Ayutthaya’s Historic City is inscribed since 1991 — the 417-year Siamese capital sacked and burned by the Burmese in 1767, now an archaeological park of brick temple ruins. Sukhothai, Siam’s first capital, is 5 hours north; Bangkok, built to replace Ayutthaya, is 1.5 hours south by train.

Thessaloniki’s fifteen Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments are inscribed since 1988 — from the third-century Rotunda of Galerius to the fourteenth-century frescoes of the Latomou Monastery. Vergina’s royal Macedonian tombs (Philip II) are 1.5 hours west; Mount Athos’s twenty Orthodox monasteries are 3 hours east.

Salzburg’s Historic Centre is inscribed since 1996 for its exceptional Baroque architecture and as Mozart’s birthplace. Hallstatt-Dachstein — the lake landscape that named the Iron Age — is 45 minutes east; the Wachau Cultural Landscape with its Danube vineyards and Baroque abbeys is 2.5 hours east.

The Historic Centre of Bruges is inscribed since 2000 for its intact medieval Flemish commercial city, Belfry, and canal system. The Grand-Place of Brussels is 1 hour east; the Flemish Béguinages span multiple Flemish cities; the Plantin-Moretus printing workshop is 1 hour north in Antwerp.

Córdoba’s Historic Centre is inscribed since 1984 for the Mosque-Cathedral — the greatest monument of Islamic civilisation in Europe — and the Roman bridge and Jewish quarter. Medina Azahara (2018) adds the Umayyad palace-city; Granada’s Alhambra is 2 hours east; Seville’s Cathedral is 1.5 hours west.

Samarkand was Timur’s Silk Road capital and is inscribed since 2001 for its Timurid monuments — the Registan, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Gur-e-Amir. Bukhara’s historic centre is 1.5 hours west by high-speed train; Khiva’s Itchan Kala is 6 hours northwest — three UNESCO sites on Uzbekistan’s Silk Road circuit.

Ancient Thebes, the New Kingdom capital of Egypt, is inscribed since 1979 for Karnak’s hyperstyle hall, the Valley of the Kings, and Deir el-Bahari. The Nubian monuments of Abu Simbel — temples relocated to save them from Lake Nasser — are 45 minutes south by air.

Santiago de Compostela’s old town has been inscribed since 1985 as the destination of Europe’s most important medieval pilgrimage. The Camino routes themselves are also UNESCO-listed; Lugo’s Roman walls are 1 hour east; Porto’s historic centre is 3 hours south — a northwest Iberian heritage circuit of exceptional richness.

Cologne Cathedral — 632 years in the building — is Germany’s most-visited monument and a UNESCO site since 1996. Aachen Cathedral (Charlemagne’s chapel) is 50 minutes away by train; the Upper Middle Rhine Valley with its Rhine castles is 1 hour south; Zollverein’s industrial complex is 1 hour north in Essen.