The sites below have still no connection at all! Please find them one...

P.S.: you don't have to re-submit any previously submitted ideas (like the various locations of the dead), these will be taken care of


6,"The Four Lifts"
14,"Nemrut Dag"
15,"Hattusha"
17,"Ayutthaya"
26,"Palmeral of Elche"
34,"Old Town of Lijiang"
41,"Khajuraho Group of Monuments"
53,"Nikko"
65,"Schokland"
79,"Coa Valley"
81,"Gusuku Sites"
82,"Yakushima"
83,"Shirakami-Sanchi"
87,"Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve"
93,"Laurisilva of Madeira"
105,"Atapuerca"
108,"Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad"
110,"M'Zab Valley"
118,"Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas"
119,"Peninsula Valdes"
120,"Ischigualasto / Talampaya"
127,"Willandra Lakes Region"
130,"Gondwana Rainforests"
131,"Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park"
132,"Wet Tropics of Queensland"
134,"Shark Bay"
137,"Australian Fossil Mammal Sites"
146,"Bagerhat"
150,"Belovezhskaya Pushcha / Puszcza Bialowieska"
164,"Serra da Capivara National Park"
165,"São Luis"
166,"Diamantina"
167,"Discovery Coast"
168,"Atlantic Forest"
169,"Central Amazon Conservation Complex"
170,"Pantanal"
182,"Redwood"
183,"Mammoth Cave"
184,"Olympic National Park"
186,"Great Smoky Mountains"
189,"Yosemite National Park"
190,"Chaco Culture"
191,"Hawaii Volcanoes"
200,"Khami Ruins"
204,"Taï National Park"
205,"Comoé National Park"
206,"Central Suriname Nature Reserve"
207,"Birka and Hovgården"
209,"Rock Carvings in Tanum"
212,"Tsingy de Bemaraha"
213,"Lake Malawi"
214,"Kinabalu Park"
215,"Gunung Mulu National Park"
237,"Wartburg Castle"
245,"Garajonay"
264,"Pattadakal"
265,"Hampi"
269,"Sun Temple, Konarak"
276,"Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi"
283,"Luang Prabang"
295,"Sukur"
305,"The Land of Frankincense"
306,"Ferapontov Monastery"
307,"Early Christian Necropolis of Pécs"
310,"Gyeongju
312,"Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa Dolmen"
325,"First Coffee Plantations"
331,"Fossil Hominid Sites"
333,"Brimstone Hill Fortress"
344,"Jiuzhaigou Valley"
354,"Classical Gardens of Suzhou"
357,"Mount Wuyi"
361,"Zabid"
362,"Ha Long Bay"
364,"Hoi An"
365,"My Son Sanctuary"
366,"Coro and its Port"
368,"Bahla Fort"
372,"Lake Turkana National Parks"
375,"Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple"
380,"Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park"
385,"Rila Monastery"
387,"Srebarna Nature Reserve"
389,"Thracian tomb of Sveshtari"
418,"Okapi Wildlife Reserve"
424,"Island of Gorée"
427,"Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves"
428,"""W"" National Park of Niger"
430,"Simien National Park"
431,"Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves"
434,"Tchogha Zanbil"
435,"Persepolis"
441,"Asante Traditional Buildings"
465,"Spissky Hrad"
480,"Darien National Park"
482,"Moenjodaro"
484,"Takht-i-Bahi"
486,"Rohtas Fort"
488,"Te Wahipounamu"
495,"Medina of Tétouan"
506,"Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco"
510,"Tlacotalpan"
522,"Serengeti National Park"
527,"Monastery of Horezu"
541,"Qadisha Valley"
543,"Sangiran Early Man Site"
545,"Komodo National Park"
546,"Prambanan"
548,"Castel del Monte"
554,"Trinidad and the Valley de los Ingenios"
555,"Viñales Valley"
556,"San Pedro de la Roca Castle"
574,"Rock-art Sites of Tadrart Acacus"
578,"Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta"
587"",""Los Katios National Park"""
593,"Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras"
608,"Western Caucasus"
612,"Virgin Komi Forests"
615,"White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal"
618,"Sammallahdenmäki"
644,"Su Nuraxi di Barumini"
647,"Lower Valley of the Awash"
648,"Tiya"
650,"Lower Valley of the Omo"
656,"Church of Saint-Savin sur Gartempe"
661,"Canal du Midi"
674,"L'Anse aux Meadows"
676,"Dinosaur Provincial Park"
677,"Glacier parks"
678,"SGaang Gwaii (Anthony Island)"
679,"Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump"
680,"Wood Buffalo National Park"
683,"Waterton Glacier International Peace Park"
684,"Gros Morne National Park"
685,"Miguasha Park"
688,"Grand Canyon"
690,"Fertö/Neusiedlersee"
691,"Tsodilo"
696,"Zollverein"
700,"Lamu Old Town"
702,"Ambohimanga"
705,"Alto Douro"
715,"Cerrado Protected Areas"
719,"Dorset and East Devon Coast"
726,"Tokaji Wine Region"
731,"Purnululu National Park"
735,"Phong Nha - Ke Bang"
741,"Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka"
742,"Takht-e Soleyman"
750,"Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape"
759,"Pitons Management Area"
764,"Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley
770,"Pasargadae"
773,"Tamgaly"
775,"Vegaøyan"
784,"Kernavë Archeological Site"
786,"Pico Island"
789,"Liverpool"
793,"Shiretoko"
794,"Gulf of California"
795,"West Norwegian Fjords"
796,"Coiba National Park"
797,"Vredefort Dome"
804,"Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works"
806,"Cienfuegos"
808,"Soltaniyeh"
812,"Osun-Osogbo"
843,"Vizcaya Bridge"
817,"Kondoa"
821,"Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries"
825,"Malpelo"
834,"Stone Circles of Senegambia"
841,"Aflaj irrigation system"
838,"Tequila"
844,"Chongoni Rock Art"
847,"South China Karst"
848,"Rainforests of the Atsinanana"
849,"Jeju"
850,"Teide National Park"
860,"Twyfelfontein"
861,"Primeval Beech Forests"
862,"Richtersveld"
863,"Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces"
864,"Parthian Fortresses of Nisa"

