TEHRAN - Experts from Iran and 13 other countries will come together in Turkmenistan for possible inscription of the ancient Silk Roads on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The Silk Roads were an interconnected web of routes linking the ancient societies of Asia, the Subcontinent, Central Asia, Western Asia and the Near East, and contributed to the development of many of the world's great civilizations.

They represent one of the world’s preeminent long-distance communication networks stretching as the crow flies to around 7,500 km but extending to in excess of 35,000 km along specific routes. They served principally to transfer raw materials, foodstuffs, and luxury goods.

The UNESCO World Heritage Center and the UNESCO Cluster Office in Tehran, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the Turkmen National Commission for UNESCO, are organizing the event, which will be held in Ashgabat from December 3 to 7.

It would be the 5th meeting of a coordinating committee whose members are Iran, Afghanistan, China, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as Bhutan as an observer.

The participants will exchange views on ways to improve working methods, coordination and management of the property, and undertake further work on the thematic studies of the land-route of the Silk Roads.

Together with five Central Asian countries and China, the World Heritage Center has coordinated the preparation of the serial transnational World Heritage nomination of the Silk Roads since 2003.

Central Asia and China have supported the project through organizing regional and sub-regional consultation meetings, the establishment of the inter-governmental coordinating committees regrouping the 14 participating countries, and the elaboration with ICOMOS and the World Heritage Center of a Thematic Study on the Silk Roads.

AFM/MQ/MG