The Silk Roads: an ICOMOS Thematic Study

Abstract

This study specifically aims to: Provide an analysis of sites along the Silk Roads that could be used by States Parties participating in the Serial transnational World Heritage nominations of the Silk Roads as a basis for comparative analyses when nominating serial properties; Profile the distribution and distinctiveness of Silk Roads sites in order to understand how sites are manifestations of the shifting systems of power and patronage that prevailed over time along the Silk Roads, in relation to the organisation of flourishing trade and the protection of trade routes; Define the distribution of Silk Roads sites, in order to understand: what sites are common to the whole extent of the Roads; what sites are specific to the whole Silk Roads or to certain parts of the Roads; what sites are unique or exceptional; which sites are plentiful and how their form varies in time and space; what sites are persistent over time; what sites reflect specific periods of history, power systems or cultural traditions; consider whether certain sections or corridors of the Silk Roads, through the assembly of sites within them, are distinctive from other sections of the Silk Roads, in terms of being manifestations of particular geo-cultural systems, and whether a case could be made for considering the Silk Roads as a collection of World Heritage properties, linked by a concept, instead of one single World Heritage serial property.

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