Perhaps it would be interesting to update this list.

There are about 45 left:

83,"Shirakami-Sanchi"
93,"Laurisilva of Madeira"
110,"M'Zab Valley"
118,"Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas"
120,"Ischigualasto / Talampaya"
137,"Australian Fossil Mammal Sites"
206,"Central Suriname Nature Reserve"
212,"Tsingy de Bemaraha"
214,"Kinabalu Park"
245,"Garajonay"
295,"Sukur"
305,"The Land of Frankincense"
306,"Ferapontov Monastery"
325,"First Coffee Plantations"
331,"Fossil Hominid Sites"
361,"Zabid"
385,"Rila Monastery"
434,"Tchogha Zanbil"
484,"Takht-i-Bahi"
541,"Qadisha Valley"
543,"Sangiran Early Man Site"
555,"Viñales Valley"
593,"Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras"
647,"Lower Valley of the Awash"
648,"Tiya"
650,"Lower Valley of the Omo"
674,"L'Anse aux Meadows"
676,"Dinosaur Provincial Park"
691,"Tsodilo"
702,"Ambohimanga"
731,"Purnululu National Park"
741,"Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka"
750,"Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape"
784,"Kernavë Archeological Site"
797,"Vredefort Dome"
804,"Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works"
817,"Kondoa"
834,"Stone Circles of Senegambia"
838,"Tequila"
841,"Aflaj irrigation system"
844,"Chongoni Rock Art"
862,"Richtersveld"
872,"Le Morne"
875,"Kuk"
884,"Mount Sanqingshan"

P.S.: I'm updating this list regularly as the new connections keep coming in

One "problem" is that "Categories" and "Connections" have come to meet (and even overlap) each other in the middle. eg Should "Water Management" be a category or connection? If it were a connection then eg Aflaj would go there. Similarly there are a lot of "Forests" in the above list - but we already have a specific category for that
The original purpose of Catgegory was to identify "at a glance" the main nature of a site - we allowed more than 1 category per site (or rather Els did at my request!) to allow for mixed sites which logically required 2 aspects to be described and to cover those sites which were either a lot of different things or else a bit of a mediocre "mixed bag" (We tried hard to avoid a category of "Other ...."!). It could itself have developed much in the way that "connections" has but we introduced "connections alongside it. Is there really room/need for 2 both lists?

