Cerrado (new connection suggestion)

- Cerrado Protected Areas
- Lençóis Maranhenses National Park
- Noel Kempff Mercado National Park
- Peruaçu River Canyon

Giant arthropods (new connection suggestion)

- Lord Howe Island: Dryococelus australis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus
- Phong Nha - Ke Bang: Giant huntsman spider (Heteropoda maxima)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_huntsman_spider
https://www.unesco.org/en/world-heritage/committee-2025
- Wet Tropics of Queensland: Acrophylla alta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrophylla_alta

Notable examples of island gigantism: Hawaii Volcanoes: forests of giant ferns
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Inscribed by phase (new connection suggestion)

When the extension is planned from the start. The word "phase" must be officially used in UNESCO documents.

- Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats (Extension)
https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6667/
- Migratory Bird Sanctuaries China
- The Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panamá

Maybe beech forests, limes...

Yves Coppens (new connection suggestion)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Coppens

- Lower Valley of the Awash
- Megaliths of Carnac
- Paris, Banks of the Seine

Gemini says no.. https://g.co/gemini/share/e082c9959945
(They Came from a Giant Ancestry + They Arrived "Pre-Adapted" for Size)

Adding new connections to WHS with very few connections: Koh Ker only has 8 connections up to now.

Connection: Archaeological potential

Koh Ker – "a largely unexcavated archaeological site" (Nomination file, p. viii) – "Recent LiDAR surveys conducted in 2012 have additionally uncovered many more areas of potential archaeology and structures, most of which are in their original form, location and setting. It also suggests that the site has a much larger extent than was previously believed." (Nomination file, p. 96)

Connection: Archaeological Site Reburial

Koh Ker – "Archaeological remains have been inventoried and documented, and the excavated sites have been backfilled to protect the historic fabric from further damage." (AB Ev)

Connection: Astronomy and Astrology

Koh Ker – "The orientation of the temple of Prasat Thom does not follow the classical orientation of Khmer temples, but is tilted 13° 77' to the northeast. Considering the importance of Prasat Thom as the state temple of Koh Ker, its orientation contributes to the symbolic, functional, religious and astronomical aspects of city planning. This sacred geometry is also remarkable for its elegance and precision and for its alignment with the solstices and other important naturalistic calendars. This orientation on latitude 13° 44' allows a zenith passage by the Sun on 13th April, is celebrated as the Khmer New Year (Gupta 2020). This integration of the astronomical phenomena with sacred geography reflected in the city planning was the first in Khmer history." (Nomination file, p. 34)

Connection: Built in Laterite

Koh Ker – "Dedicated to Lord Vishnu, Prasat Chen comprises three laterite sanctuaries that are square in plan and face east." – "There are fourteen laterite platforms, which are thought to be the foundations for wooden sanctuaries." (AB Ev) – "(...) in Koh Ker, laterite blocks were also used for as primary material for temple construction" – "Amongst monuments currently listed within the Nominated Property, 6 are built in sandstone, 22 in brick and 23 in laterite." – "Laterite is the second largest material being utilised for temple construction, as well as for foundations and embankments of the dyke, reservoir and the Rahal." (Nomination file, p. 38, 39, 74)

Connection: Festivals

Koh Ker – "In accordance with Cambodian tradition, ancient temples are given the names of individual Neak Ta (powerful ancestral spirits). The residents of settlements near Koh Ker have a significant Neak Ta Moeung the main spirit that protects the village, its wooden shrine is located in the north-west corner of Prasat Thom, and is worshipped in an annual festival. Both these celebrations known as "Leung Memot" in Khmer are held in February or March, in accordance with the Khmer Lunar calendar (Phin 2011)." (Nomination file, p. 29)

