ABSTRACT
The World Heritage Sites described in this collection of case studies are immensely varied. Some are isolated, others form part of a complex of buildings. The inaccessibility of some (like Ninstints) contribute to low visitor numbers of 1000 visitors per year and no management problems. At the other extreme the Valley of the Kings at Thebes (Egypt) sees 3000 visitors per day and has appalling management problems compounded by difficult conservation requirements and dire traffic congestion. The same techniques useful for the management or interpretation of small, nodal sites such as Biertan are not applicable to complex linear features situations such as Hadrian's Wall which stretches 117 km across northern Britain and includes forts, milecastles, earthworks, ditches and museums apart from the Wall itself. The level of non-tourist use is also highly varied. Lalibela is a living museum in active daily use for Christian worship whereas Ninstints is abandoned. Hadrian's Wall is in a living and working landscape with its central sector dominated by agricultural activity and less than 10 per cent of the Wall managed purely for conservation. Some sites are immensely complex; Cracow, for example, includes 300 historic town houses, fifty-eight churches, 6000 historic buildings and thirty museums. However, despite these immense differences World Heritage Sites do present a series of common management problems associated with their visitors.