Possibilities from here include
a. Dropping "Category" altogether and encompasssing it within "Connection"
b. Revisiting "Category" and "lifting" some at least of its definitions to provide space for "Connections"
c. Allowing duplicates across both - ie altering the connection "rules"
d. Accept the status quo

What I quite like about the way "Connections" has developed, quite apart from the links it provides ACROSS sites, is that the collection of "connections" for any 1 site gives a rounded picture of what THAT site is "about" even if you know nothing about it. Incorporating Category would enhance that into a SINGLE picture??

The "serendipity" of looking through the list of connections arranged alphabetically has been quite nice up to now but, perhaps, the list is getting a bit long (??) - in conjunction with option a above perhaps the time has come to "group" the connections -perhaps based on (but not necessarily slavishly following - in any case they are not totally suitable) the higher category level titles? A sort of "categories of connections" - "linked to Famous People" etc!!!

Now often the primary reason for inscription is the category, and the secondary reasons are among the connections (together with the more trivial issues). The incorporation of the categories into the connections would indeed result in a well-rounded picture of a particular WHS. So because of that I really like option A.

Lifting some categories (as in B) I do not really like, as then the idea behind the categories (the main reason for inscription) will fade or disappear. The Virgin Komi Forests one and only reason for being on the list is that they are (virgin) forests. We cannot lump them in with others (flora?) without losing meaning altogether. We might end up with one 'Natural' category!

C and D should be avoided.

If we should decide to go for A, I would like to split them up further to a lower level. Not 'Colonial urban landscape', but Spanish colonial, or Dutch colonial etc.
This way we could also tackle the more sizeable connections (Assif has suggested naming all Islamic religious sites into one connection (like there is one for Jewish or Cathedrals)).

I don't see why the connections and categories can't cross! The categories form a formal ontology or even taxonomy of the sites.

The categories, I think, should be about what sites are in this system the taxa are central.

The connections are a set of relationships linking sites; in this system the relationships are central. Solivagant is even suggesting a taxonomy of the connections - which is quite valid.

Types can exist in both systems and can mean different things. A bit of a contrived example would be to be in the "Amphitheatre Category" a site needs to be an Amphitheatre - e.g. El Jem, but Verona or Arles could be in the "Amphitheatre connection".

Personally I think the categories are "essential" and connections "interesting"

Another reasons to keep categories is there are no limits on the size of the class in categories - in connections there is an arbitrary minimum of three and absolute minimum of two - you can't connect a single site but a category of one is quite valid.

How few "unconnected" are we down to now?
If the numbers are manageable I wonder if we should have a "trivial" connection entitled "No Connection yet!" to highlight the orphans and stimulate our thoughts. Sites with this connection would obviuosly be removed from it as they were given families

I suspect however that, until we write/copy/merge some of the "categories" into "connections", there will always be a few which are unconnectable (I think there is only 1 which has proven "uncategorizable" so far - Bahai?).

I wouldn't disagree with Paul's point that there is a difference between e.g a site which IS an amphitheatre and one which CONTAINS an amphitheatre - the same could apply to "food production" etc etc and that hence the main typology of each site is worth separating out - even if it ends up being a singleton which is of course definitionally impossible for a "connection".

After a quick review of the current categories I would suggest that the following are actually connections:

Natural landscape Eroded Add canyon, rock formations and craters to
Natural Landscape category
Urban landscape Urban continuity

Human activity Communication, Add railways and canals to secular structure
Transport and Trade category

Human activity Food production Add plantations and agricultre to secular
structure?
Human activity Manufacture Add factories & industry to secular structure

Human activity Mining Add mines to secular structure

Human activity Slave trade

Human activity Urban planning

Human activity Water Management Add mills to secular structure

The grand canyon would then be categorized as a canyon but linked to the rock formations in Purnululu National Park (and the East Devon Coast) through the erosion connection and perhaps Iron Bridge Gorge through the canyons and gorges connection.

This suggestion does reduce the emphasis on the "primary reasons for inscription" which elsslots rightly thinks as being important. But one could also add a set of connections under the heading "reasons for inscription".

A "nice to have" would be to extend Solivagant suggestions for analysing the visited site lists by reporting on category - you could see if you have visited all the Roman archaeological sites on the list.

Whoops my formatting as disappeared, I'll try again!