Connection: Fusion

Koh Ker – Criterion ii: "The archaeological site of Koh Ker exhibits in an exceptional way the interchange of human values that resulted in the Koh Ker Style, a sculptural expression featuring bold, expressive imagery and a dynamic sense of movement that resulted from the fusion of Indian religious and artistic symbolism with local design concepts and artistic craftsmanship." (OUV) – "ICOMOS considers (...) that the Koh Ker Style is the product of the fusion of Indian religious symbolism with Indigenous cultural values and traditions." (Ab Ev)

Connection: Geomancy

Koh Ker – "The layout of the city is presented in the nomination dossier as being based on the shape of the sacred Padmaka or Shiva Shakti mandala, a concept of city plans from the Vastu Shastra, a collection of treatises of ancient Hindu architecture and town planning, though there are no known contemporary records or inscriptions to confirm the original planning methodology." (AB Ev) – "Koh Ker was conceived and developed in a single phase under the grand vision of Jayavarman IV. It is clear that his city plan was inspired from the concept of city plans of Vastu Shastra, a treatise of ancient Indian Hindu architecture and town planning." (Nomination file, p. 30)

Connection: Hindu Sites in non Hindu countries

Koh Ker – "With Prasat Thom dedicated to Shiva, Prasat Chen dedicated to Vishnu and Prasat Banteay Pir Choan dedicated to Brahma, the symbolic Hindu Trinity lies on a triangular formation and was positioned as an attempt to assert divinity to the kingship by Jayavarman IV." (Nomination file, p. 36)

To be continued...

It's a subtype of savanna, and two of the connected sites are already linked there. It's best to add the other two there as well?
https://www.worldheritagesite.org/connections/savanna/
https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/cerrado

Note: also in doubt whether Lencois Maranhenses contains Cerrado. References in the AB ev point to the buffer zone for that.

Slow Starters:

- Guinea-Bissau: 2006-2025 : 19 years
- Sierra Leone: 2005-2025 : 20 years

Untranslated Toponyms: Stevns Klint (same reason as for Møns Klint)

I don't think we have a Monty Python connection yet, but there are at least three sites the British comedy troupe used in filming:

Archaeological Site of Carthage: Life of Brian [link]
Medina of Sousse: Life of Brian [link]
Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites: Monty Python's Flying Circus (Series 4, Episode 45) [link]

Monty Python filmed some of their series up in west Yorkshire, and supposedly filmed around Saltaire. Unfortunately, the only references I've seen to Saltaire have been to a football field that I don't believe is in the core zone. Maybe someone else has identified some part of the town in the series?

Also, Monty Python filmed on the southern coast in Dorset and Devon, but I've only found locations on beaches just outside the inscribed Jurassic Coast.

Let's get some more connections in for Koh Ker.

Connection: Damaged in War since WWII

Koh Ker – "Some sculptures were looted in the past, particularly during the civil war period between 1967 and 1975." (AB Ev)

Connection: Irrigation and drainage

Koh Ker – "Dykes are located primarily at the high contours of the surrounding hills. They were built to prevent the city from flooding, and at the same time to guide water flow to feed city ponds and reservoirs used for ritualistic and utilitarian purposes." – "The water management system at Koh Ker is a combination of a highland system of damming river valleys and a lowland system of reservoirs, channels, and bunded fields. This amalgamation of techniques is unique to the Khmer history. The hydraulic structures of this water management system can be classified into two broad categories: artificial ponds, and embankments." (AB Ev)

Connection: Legends and Folk Myths

Koh Ker – Prasat Neang Khmau: "(...) many years ago a powerful king Preah Bat Sorya Teyong lived at the Chiso mountain. One day his daughter Neang Khmao, went to Tonle Protron and met a handsome man, Bandit Srey, who instantly fell in love with her and who used magic to make her fall in love with him. When the king heard about this he ordered his daughter be exiled and he built two temples for her to live in. Whilst in exile she fell in love with a monk who subsequently fell in love with her and gave up being a monk to live with the princess in the temple since which it has been known as Neang Khmao Temple." (Wikipedia)

