World Heritage Center Walking Path
The 520-meter-long World Heritage Center walking path leads from behind the center to a scenic lookout on Mt. Sennoyama, around which the Iwami Ginzan silver mine grew from the mid-1500s onward. The path leads directly uphill to a pavilion where trekkers can sit and catch their breath, and then turns left and passes through a hinoki cypress forest before ending at the foot of an observation tower. From this tower’s lookout platform you can get an overview of the area and take in some of its major sights, including the town of Omori, the site where Yamabuki Castle once stood, the Sea of Japan coast, and the 1,126-meter Mt. Sanbe, a cluster of six peaks surrounding the crater of an active volcano in Daisen-Oki National Park. From the observation tower, visitors can walk another 1.5 kilometers uphill to Ishigane, near the peak of Mt. Sennoyama, where a large settlement bustled with activity during the mine’s greatest period of prosperity, or head 2 kilometers downhill to Ginzan Park in Omori. These trails and some of the other paths they connect with are not clearly marked in all places, so visitors planning to continue walking from the observation tower may want to pick up a free map at the center’s information desk.
