This week’s UNESCO  World Heritage Site of the Week is the Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus.  This ancient forest is one of the largest, most pristine forests in Europe, consisting of 1,771 square kilometers in Belarus and Poland, where it is called the Białowieża Forest.

The forest is home to an amazing variety of creatures, including the wisent, or European bison.  The story of the recovery of the wisent is almost miraculous-the animal actually went extinct in the wild in 1927, when the last one was shot by poachers. However, a small herd was reintroduced in the 1950’s, and today there are around 300 in the park.

The park is also home to some magnificent oak trees, some over 500 years old.  The forest was made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.

To visit the Belovezhskaya Pushcha, you need a Belarus tourist visa. You should apply well in advance, as visas are not available on arrival.  Here are the documents you will need to apply:

• 1 Belarus visa application form
• 1 passport-sized photo of yourself
• If you are  going on a tour, you need a letter from the tour company confirming your reservation with them and your  itinerary.
• If you are traveling by yourself, you need a hotel reservation from an authorized Belarussian travel agency. The agency will give you an  authorization number to write on your Belarus visa application form.
• If you are a former Soviet/Belarussian, you will also need to prove how you lost your Soviet/Belarussian citizenship. Generally, you can use the documents you used to get your US citizenship.
• Your US passport

Also, bear in mind that you may need transit visas for countries that you travel through on the way to Belarus.  RushMyTravelVisa can review your itinerary and make sure you get all of the documents you need for your journey. We can also help cut through the confusion of the visa application process, providing you with clear instructions to make sure you get the fastest service available.

Apply for your visa today!

Tags: Belarus, Belarus embassy, Belarus visa

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 12:41 am and is filed under World Heritage Site of the Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.