I just started a new connection on grandiose subtitles (as in "the gate to Mecca"). I have found 3. Please feel free to add, because I believe there are more

Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha

What about:

Samarkand - Crossroad of Cultures ?

Maybe I am biased now because of the circumstances under which it was inscribed, but I find that I am not able to read "Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines – Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir" without rolling my eyes. It almost sounds like an attempt to evoke imagery that one might when hearing "Gone With the Wind" or "The Ten Commandments". I suppose the whole inscription of this property might become the basis of an epic farce movie about politics.

A few others I find epic:

Fujisan, sacred place and source of artistic inspiration

Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage

Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power (568-774 A.D.)

Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands as a Microcosm of the Land of the Caves

Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the Subak System as a Manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy

Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea

Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy

Funny - I have had a potential proposal for a connection on this sitting awaiting a "final" look through before sending to Els for some time!!!

A problem i came up against was just how "flowery" or "epic" a title needed to be to be considered.

My draft definition and list follows (some have already been identified and others might be considered not "flowery" enough!

"WHS with descriptive titles beyond simple statements of what/where they are. At least 5 words in English and excluding standard phrases like "Historic centre of ", "Cultural Landsape"

Tiwanaku - Spiritual and Political Centre of the Tiwanaku Culture
From the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the Production of Open-pan Salt
Provins, Town of Medieval Fairs
Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret
Lagoons of New Caledonia : Reef Diversity and associated Eco systems
White City of Tel Aviv - The Modern Movement
Samarkand - Crossroad of Cultures
Pearling - Testimony of an Island Economy
Rio de Janiero - Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea
Historic Monuments of Denfeng in "The Centre of Heaven and earth"
Cultural Landscape of Bali Province - The subak system as a manifestion of the tri hita kuran philosophy
Longobards in Italy. Places of the power (568-774AD)
Hiraizumi - Temples, Gardens and Archaeological Sites Representing the Buddhist Pure Land
Rabat, modern capital and historic city: a shared heritage
Heritage of Mercury. Almaden and Idrija
Liverpool - Maritime mercantile city

oh yeah, that's a classic that I forgot all about

Auschwitz

Thanks for this great list. I was thinking indeed about attributes that suggest more substance then the actual site shows, and where the words chosen are especially pretentious. It is difficult to draw a line of course.

Auschwitz has actually been renamed from "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" to "Auschwitz Birkenau. German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)". This not because to make it more glamorous then it was, but (I think) to point out that ít that this wasn't a Polish invention.

A lot of the examples given above are actually explanations about what the site is about, as their main titles (Hiraizumi, Provins, Bursa) are not household names. So it clearly has something to do with pimping a minor or second rate site (Samarkand wouldn´t have needed it..). Another common factor is that these are sites that have been inscribed relatively recently, so it´s a phenomenon that wasn´t necessary in the beginning of the WHL. There´s no `Galapagos Islands - Birthplace of Darwin´s Evolution Theory´.