World Heritage Magazine – The Silk Roads
The November 2019 issue of World Heritage Magazine, the official UNESCO publication from the World Heritage Centre, is dedicated to the Silk Roads.
In 2014, after years of preparation among countries, the property of the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor was inscribed on the World Heritage List. This 5,000 km section of the extensive Silk Roads network is a transnational site crossing China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, stretching from Chang’an/Luoyang, the central capital of China in the Han and Tang dynasties, to the Zhetysu region of Central Asia. Thirty-three components are included in the routes network, including capital cities and palace complexes of various empires and Khan kingdoms, trading settlements, Buddhist cave temples, ancient paths, beacon towers, sections of the Great Wall, fortifications and religious buildings.
The November issue covers the complicated process of establishing this extraordinary site, and the efforts currently underway to carry this work further through the South Asian Silk Roads World Heritage nomination project. It also examines the particularities of the Silk Roads in Iran and Turkey, and the natural heritage along the way, such as Tajik National Park and the Saryarka-Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan.
In addition, it features an interview with Doudou Diène, who led UNESCO’s original Silk Roads research project. In the interview, he shares the origins of this groundbreaking project and the significance of carrying this work forward today.
World Heritage Magazine has also devoted an article to the Silk Roads Project detailing both its history and the ambitions of its diverse ongoing initiatives.
The results of the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee in Baku, Azerbaijan (20 June-10 July 2019) are also highlighted, including the Committee’s decisions concerning sites in danger as well as new sites inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Click here to read the full magazine
World Heritage is the official UNESCO publication from the World Heritage Centre featuring in-depth articles on cultural and natural World Heritage sites. The quarterly review is produced in English, French and Spanish.
