5 World Heritage Sites to Visit in May

This is May and while it is burning hot in most parts of India, there are several other places where May is a perfectly fine month to be traveling. So, here are some awesome World Heritage Sites you could plan to visit in May.

1. Aachen Cathedral

Aachen Cathedral

Location:�As the name suggests, Aachen, Germany.

What is it?�Empire Charlemagne, inspired by the churches in the Holy Roman empire, built this beautiful palatine chapel between 700- 800 C.E.

Highlights:

  • The continuous reconstruction of this palace till as recently as 1884 lead to a mixture of ancient roman, renaissance and modern architectural styles.
  • Interior of cathedral is very interesting. The Byzantine part is built in Octagonal shape (8 sides) and has beautiful overhead decoration.
  • The mosaics on the ceilings will have you spell bound and the art work in the cathedral will take you back to age of Emperor Charlemagne.

Best Time to Visit:�February to May. The summer is between March and May making it sunny and pleasant to walk around the city.

2. Great Barrier Reef

Great B Reef

Location:�Located on the North East coast of Australia.

Highlights:

  • The entire eco system that stretches about 348,000 km was declared a WHS by UNESCO in 1981
  • This location contains world�s largest collection of coral reefs with 400 different types of corals.
  • This site is of remarkable variety and beauty with nearly 1,500 species of fish and 4000 types of molluscs.
  • The site also houses the rare species like large green turtle and dugong.

Best Time to Visit:�April to November for the best visibility

3. Heaven�s Gate

Heaven's Gate

Location:�Heaven�s Gate can be found in the Tianmen Mountain in Hunan, China.

What is it?

Heaven�s gate is a natural water eroded cave that is shaped like a door.
The height of the cave is about 13.5 m of height, 57 m width and depth of 60 m!

Highlights:

  • The beauty and scenery is one of its kinds that can be experienced when going up the Heaven�s Gate.
  • To get the most spectacular view of these mountains you can take walk up 999 steps to the top of the mountain.
  • Also, you can take one of the most thrilling cable car rides, which is considered one of the world�s longest cable car rides measuring the distance of 7455 m and height of 1279 m.

Best Time to Visit:�April to October

4.�Sch�nbrunn Palace

Schoeburn palace

Location:�The palace is located in Vienna , Austria.

What is it?�Sch�nbrunn Palace is historical palace which is the residence of the Habsburg emperors from 18 to 19th century.

Highlights:

  • When you visit the palace you are welcomed by an audio guide as you wander through the imperial rooms.
  • There are separate channels to tell you the history of each room and give you a glimpse of extravagance and grandiose life styles of Habsburgs.
  • The palace also houses a zoo, apparently the first zoo that was built in 17th century and the beautifully enchanting gardens.

Best Time to Visit:�April to September

5. Aushwitz and Birkenau

Nazi Conc Camp

Location:�This Nazi concentration camp is located in Oswiecim, Poland.

What is it?�This is the largest concentration camp built by Nazis during the Second World War and stands as a witness to the darkest and the most inhuman moments of human history.

Highlights:

  • A concentration camp once is now a world heritage site that takes you through the most emotional trip ever.
  • The site has the railway tracks and the cattle cars in which Jews were bought to these camps.
  • The prison cells lacked bedding or proper heating system where the temperature fell below -20? c
  • The torture cells for the violators of the rules, the prison camps, execution chambers, the burial grounds; this site is the witness of the atrocious war crimes under Adolf Hitler.

Best Time to visit:�April to October

Image Courtesy:

http://kamonohashikamo.wordpress.com

http://www.cairns-greatbarrierreef.org.au/

Tianmen Mountain, China

https://www.flickr.com

http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.