UNESCO and Our World’s Heritage
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris, France.
Its declared purpose is to contribute to promoting international collaboration in education, sciences, and culture in order to increase universal respect for justice, theĀ rule of law, andĀ human rightsĀ along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in theĀ United Nations Charter.
The UNESCO site is where I start my bi-yearly list. Many of my choices are still on their list, some aren’t. Many sites you’ll see on my 2019 list aren’t registered UNESCO sites, but are substantial cultural sites for their respective countries. And some listed, like Route 66, are just pure fun between other places to visit, like a regional museum or gallery.
I still think that these attractions are worth the costs to get there.

Many are off the beaten path a bit, but still accessible for most of us by car or train. Many connect us to our human heritage – including some reaching back to neolithic times like what I found here in Malta. It made me think a lot for days.
#1 – Public Gardens
Everybody’s welcome in the garden.
Monet’s Garden | Giverny, France |
UNESCO Peace Garden | Paris, France |
Garden of St. Adrien | Servian, France |
Versailles palace & gardens | Verseille, France |
Cezanne’s Gardens | Aix-en-Provence, France |
LaLouve Gardens | Bonnieux France |
Gardens at Maizicourt | Amiens, France |
Borghese Gardens | Rome, Italy |
Ninfa Gardens | Latina Italy |
Torrechia Vechia Gardens | Central Italy |
Vatican Gardens | Vatican City, Rome |
Kew Gardens | London, England |
Queens Gardens | London, England |
#2 – Europe
Prehistoric decorated caves | Vezere Valley, France |
The Guggenheim Museum | Bilbao, Spain |
Center of Cordoba | Cordoba, Spain |
Megalithic Temples | Tarxien, Malta |
The Blue Lagoon | Camino, Malta |
Site of Troy | Canakkale Province, Turkey |
Goreme Open-Air Museum | Cappadocia, Turkey |
Old Dubrovnik | Dubrovnik, Croatia |
Plitvice Lakes National Park | Central Croatia |
The Louvre | Paris, France |
Orangerie Museum | Paris, France |
Tuileries Gardens | Paris, France |
Eiffel Tower | Paris, France |
Notre Dame and the Seine | Paris, France |
Picasso Museum | Antibes, France |
F1 Grand Prix | Monte Carlo |
Roman Baths | Bath, England |
Roman Arena | Arles, France |
Canterbury Cathedral | Canterbury, England |
#3 – North Africa
Valley of the Kings | Luxor City, Egypt |
Temple of Hatshepsut | Luxor, Egypt |
Nefertari’s Tomb | Luxor, Egypt |
Pyramid of Cheops | Giza, Egypt |
The Great Sphinx | Giza, Egypt |
Medina of Tangiers | Morocco |
Old Chefchaouen | Morocco |
Medina of Marrakesh | Morocco |
Medina of Fez | Morocco |
#4 – United States
Olympic National Park | Olympic Peninsula, WA USA |
Route 66 | AZ & NM USA |
F1 Grand Prix | Austin, TX USA |
Yosemite National Park | Yosemite, CA USA |
Smithsonian Institute | Washington DC USA |
Redwood National Park | Eureka, CA USA |
These, I’ve checked off the list since 2000:
Valletta City | Valletta, Malta |
Gigantjia Temples | Gozo, Malta |
Desert Botanical Garden | Phoenix, AZ, USA |
The Grand Canyon | Tusayan, AZ USA |
Cherry Blossom Festival | Washington DC USA |
The British Museum | London, England |
Butchart Gardens | Victoria, BC |
Roman Forum | Rome, Italy |
The Pantheon | Rome, Italy |
Roman Coliseum | Rome, Italy |
The Vatican Museums | Vatican City, Italy |
Thyssen Bornemisza Museum | Madrid, Spain |
The Alhambra | Grenada, Spain |
Generalife Gardens | Grenada, Spain |
The Dali Museum | Figueres, Spain |
Reina Sophia Museum | Madrid, Spain |
The Sagrada Familia | Barcelona, Spain |
The Prado | Madrid, Spain |
Palace of the Popes | Avignon, France |
The Roman Arena | Arles, France |
The Van Gogh Walk | Arles, France |
109 East Palace | Sante Fe, New Mexico, USA |
Georgia O’Keefe Museum | Sante Fe, New Mexico, USA |
Los Alamos Museum | Los Alamos, NM USA |
I hope this gives you, dear reader, an idea of what may appear as posts in the next few months, so you can come back often & read, enjoy, (& add good comments to) the new posts. I try to have 2 posts a week published with pictures. They will be filled with highlighted and italicized links as a way to learn more about each subject. Some product links will be included also.

Featured top image: Valletta City’s Gate and Triton Fountain Plaza, Malta