Natural landscape/Eroded (Add canyon, rock formations and craters to Natural Landscape category)

Urban landscape/Urban continuity

Human activity/Communication Transport and Trade (Add railways and canals to secular structure category)

Human activity/Food production (Add plantations and agriculture to secular structure)

Human activity/Manufacture (Add factories & industry to secular structure)

Human activity/Mining (Add mines to secular structure)

Human activity Slave trade

Human activity Urban planning

Human activity Water Management (Add mills to secular structure)

About 45 now:

83,"Shirakami-Sanchi"
93,"Laurisilva of Madeira"
110,"M'Zab Valley"
118,"Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas"
120,"Ischigualasto / Talampaya"
137,"Australian Fossil Mammal Sites"
206,"Central Suriname Nature Reserve"
212,"Tsingy de Bemaraha"
214,"Kinabalu Park"
245,"Garajonay"
295,"Sukur"
305,"The Land of Frankincense"
306,"Ferapontov Monastery"
325,"First Coffee Plantations"
331,"Fossil Hominid Sites"
361,"Zabid"
385,"Rila Monastery"
434,"Tchogha Zanbil"
484,"Takht-i-Bahi"
541,"Qadisha Valley"
543,"Sangiran Early Man Site"
555,"Viñales Valley"
593,"Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras"
647,"Lower Valley of the Awash"
648,"Tiya"
650,"Lower Valley of the Omo"
674,"L'Anse aux Meadows"
676,"Dinosaur Provincial Park"
691,"Tsodilo"
702,"Ambohimanga"
731,"Purnululu National Park"
741,"Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka"
750,"Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape"
784,"Kernavë Archeological Site"
797,"Vredefort Dome"
804,"Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works"
817,"Kondoa"
834,"Stone Circles of Senegambia"
838,"Tequila"
841,"Aflaj irrigation system"
844,"Chongoni Rock Art"
862,"Richtersveld"
872,"Le Morne"
875,"Kuk"
884,"Mount Sanqingshan"

Els, could you please update this list?

31 left:

83,"Shirakami-Sanchi"
93,"Laurisilva of Madeira"
118,"Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas"
137,"Australian Fossil Mammal Sites"
206,"Central Suriname Nature Reserve"
214,"Kinabalu Park"
245,"Garajonay"
295,"Sukur"
305,"The Land of Frankincense"
306,"Ferapontov Monastery"
325,"First Coffee Plantations"
331,"Fossil Hominid Sites"
361,"Zabid"
434,"Tchogha Zanbil"
484,"Takht-i-Bahi"
543,"Sangiran Early Man Site"
555,"Viñales Valley"
647,"Lower Valley of the Awash"
648,"Tiya"
650,"Lower Valley of the Omo"
702,"Ambohimanga"
731,"Purnululu National Park"
741,"Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka"
750,"Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape"
784,"Kernavë Archeological Site"
797,"Vredefort Dome"
817,"Kondoa"
838,"Tequila"
841,"Aflaj irrigation system"
844,"Chongoni Rock Art"
875,"Kuk"

A number of them are forests! You could "cheat" a bit by connecting all the Forests - UNESCO has done this already in its "Forest Program" with 97 sites - http://whc.unesco.org/en/activities/43/

Alternatively you could be more specific by eg type of main tree. Beech Forests for instance
Shirakami-Sanchi, Carpathians and Te wahipounamu
I am sure there are other "tree families" which are particularly notable at certain sites -The Laurel (Madeira) and Cedar (Lebanon) surely ought to yield something - we have connections about mammal species after all! But "Tree Names" are confusing and are used unreliably for differing genera - In fact it appears that the NZ Beech (as at Te Wahipounamu) is now "thought" to be a different family from that of the northern Beech (but still within the same "order") - we need a Botanist to supplement our combined group historical, artistic and geographical knowledge!

Kinabalu is a "Tourist Trek" - but only 2 days so "Multi day" might need changing a bit to e.g "involving at least 1 overnight" to avoid including everywhere with a pleasant walk!

A problem with "Frescoes by Famous Painters" is that it favours the Italian Schools so the poor old Russian Dionisius gets left out - but, if he were "famous" enough, his works could justify Ferapontov.. We are trying with "famous" to limit a connection to a site with work by (or controlled by) a known individual whose noteworthy lifetime corpus extends beyond just that work and/or who represents a school or style - on that basis Dionisius would seem to "get in" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionisius )!

