TEHRAN -- Iran is currently compiling information and documents on the Silk Road to register the part of the ancient trade route passing through Iran on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Research Center of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization implemented a plan beginning in 2008 to identify ancient sites located along and specific routes of the Silk Road for registration on the list, an expert of the center Razieh Ta’assob told the Persian Service of IRNA on Tuesday.
Iran has also suggested that Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Turkey, which are all located along the route of the Silk Road, to collaborate in this effort, however to date they have not received a response to the proposal, she added.
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan have teamed up on a plan spearheaded by China to apply for registration of their portion of the Silk Road on the list.
“China planned to register the road on the list without regarding other countries located on the route, but the UNESCO World Heritage Center rejected the country’s application, because a large part of the Silk Road passes through Iran,” Ta’assob said.
“Italy is also one of the countries concerned with the Silk Road. However, no representative from the country has participated in the international sessions held to discuss the registration of the route,” she explained.
According the Encarta, the Silk Road was most important premodern trade route linking China, Central Asia, Persia and western Asia, and Europe.
A 19th-century German scholar named the network of trails the Silk Road for the precious Chinese cloth that was originally the most valuable and abundant commodity transported on it.
Although historians traditionally date the origin of the Silk Road to the 2nd century BC, a trickle of goods — principally jades, bronzes, and silks — were conveyed across Central Asia upon it as early as around 1000 BC.
Commerce persisted on the Silk Road until ocean-borne trade surpassed and superseded trade on the land route in the late 15th and early 16th centuries AD.