World Heritage Sites

One would assume that a book published by the UNESCO would be authoritative and intelligently designed. This book is far from that. For some mysterious reason, the sites are listed, not by country or region or even alphabetical order (the last still being a pain) but by date of their inscription as a World Heritage Site! So to read about all the sites in a country, one has to flip back and forth across a not insubstantial book.

Then when one does reach the site of interest, you are greeted by descriptions which vary widely in depth and quality. The Taj Mahal for example gets a lot of attention but something else in Nigeria is done away with with a few paragraphs and no photos. One would assume that each site is equally relevant given that they are a part of World Heritage, but apparently not in this book. Given that each country submits copious amounts of information to get a site approved, I'm sure this gap is not because the UNESCO doesn't have enough information on each site.

In all, a disappointing book which I'll still give three stars to because it's useful as a compendium at least.