the longest T-lists.

The 19 sites in Niger may also provide quite a nice challenge, and I don't think I will be able to map every Medieval Tombstone in the Balkans as their co-ordinates don't work well with Google Earth.

Anyway 105 down 1510 to go.