Squiffy Profile
I can't believe I only discovered this site in 2018. I discovered the World Heritage List back in 2004 and it formed a major focus of my free time for a good decade or so. I never knew that there was such an active community of fellow like-minded nerds out here.
My visits have pretty much fallen off a cliff since 2015 as I have discovered there is a limit to what is responsible or feasible with a young family. Since my honeymoon I've only managed to visit three or four new sites (the 'maybe four' being Pont d'Arc where I visited the replica cave but didn't sneak into the actual inscribed area). So my reviews will be limited to newly-visited sites or ones I have previously visited but are lacking in reviews on the site.
And as my family grows up, hopefully I'll be able to drag them along as I recommence my quest ("Hey kids! Who wants to go and see some German Modernist housing estates?")
Recent Reviews Squiffy
Archaeological Site of Delphi
Squiffy UK - 03-Aug-23
Suddenly we were alone. The last of the tour buses charged back towards Athens. Looking down over the theatre and the standing columns of the great temple of Apollo I could not see a single other soul. The ever-present drone of the cicadas was our only company. So, on the one hand, after 2pm seemed a perfect time to be visiting Delphi without the crowds. However, I thought as I drained the last of my water bottle, after 2pm in July in the middle of a Mediterranean heatwave when half of Greece appeared to be on fire was also a monumentally stupid time to be visiting Delphi. And I didn’t need an oracle to tell me that!
Read OnPainted Churches in the Troödos Region
Squiffy UK - 24-Apr-23
The old stone houses of Kalopanagiotis crumbled down the hillside. Below, the bridge was out. I had to leave the car and gingerly inch across the span, trying not to focus on the gorge below. The monastery on the other side was deserted except for two black-clad and bearded priests. The younger greeted me with an unexpected Australian accent and ushered me into the darkness of the katholikon. Due to the lack of lighting and the netting that shrouded the interior to catch any errant flakes of paint peeling from the damp stonework it was hard to make out any details of the saints and Biblical scenes that coated the walls.
Read OnPontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal
Squiffy UK - 22-Mar-23
We were 20 metres above ground as we crossed the border. The wide valley of the turbulent River Ceiriog below tried its best to demarcate where England ended and Wales began, but it was no match for man’s ingenuity. As we walked the towpath of the Chirk Aqueduct there was a steady flow of Welsh water down the canal to our left, helping narrowboats navigate their way south into England. And just beyond it, a train nosed north over the Chirk Railway Viaduct where its journey between the English cities of Shrewsbury and Chester took it through Wales.
Read OnIronbridge Gorge
Squiffy UK - 18-Jul-22
Swollen by the night’s rains, the River Severn flowed smoothly through the valley. Above it the delicate lattice-work arc of the bridge leapt like a salmon. Day-trippers crossed the span. The scene was reminiscent of that painted over 240 years earlier by William Williams – all that was missing was a rowboat of magnificently behatted ladies beneath us on the river. The entire scene was quaint, almost pastoral, with the river rolling below the tree-garlanded hills and the stonework of Ironbridge village’s church glowing in the late afternoon sun. Yet my thoughts turned to a different painting – Philip James de Loutherbourg’s Coalbrookdale by Night, where the heavens are lit up by the infernal flare of forge and furnace
Read OnChatham Dockyard and its Defences (T)
Squiffy UK - 05-Sep-21
Just as the pandemic hit in early 2020 a new £20 note entered circulation in the UK. The portrait on the reverse of the banknote is of the 19th century artist JMW Turner and behind him can be seen details of his 1839 work The Fighting Temeraire, Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up, 1838. This picture depicts a once-grand ship of the line, famed for its performance at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, masts bare, being hauled away for dismantling by a low dark churning paddle-steamer. It represents the replacement of the age of sail with that of steam. More generally, it represents the passing away of greatness. It provided a sombre leitmotif to my visit to Chatham Historic Dockyard
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Squiffy
- Country
- UK
- Most Impressive
- Petra. Not very imaginative I know, but I just love ancient sites
- Proposal
- I definitely believe there is scope for a transnational serial nomination of Brutalist buildings.
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 01.08.23
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Visited WHS
Rating StatsDamascus 5Petra 5Palmyra 4.5Serengeti 4.5Te Wahipounamu 4.5Aleppo 4Wadi Rum 4Iguacu 3.5Arequipa 3Bosra 3Novgorod 3Tiwanaku 3Forth Bridge 2.5Nessebar 2.5Paphos 2.5Pienza 2.5Qhapaq Ñan 2.5Quseir Amra 2.5Um er-Rasas 2.5Carthage 2Corfu 2Meknes 2Saltaire 2Kernavė 1.5New Lanark 1.5Mazagan 1Reviewed WHS
- Archaeological Site of Delphi
- Painted Churches in the Troödos Region
- Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal
- Ironbridge Gorge
- Gwynedd Castles
- The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales
- Los Glaciares
- Kunta Kinteh Island
- Saloum Delta
- Petra
- Um er-Rasas
- Quseir Amra
- Wadi Rum
- Paphos
- Tombs of Buganda Kings
- Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
- Stone Town of Zanzibar
- Kilimanjaro National Park
- Ngorongoro
- Serengeti
- Crac des Chevaliers
- Aleppo
- Damascus
- Bosra
- Palmyra
- Te Wahipounamu
- Saltaire
- Kew Gardens
- Edinburgh
- Forth Bridge
- Jodrell Bank Observatory
Visited TWHS
- Ancient Greek Theatres (T)
- Azraq (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- Buenos Aires – La Plata: Two capitals of the Culture of Modernity, Eclecticism and Immigration (T)
- Casablanca, Ville du XXème siécle, carrefour d'influences (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Chott El Jerid (T)
- Dahab (T)
- Dahshour archaeological area (T)
- Ellis Island (T)
- Extension of the World Heritage Site "Historic Centre of Prague" with the important Monuments in its Vicinity (T)
- Fortress of Spinalonga (T)
- Gorge of Samaria National Park (T)
- Historical Lisbon, Global City (T)
- Knights Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta (T)
- La Moneda Palace (T)
- Lake Titicaca (T)
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece (T)
- Les passages de Bruxelles / Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert (T)
- Les Plages du Débarquement, Normandie, 1944 (T)
- Les villes antiques de la Narbonnaise et leur territoire: Nimes, Arles, Glanum, aqueducs, via Domitia (T)
- Massif du Mont Blanc (T)
- Minoan Palatial Centres (T)
- Moulay Idriss Zerhoun (T)
- Mount Vernon (T)
- Petrified Forest of Lesvos (T)
- Pharaonic temples in Upper Egypt from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Sarajevo - unique symbol of universal multiculture - continual open city (T)
- The Dunejec River Gorge in the Pieniny Mountains (T)
- The Karlstejn Castle (T)
- Torres del Paine and Bernardo O'Higgins National Parks, Region of Magallanes (T)
- Trakai Historical National Park (T)
- Via Appia 'Regina Viarum' (T)