The Aflaj do have Tunnels

Ambohimanga used to be the location for the Merina Dynastic Tombs but, to quote the ICOMOS evaluation "In March 1897 the mortal remains of royalty were transferred to Antananarivo by the French colonial authorities in a failed attempt to erase the holiness of the site and the nationalistic legitimacy attached to it. The royal tombs were demolished and military buildings erected in their stead for the garrison on the site" Good enough I would have thought?

Zabid was the site of a noteworthy Islamic University - but do we include past universities?

Takht-i-Bahi could be in a Connection of "Buddhist sites in non-Buddhist countries" (defined as less than 1% of Population? - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_by_country ) So includes - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India - there are an additional few there!

Regarding Kernavë - I wonder if there is a connection possibility around the "Teutonic Knights" (destroyed by them) along with Malbork and Acre?

"The Land of Frankincense" is just waiting to be linked to "Incense route of the Negev" and there must be other sites for an "Incense Route" connection - e.g Petra and Al-hijr (From the ICOMOS evaluation of the latter - "The Nabataeans are well known for their role in the commerce of incense, spices and aromatic plants during late Antiquity and the pre-Islamic period" . Also much of the wealth of Axum derived from its control of the Incense trade. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incense_Road

(by the way I see that there is an "Amber Road" as well. I don't know how "official" such assignments of "routes" are but I think that too ought to yield some connections. A reading of likely ICOMOS reviews might identify mentions of the Amber trade - we need some reference like that don't we? I note that Baltic amber was discovered in King Tut's tomb)

Could "Pyramids" be extended in concept to include "Ziggarats" (Def - "A form of terraced Pyramid")- that would let in Chogha Zanbil . We have already been fairly flexible with our definition of "Pyramid" to mean "Pyramidical" by including Chola Temples and the Louvre so it doesn't seem a major extension!

Many of the others are in the Category/Connection overlap area - a lot of "Early Hominid Remains", "Rock Art" and "Food production" for instance. But there could be a "subset" of "Food Production" just covering "Drink Production" - Coffee, Tequila, Wine if that doesn't break Rule 3!

The Kondoa ICOMOS evaluation states that "The site consists not only of rock paintings but also associated archaeological sites" - among those sites "fieldwork by the University of Dar as-Salaam has recovered evidence of iron smelting industries at Kisese and Pahi" including "remains of Iron Age smelting furnaces, tuiyeres, slag". So a connection to "Iron Production" seems justified (I suspect that there are other sites with "Iron Age" remains and that this "age" might usefully be separated out later??).
Another possible new connection invovling Kondoa is to the Leakey Family (5 of them - see http://www.leakey.com/leakey_biography.htm ). They did studies here (ICOMOS evaluation - "The Leakey family, with the financial support of Norwegian Aid, organised the construction of a small rock art visitor centre at Kolo in the 1970s.") Mary Leakey was the main specialist there. Lake Turkana Koobi Fora research involved Richard and is now headed by Meave and Louise Leakey and Olduvai in the Ngorongoro conservation area was also famously "discovered" by Mary + Richard.

This will also give a Connection to "Lower Omo Valley" as Richard Leakey was invited by Haile Selassie to search for fossils there - "In 1966 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia made a state visit to Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya. Leakey was invited to a luncheon where he described his finds in Kenya and Tanzania. The Emperor wondered why there were no fossils in his country. Leakey assured him that in the Omo Valley there were. However, it had been impossible to get government permission to organize an expedition. Haile Selassie assured him that permission would be forthcoming. Leakey visited Addis Ababa, saw the Emperor and two of his ministers, and made the necessary arrangements for permission for a three month expedition starting in June, 1967"

There is also a possible Leakey family connection with Mt Kenya and the Mau Mau insurgency - "And so, Gray Leakey, a cousin of Louis Leakey, was taken captive and led into the forests of Mount Kenya, high up on the mountain, where "he was buried alive and upside down in deep red soil."" I can't be certain however that his murder took place within the inscribed areas of Mt Kenya! (source amomg others :- http://www.codesria.org/Links/Publications/arb2_1/page7_9.pdf )

Sukur could fit quite neatly with Palaces or a subset thereof (we would surely have had "Palaces" as a Connection in its own right if it had not already been used as a Category?) as there are a number of other "Palaces" or "compounds" of African Chiefs or Kings on the list - Buganda, Abomey and even Ambohimanga

The ones left still without a connection:

137,"Australian Fossil Mammal Sites"
731,"Purnululu National Park"
838,"Tequila"