Connection: Libraries

Koh Ker – "Prasat Ruom is a square terrace of twenty-one brick towers and two libraries with rich statues and a strip of wall painting, surrounded by a large moat and accessed by causeways along the central axis." (AB Ev) – Prasat Thom has "21 towers and 2 libraries for scriptures". (Nomination file, p. 46)

Connection: Moats

Koh Ker – "In Hindu mythology, (...) the highest mountain is called Meru, located at the centre of the universe, which is surrounded by the Sea of Milk, from which ambrosia was churned. In Indian temple tradition, the spires represented Mount Meru, and the associated water tank or river represented the sea. However, in Cambodia, the cosmological conception of the sea of milk around Meru is represented by a moat, like at Prasat Thom in Koh Ker." (Nomination file, p. 39) – Prasat Ruom, part of the Prasat Thom complex, is "surrounded by a large moat". (Nomination file, p. 51)

Connection: Multilingual inscriptions

Koh Ker – "In nine of 76 temples in Koh Ker, 73 inscriptions have been found. Notably, these inscriptions are scripted on the walls, columns, and doorframes of temples in old Khmer and Sanskrit. This is highly unusual considering that until that time most royal inscriptions were only in the official Sanskrit language, itself considered sacred in Indian tradition." - "Jayavarman IV (...) broke from tradition and used old Khmer in inscriptions together with the use of Sanskrit." (Nomination file, p. 67, 108)

Connection: Passage of the Sun

Koh Ker – "The main axis of Prasat Thom and several other associated temples is quite precisely oriented to the rising sun on the day of Khmer New Year, which for Koh Ker falls on 13th April, the only fixed date in the Khmer lunar calendar. His explicit connection of the axis of the entire city along with its state temple with the rising sun on the days of its zenith passage is indeed a remarkable planning and design feature of Koh Ker." (Nomination file, p. 105)

Connection: Protective engineering works against flooding

Koh Ker – "Dykes are located primarily at the high contours of the surrounding hills. They were built to prevent the city from flooding (...)." – "Embankments are essential during the wet season to prevent the city from flooding, and to collect water for living during the dry season." – "(...) a sophisticated hydraulic system was constructed to transform the often-flooded area into habitable land." (AB Ev)

To be continued...

Mount Mulanje Cultural Landscape: Built or owned by British

Fort Lister
https://whc.unesco.org/en/documents/219993/

New connection proposal for the Ecology Category:

Connection: Lynxes
WHS where lynxes live in the wild.

Bialowieza Forest – "viable populations of large mammals and large carnivores (wolf, lynx and otter) amongst other" (OUV)

Central Sikhote-Alin – "Further notable and charismatic species include (...) Lynx" (OUV)

Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands – "The nominated property also harbors healthy populations of large mammal species that are not listed as globally threatened, but which are important in the regional context, including European Brown Bear, Grey Wolf and European Lynx." (AB Ev)

Donana National Park – "Doñana (...) is an essential refuge for several endangered species, including the Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus) (one of the world's most threatened felines)" (OUV)

Hawraman/Uramanat – "Among animals found in the region are: (...) lynx" (Nomination file, p. 35) Lynxes in the Kosalan and Shahu Protected Areas (Nomination file, p. 223)

Laponian Area – "Inventories of large predators (such as brown bear, wolverine, lynx and golden eagle) are conducted in cooperation with the local Saami villages and the CAB." (OUV)

Pimachiowin Aki – "Notable predator-prey relationships are sustained among species such as Wolf and Moose and Woodland Caribou, and Lynx and Snowshoe Hare." (OUV)

Plitvice Lakes – "Brown Bear, Grey Wolf and Lynx along with many rare species roam the forests (...)." (OUV)

I am sorry but we have had that connection before, and later removed it because several people found it was too common. ("most Natural/Mixed sites in mainland temperate Eurasia and North America will have them.")

See this decision and discussion in the posts above that
https://forum.worldheritagesite.org/index.php?action=vthread&forum=5&topic=310&page=3#msg22090