travel

Tehran sits within reach of some of Iran’s most significant UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One palace stands in the city centre; the others demand journeys of hours. Each rewards the effort.

Saudi Arabia holds six UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Using Riyadh as a base, travellers can reach ancient Diriyah in 30 minutes, the vast Al-Ahsa Oasis in three hours, and the Nabataean rock tombs of Hegra by air.

Jordan is compact enough to reach most of its UNESCO World Heritage Sites as day trips from Amman — from Umayyad desert frescoes at Quseir Amra to the rose-red Nabataean city of Petra.

Jerusalem and its surroundings hold four UNESCO World Heritage Sites spanning three religions and two millennia: the Old City and its Walls, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, and the ancient terraced landscape of Battir.

Cairo is the gateway to four UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Giza Pyramids and Sphinx inscribed in 1979, Historic Cairo’s Citadel and Mosque of Muhammad Ali, and the remote Whale Valley fossils four hours into the desert.

Istanbul holds four UNESCO World Heritage zones within the city, plus Bursa and Troy as day-trip inscriptions. This guide covers all six nominated areas, with transport directions and visit planning for each.

St Petersburg’s UNESCO inscription covers 37 groups of monuments across the city and its palace suburbs. This guide covers the Winter Palace, Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk, and Veliky Novgorod — with transport details for each.

Five UNESCO World Heritage Sites connect Moscow to Russia’s medieval and imperial past — from the Kremlin’s 20 towers on Red Square to the tent-roofed church at Kolomenskoye, the pilgrim monastery at Sergiev Posad, and the white limestone cathedrals of Vladimir and Suzdal.

Krakow sits at the centre of one of Europe’s densest concentrations of UNESCO heritage. Within two hours you reach royal salt mines, a Nazi extermination camp memorial, a Baroque pilgrimage sanctuary, and medieval wooden churches.